Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote this show about the life of the hungry and ambitious Alexander Hamilton, from bastard orphan to Washington’s right-hand man, from rebel to war hero and loving husband caught in the country’s first sex scandal. This sung-through production uses rap and R&B ballads, and sounds like what you’d hear on mainstream radio.

The New York Times raved about the show, calling it “proof that the American musical is not only surviving but also evolving in ways that should allow it to thrive and transmogrify in years to come.”