Dec 29, 2018 4 min read

When Alexander Hamilton was felled by a bullet fired from Aaron Burr’s pistol in July 1804, he exited a world where bloodletting was still considered sound medicine, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were just beginning their expedition charting the American West and the telephone was still 72 years in the future.

So the man whose visage graces the $10 bill had no way of imaging the world in which we live on the cusp of 2019, with its smartphones, instantaneous communication, and music fueled by computer-generated beats.

And he had no way of imagining that more than 200 years after he was placed in a grave in Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan that a rendering of his life told through hip-hop and R&B songs would become one of the most sought-after tickets on the planet.

Generating a fervor that meets – and perhaps exceeds – the enthusiasm precipitated by such blockbuster musicals as “Wicked,” “The Lion King” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Hamilton: An American Musical” is finally coming to Pittsburgh. Three years after it exploded on Broadway, one of its two touring companies will be settling in for 27 days and 31 performances at the Benedum Center starting New Year’s Day. All told, about 86,000 people will be seeing “Hamilton” in Pittsburgh during its time there – roughly 20,000 more than the number who pack into Heinz Field for a Steelers game on a Sunday afternoon.

Bill Cameron, an emeritus professor of communication arts at Washington & Jefferson College, compares “Hamilton” to “A Chorus Line.” Obviously, the two productions are very different from one another, but upon its debut more than 40 years ago, “A Chorus Line” stirred up similar excitement and energy.

“There was a sense that it was unlike anything Broadway had seen before,” he said. Cameron also believes that social media has helped fuel “Hamilton”‘s success.

“It allows a lot more people to hear about and even experience the show, so it creates greater awareness. … This is a whole new development, and ‘Hamilton’ is leading the way and will, I think, be regarded as a true pioneer.”

To say that “Hamilton” has been an unexpected hit is putting it mildly. At a moment when many new musicals either mine beloved pop music catalogs or revisit old movies, “Hamilton” is based on a door-stopping biography that wrestles with, among other things, the reach of the federal government and the establishment the U.S. Mint. That would hardly seem to be fare that would set toes tapping and hearts soaring. Ron Chernow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Alexander Hamilton,” told the magazine Playbill in 2016 that “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda approached him about creating a musical, and that it was “a classic hip-hop narrative.”

“I think Hamilton worked for hip-hop because there was something so driven about him,” Chernow explained. “He’s constantly talking and writing and reading and doing things, and so the pulsating hip-hop music and lyrics really match the tempo of his life.”

Along with the two companies of “Hamilton” criss-crossing the United States, the show has set up shop for extended runs in New York, Chicago, London and San Francisco. Its bow in Pittsburgh caused a stampede for tickets, with just about every seat spoken for from New Year’s Day until it departs Jan. 27. Jennifer Colbert, a Millsboro resident, said she didn’t think she and her daughter would be able to get tickets when they went on sale in November and they ended up in the 15,729th spot in the online queue. But they eventually made their way to the front and will be at the afternoon performance Jan. 5.

“I’ve heard that it’s just fantastic,” she said.

Amanda McNary, a Washington County native who now lives in Coraopolis, will be seeing “Hamilton” with her husband Jan. 26. They try to attend one musical per year, she explained, and “Hamilton” ended up being their pick this time around.

For those who were not as lucky as Colbert or McNary and could not get tickets, there’s a ray of hope – Marc Fleming, who handles Broadway programming for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, said the trust is working to bring “Hamilton” back as soon as possible. Information could be on tap in the spring about a return visit.