Hamilton at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff – review

Thanks to Wales Millennium Centre for providing us with review tickets for Hamilton

Hamilton has arrived at Wales Millennium Centre – one of the most hotly anticipated productions in the centre’s 20 year history. The atmosphere at yesterday’s press night was nothing short of electric as we were treated to one of Cardiff’s first performances of the global cultural phenomenon as it visits the city for two months over the festive season.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stage musical about the American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton comes with plenty of critical acclaim – it’s won 11 Tony Awards (including the coveted Best Musical honour), 7 Olivier Awards, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album. But more than that, it comes with lots of public adoration too, famously being a musical that even people who don’t usually like musicals love.

It was clear from the emphatic standing ovation at the end of the show and the conversation we heard among audience members on the way out that the people of Cardiff have fully embraced Hamilton.

Finally in Cardiff

Hamilton’s visit to Cardiff has been a long coming, having opened on Broadway in 2015, the West End in 2017 and landing on Disney+ in 2020 with a filmed recording of the stage musical featuring the original New York cast, including Lin-Manuel Miranda himself as Hamilton. The show’s first UK tour began a year ago in November 2023, taking in cities including Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol, before arriving in the Welsh capital.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know we are huge Hamilton fans in our house. We have seen it twice in London, countless times on Disney+, and we’ve listened to the soundtrack so many times we are all word perfect. It means so much to have this iconic production right here in Cardiff – to see the famous songs and set in such familiar surroundings, to know that Cardiff has become a part of Hamilton history and that so many people in South Wales are getting to have their first experience of it.

It’s a fast-paced history lesson that follows Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and helped shape the very foundations of the America we know today. It has friendship, love, betrayal, danger and death all told through a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and Broadway – “the story of America then, as told by America now”, as it says in the pre-event publicity.

An absolutely phenomenal cast

As you would expect in such an acclaimed show, the cast are all absolutely phenomenal.

Shaq Taylor (pictured below) is Alexander Hamilton and really shows the complexities of a character who is passionate, motivated and ambitious, but who doesn’t always make the best decisions. Sam Oladeinde gives a lot of depth to Aaron Burr, Hamilton’s greatest friend and foe, while Billy Nevers, playing both Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, is a real audience favourite, full of charisma.

I love the journey of Maya Britto as Eliza as she emerges from impossible heartbreak and tragedy to find incredible strength and influence of her own.

Aisha Jawando as her sister Angelica has flawless vocals and evokes the difficulties of being a woman of status at the time.

King George is is such a fantastic part and Daniel Boys captures his humour, sarcasm, unhinged nature and the brilliant, quite often sinister, lyrics of his musical numbers perfectly.

With such creative storytelling through a fusion of musical genres, Hamilton doesn’t need fancy scene changes or dramatic special effects to impress. Instead, we have a replica of the set we’ve come to know and love, with platforms of differing heights, ladders and ropes, and the spinning disc in the middle of the stage, while the intricate lighting design adds a lot to the mood. The ensemble wear understated neutral clothing throughout, which makes their intricate choreography in the bigger numbers even more impressive because there’s zero reliance on colourful eye-grabbing costumes; they move as one and it’s really beautiful.

What age is Hamilton suitable for?

The show comes with an age guidance of 10+ (and no admittance to under 3s) mostly due to the strong language – there ae a lot of F words, even a Mother F word at one point – and also partly as it’s a really long show at 2 hours and 45 including the interval so requires a lot of sitting still.

I will be honest here and say that my children were 11, 9 and 7 the first time they watched Hamilton in London and, while I appreciate this won’t be the choice everyone makes, I don’t regret that for a second. We had a lot of chats around appropriate use of language but there isn’t really much else I was uncomfortable with them seeing and it really took their love of musical theatre (which was already really strong, partly due to having a musical theatre obsessive as their mother!) to a new level.

Be in the room where it happens

I know from comments on my social media channels that lots of you will be seeing Hamilton in the next two months (or have already caught it in its first week) and while some of you are already huge fans, many of you have told me you’re going for the first time, and I love this for you! I hope you enjoy.

Hamilton really packs a lot into its two hours and 45 minutes and if you’re seeing it for the first time, I’d recommend listening to a couple of the musical numbers and reading a quick synopsis. It moves at such a fast pace that a little knowledge really helps.

If you’re still thinking about whether or not to go, I urge you to stop procrastinating and book those tickets; they’re selling fast. To quote some of the musical’s most famous words, don’t ‘throw away your shot’ to be ‘in the room where it happens’.

Hamilton is nothing short of phenomenal; the concept, the storytelling, the emotion, the performances, everything about it is on another level. It’s a musical like no other and even if you know the film and the soundtrack, seeing it performed live will make you appreciate it in a whole new way.

Hamilton is at Wales Millennium Centre until 25 January. Tickets, from £25, are still available although some performances have limited availability. Book online here.

Running time is approximately 2 hours 45 minutes including an interval. Age recommendation 10+ due to strong language. No admittance to under 3s.