© 2024 Public Radio East
Public Radio For Eastern North Carolina 89.3 WTEB New Bern 88.5 WZNB New Bern 91.5 WBJD Atlantic Beach 90.3 WKNS Kinston 88.5 WHYC Swan Quarter 89.9 W210CF Greenville
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
US

All Songs +1: Why 'Hamilton' The Musical Works

Show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda performs as America's first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, in the hip-hop musical <em>Hamilton.</em>
Neilson Barnard
/
Getty Images
Show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda performs as America's first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, in the hip-hop musical Hamilton.

On paper, the musical Hamilton sounds like a joke. But as NPR Music's Timmhotep Aku tells us in this week's +1 podcast, "Maybe you shouldn't judge things on face value."

Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda takes a snooze-worthy subject — the history of America's financial system — and mixes it with florid period costumes, 2 1/2 hours of Broadway theatrics and a whole bunch of hip-hop songs. But even the most skeptical audiences are being won over in droves. On this week's +1 podcast, we talk about why the unlikely hit works.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

US
Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.