Yes, it really is that good

Ben Brantley opened his New York Times review of "Hamilton" three weeks ago with the words above. And you know what, he was absolutely right. It IS as good as just about everyone had said, whether they were talking about the off-Broadway version earlier this year at the Public Theatre, or the dazzling concoction I saw yesterday at the Richard Rogers Theatre.

I expected to love it, even though I had my fears: I am NOT a hip-hop kind of guy and rap makes me want to leave the room. Both of those genres had been used to describe the score and so I was worried. But virtually every word I read about the show was positive; surely not all those writers love hip-hop, I thought, so I decided I’d love it too. And I did.

The music is never off-putting – far from it; I'd use the words melodic and tuneful to describe it. The lyrics are as clever as Gilbert and Sullivan couplets – there’s even a shout-out to their Modern Major General. The cast is extraordinarily talented, from Daveed Diggs as both the Marquis de Lafayette and a wonderfully over-the-top Thomas Jefferson to Leslie Odom Jr. as a compelling and convincing Aaron Burr, to a personal favorite of mine, Jonathan Groff, as a hysterically funny and jaunty King George III.

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the book, the lyrics and the music – AND stars as Alexander Hamilton. You may not know that Hamilton was born a bastard in the West Indies and orphaned as a child before becoming an aide to George Washington, a defender of the Constitution and the first Secretary of the Treasury. We would be a far different nation without him.

That this Founding Father could be the subject of a big Broadway show with an urban sound is one of the magic tricks that Miranda performed in creating his must-see musical.

I’ll quote you below some of the insanely inventive lyrics; they’re from a live performance that Lin-Manuel Miranda did at the White House in 2009. What I heard yesterday was no doubt somewhat different, but you’ll get the measure of Miranda’s brilliance. The original cast album is not due until October; I am impatiently awaiting its release and may have to renege on my commitment to not buy music anymore.

Until then I will savor the feelings I had for almost three hours in New York yesterday. "Hamilton," at least at this close distance, is right up there with "Sweeney Todd" on my list of clever and creative musicals, and that’s mighty company to be in.

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How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore
And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot
In the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished, in squalor
Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
The ten-dollar Founding Father without a father
Got a lot farther
By workin' a lot harder
By bein' a lot smarter
By bein' a self-starter
By fourteen they had placed him in charge of the trade and charter
And every day while slaves were being slaughtered
And carted away across the waves
Our Hamilton kept his guard up
Inside he was longing for something to be a part of
The brother was ready to beg steal borrow or barter
Then a hurricane came and
Devastation reigned and
Our man saw his future drip drippin' down the drain
Put a pencil to his temple
Connected it to his brain
And he wrote his first refrain
A testament to his pain
When the word got around, they said, "This kid is insane, man!"
Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland
Getcha education, don't forget from whence you came
And the world is gonna know your name!
What's your name, man?

Alexander Hamilton. His name is Alexander Hamilton
And there's a million things he hasn't done
But just you wait. Just you wait.