Review: HAMILTON at KC Music Hall

When the musical juggernaut titled “Hamilton” stormed into Kansas City’s gilded Music Hall this week, it arrives not as a relic of mid-2010s hype, but as a living, breathing re-invention of America’s founding fathers. A decade after its Broadway debut, the touring production proves that the show’s central thesis — that history is urgent, messy and deeply human — still lands with force. Somehow, the national political atmosphere cross-pollinates with the this most special 250th anniversary of the United States.

“Hamilton” is based on Ron Chernow’s nine-hundred-page tome describing the life of a not often remembered but very important founding father.  It tells Hamilton’s story from his humble origins on the Caribbean Island of Nevis to his death as the result of an unlikely duel on the bluffs of New Jersey overlooking the Hudson River and New York.

Who could possibly imagine that this scholarly work would be the basis for a widely acclaimed, hip hop, Broadway-esque, jazzy retelling of the founding of the nation?  The answer is a very young Lin Manuel-Miranda then a student or just out of Weslyan University.  Manuel-Miranda had a vision of how to make a complicated person who lived 250 years ago come alive. It took him seven years to realize what he had envisioned come alive on a modern day Broadway stage.

The genius of the show is how it allows both the brilliance and the flaws of these very complicated people come alive.  And how it uses a musical genre that itself would have amazed the founders. Somehow, it works.  It reminds us of the flesh and blood people who negotiated themselves into the flawed system we inherited today.

We sometimes forget the cross currents of political life that existed even at this early period of U.S. development.  There were competing ideas of how America might look.  Would it be agrarian? Would it be industry based?  Would there be political parties?  Would candidates share their agenda or would they strive to avoid irritating powerful interests? It was Alexander Hamilton who first saw the need for a National Bank and the system that evolved into what we have today.   

From the first, percussive question — “How does a bastard, orphan…” — the ensemble commands attention. The touring cast attacks Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rapid-fire score with precision and stamina, navigating dense lyrical passages that fuse hip-hop, R&B and traditional show tunes without missing a beat. Diction is crisp, rhythms tight. Even in the Music Hall’s expansive acoustics, the storytelling remains admirably clear.

The actor portraying Alexander Hamilton (Tyler Fauntleroy) delivers a tour de force performance that leans into the character’s ambition and volatility. He is less scrappy outsider, more polished political animal — a choice that subtly reshapes the arc from hungry immigrant to flawed architect of his own downfall.

Opposite him, Aaron Burr (Jimmie “JJ” Jeter) simmers with restraint, making “The Room Where It Happens” a standout: measured, coiled, and finally explosive. The number earns one of the evening’s most sustained ovations.  Aaron Burr, then the Vice President, is the true standout part of the show.

Eliza Schuyler Hamilton (Lauren Mariasoosay) emerges as the emotional anchor. “Burn” is staged with elegant simplicity — a single figure, a letter, and a wash of amber light — and it hushes the hall. In that moment, the spectacle recedes and the human cost of ambition takes center stage. It’s a reminder that beneath the revolution and rhetoric lies a marriage, a family, and a wound that never quite heals.

Manuel-Miranda even re-imagines King George III (Matt Bittner) as the hilarious comic relief of the piece. Old, stiff George Washington (A.D. Weaver) somehow becomes re-animated. Several actors playing dual roles manage to keep us from getting confused as to who is who.

From the opening bars of “Alexander Hamilton” to the final strains of the duet “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” the production harnesses the indelible blend of hip-hop, jazz, R&B and traditional musical theater that has become its signature. The acting and vocal performances are strong across the board, with ensemble energy that drives the rapid pace and highlights the show’s deft choreography and staging. Long-time fans will recognize the towering set design and fluid lighting that elevate even familiar numbers into fresh experiences.

Critics and audiences alike agree that Hamilton retains its core magic: a blistering score that fuses hip-hop, R&B, jazz and Broadway traditions, choreography as kinetic as its narrative thrust, and a production value that, when firing on all cylinders, delivers one of the most memorable nights in contemporary theatre. The storytelling — charting the rise and fall of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton — still feels urgent and relevant, especially in a polarized cultural moment where the show’s themes of ambition, democracy and legacy resonate widely.

Visually, the production remains as muscular as ever. The turntable — that ingenious revolving stage — keeps scenes fluid and cinematic. Choreography slices through cabinet battles and battlefield sequences alike, bodies moving like arguments in motion. The touring set loses none of its architectural heft; wooden scaffolds rise against brick textures, evoking both a nascent nation and a city perpetually under construction.

If there are quibbles, they are minor and largely architectural. The Music Hall’s upper levels can occasionally swallow softer passages, and patrons seated far to the sides may miss fleeting facial expressions that add nuance to quieter scenes. Yet these are small trade-offs for witnessing a production that still pulses with relevance.

What’s most striking, perhaps, is the audience itself — multigenerational, rapt, erupting at familiar lines as if greeting old friends. When the company reaches the final refrain, asking who lives, who dies, who tells your story, the question feels less rhetorical than communal.

What remains indisputable is the lasting power of Hamilton: a show that still packs theatres, sparks conversation and pulls diverse audiences into a passionate engagement with both history and innovative musical theatre. Even when elements falter — from vocal mix to cast chemistry — the overarching experience continues to provoke wonder and debate. Few works in recent decades have simultaneously entertained, challenged and inspired like Hamilton, and on this tour, that legacy continues in Kansas City, Hamilton does not merely revisit a revolution. It rekindles it.

“Hamilton” will continue at the Kansas City Music Hall through March1. Ticket sales have exceptionally brisk. One of the few remaining seats can be purchased on the Ticketmaster website.