Hamilton* won't be hitting our shores any time soon (trust us, we're checking on the regular), so an upcoming Melbourne performance of another musical by its creator, Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, looks like the next best thing.
21 Chump Street – which premiered in New York in June 2014 – is a musical based on a story by much-loved National Public Radio program This American Life. The episode is a tale of high-school romance infused with drugs, undercover police and peer-pressure, and the musical quotes some of its content verbatim, told through Miranda's signature fusion of high energy hip-hop and musical theatre.
The whole thing runs for just 15 minutes (and you can watch it online) but as with all on-stage productions, seeing it live is another experience entirely. The Melbourne performance is packaged into a double bill alongside American composer Adam Gwon's lauded slice-of-life musical Ordinary Days (2008).
21 Chump Street and Ordinary Days will run at Chapel Off Chapel from June 8-18.
*If you haven't yet been swept up in the Hamilton hype, then start by reading Time Out New York's five-star review of the Broadway smash hit. It's a hip-hop musical about American founding father Alexander Hamilton, it's taken out pretty much every musical theatre award possible, and it's one of the most successful shows of all time.
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