Overview
If you missed seeing Hamilton during its Australian runs in Sydney in 2021, Melbourne in 2022 and Brisbane in 2023, you didn't throw away your shot to catch Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash-hit musical Down Under. The Aussie production of the show went to New Zealand after its Brissie season, and has trips to Manila, Abu Dhabi and Singapore slated next. Then, come July 2024, it'll return to the Harbour City.
If you're a fan of the biggest thing in musical theatre in the 21st century — and a game-changing, award-winning, rightly raved-about sensation — then you'll be excited whether you've already been in the room where it happens or not. Hamilton's homegrown production will hit Sydney Lyric Theatre next year, opening at the venue on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
In its local run so far, the Broadway blockbuster's Aussie production has boasted a cast that includes Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton, Chloé Zuel as Eliza Hamilton, Lyndon Watts as Aaron Burr, Akina Edmonds as Angelica Schuyler, Matu Ngaropo as George Washington, and Victory Ndukwe as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson — plus Shaka Cook as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, Marty Alix as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, Elandrah Eramiha as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, and Brent Hill as King George III. Who'll return to Sydney in 2024 hasn't yet been revealed, with the cast for next year's season to be revealed at a later date.
Still new to this song-and-dance take on 18th-century American politics? Not quite sure why it has been the most-talked about theatre show of the past decade? The critically acclaimed hip hop musical, for which Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book, is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. In addition to its swag of Tony Awards — 11 in fact, which includes Best Musical — it has nabbed a Grammy Award and even a Pulitzer Prize.
Until 2021, Australians eager to see the show had to be content watching the filmed version of its Broadway production, which started streaming via Disney+ in 2020 (and yes, it's as phenomenal as you've heard).
If you're not feeling financial enough to nab a seat, cross your fingers that the $10 ticket lottery, which offers Hamilton tickets for less than the cost of lunch, will return as well.
There's no word yet whether Hamilton will also play new seasons in Melbourne or Brisbane, so cross your fingers for that, too.
In March 2023, Miranda came to Australia to see the local production, calling the cast "so fantastic".
"I remember seeing Jason Arrow's audition — it had to have been April or May of 2020, and it was around the time that we were watching and editing Hamilton for [the Disney+] release. So they were really stacking up against the originals in a very tangible way, and so we were really proud of the incredible company that we were able to put together from there locally," he said at a press conference in Brisbane
"Every original cast is like a four-minute mile," Miranda continued. "They said scientists proved you couldn't run the mile in under four minutes, and then someone did it, and then suddenly everybody's running it — and I feel like original casts are like that. It's impossible to find that first cast, and then it attracts the people who know they can do it."
Hamilton's 2024 Sydney season will play Sydney Lyric Theatre from Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Head to the musical's website for further details, or to sign up for the waitlist for tickets when they go on sale — with pre sales from Monday, November 27 and general sales from Monday, December 4.
Production images: Daniel Boud.