Hamilton hits Tampa's Straz Center hard with a flawless performance

Here's the short version: It lives up to the hype, and then some.

Hamilton is at the Straz Center in Tampa through March 10; the only way to get tickets is through the daily $10 lottery. - Joan Marcus
Joan Marcus
Hamilton is at the Straz Center in Tampa through March 10; the only way to get tickets is through the daily $10 lottery.

We're sure by now you're familiar with the musical Hamilton* but maybe you weren't one of the packed house that saw the show last night at the Straz. Rather than rhapsodize about the music or plot — 'cause we're assuming you already know that part — we'll tell you what it was like.

Awesome.

Seriously, that's about it. It was a perfectly executed, gorgeous spectacle of a show. Go see it. Of course, the only way to do that is if you get one of the $10 tickets from the lottery.

*Cliffs Notes version: It's a hip-hop/rap/soul version of the Founding Fathers, with special attention paid to Alexander Hamilton, the man on your $10 bill and also the least appreciated of the Founding Fathers — until now, that is. The conceit is that it's always, always cast with nonwhites. Make no mistake, our *actual* Founding Fathers were racist AF (Alexander Hamilton himself was an abolitionist in his personal life but not so much in his political one) and the notion that a black man could have been one of them is ludicrous, so yeah, in some ways it's real revisionist shit, no matter how well done every other aspect of it is. But that factoid doesn't really factor into this Tony-and-Grammy-winning show.

About The Author

Cathy Salustri

Cathy's portfolio includes pieces for Visit Florida, USA Today and regional and local press. In 2016, UPF published Backroads of Paradise, her travel narrative about retracing the WPA-era Florida driving tours that was featured in The New York Times. Cathy speaks about Florida history for the Osher Lifelong Learning...
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