I later discovered that there was a third cabinet battle, which was cut from the final script. You can hear a demo of it on the Hamilton Mixtape album. It features the main cast discussing a letter from Ben Franklin asking for slavery to be abolished. On the one hand, I can see why it was cut - 3 might be too many cabinet meetings - but it adds so much to the thematic tragedy to have Hamilton quietly give up his morals for practicality. He starts act 2 with his youth, his career, his family, and his idealism; by the end, he loses the first three, and the foreshadowing was there for him to lose the fourth, but it doesn't have the payoff.
It both treats it's subject matter incredibly intelligently, yet never tries to show off with braininess and focuses on memorable stage characters and top notch songs.
It's so good on so many layers.
The show that WAS over-hyped and did NOT live up to it for me was Lion King. I saw it back in 2002-ish and was very disappointed. Sure the costumes were cool but the rest of the production was minimal and boring.
it was more than worth it -- it was absolutely beautiful (although tiresome -- it's three hours of music with just a small intermission).
i watched the disney+ version and it's great. but it's not the same due to the angles they chose -- it feels more like a movie, than a broadway play.
Something about Rent aged poorly, especially if you saw it around 2009 during the recession. It was just hard to relate to characters who had no interest in work struggling to pay rent in a gentrifying slum while in the present day, people were struggling to pay rent and find a job.
I don't like the pacing of Wicked, but the staging and performance of Defying Gravity is amazing. I can't remember exactly what it was, but there was morality lesson that felt shoehorned in. Maybe Doctor Dillamond was an allegory on racism? I enjoy Wicked, but I felt like it need more work.
Phantom of the Opera is ok, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it. I'm also not really an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan.
