Sydney greets Hamilton with rapture and some misgiving – review

A triumphant performance as musical moves from Broadway and the West End to Australia

If the world is looking to Australia to lead its primary theatre markets into the future, then it need look no further than Hamilton, which has opened to rapturous applause and an extended standing ovation from a masked, Covid-safe audience at the Sydney Lyric.

Hamilton in Australia might not seem like a natural success. The show's often too-earnest reverence of its colonial founding mythology is at odds with our long-standing refusal to deify our politicians. We certainly don't study these figureheads and their adventures and misadventures in our schools (it's a rightful gap - our unwillingness to look beyond our own colonisers and educate our children on Australian Indigenous history, languages and cultures less so). Plus, the local musical theatre sector has a troubling habit of prioritising whiteness when programming and casting shows.