Break it down: how Hamilton mashed up musical theatre and hiphop

It could have been excruciating: a historical epic told through rap and show tunes. But Lin-Manuel Miranda’s show became a sensation and its million-selling cast album is a triumph in its own rightYou don’t have to have an implacable loathing for musicals to find Hamilton – or indeed the very concept of hip-hop-based musical theatre – a slightly troubling concept, at least on paper. You just have to have a working knowledge of the musical’s historically strained rel