FiveThirtyEight Determines Hip-Hop As The Only Musical Genre Fast Enough For HAMILTON

In an interview with the website Grantland, Lin-Manuel Miranda discussed how it would have been impossible to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton completely in a reasonable amount of time as a conventional musical.

"It would have to be twelve hours long, because the amount of words on the bars when you're writing a typical song - that's maybe got 10 words per line, Whereas here we can cram all this shit in all the margins."

And while it seems reasonable that rapping information would produce more words per minute than a Berlin ballad, or even a Gilbert & Sullivan patter, Leah Libresco of the website FiveThirtyEight felt compelled to prove the theory with actual data.

Click here for the entire article, where Libresco explains how she compared the number of words contained in the orignal Broadway cast album of Hamilton with the numbers contained in the original Broadway cast albums of SPRING AWAKENING and 1776, revival cast albums of COMPANY, CANDIDE, OKLAHOMA! and THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE and the original West End cast album of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Apparently, the books of these shows were not considered, so the numbers below refer to each score.

Additional graphics reveal data determining how long HAMILTON would be if the score were sung at the same words per minute pace as the other musicals, and which songs from the above works contain the fastest words per second verses.

The new musical Hamilton has book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composerLin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays the title role. The musical is directed by Thomas Kail, with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and music direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. Hamilton is inspired by Ron Chernow's biography "Alexander Hamilton."

$10 front row seats for Hamilton - the new musical about the $10 Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton are on sale for each show by lottery. The lottery begins two and half hours prior to each performance when patrons may enter their name at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 W. 46 St.) for a chance to buy up to two front row tickets for $10 each -Hamilton for "Hamilton." The winner's names will be drawn 2 hours before show time. Entrants must present photo ID, and the winners must pay with cash at the box office.

The cast of Hamilton is comprised of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), Daveed Diggs(Marquis De Lafayette,Thomas Jefferson), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler),Christopher Jackson (George Washington),Jonathan Groff (King George), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy Schuyler, Maria Reynolds), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton alternate), Okieriete Onaodowan(Hercules Mulligan, James Madison), Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr),Anthony Ramos(John Laurens, PhilipHamilton) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).

HAMILTON is the acclaimed new musical about the scrappy young immigrant Alexander Hamilton, the $10 Founding Father who forever changed America with his revolutionary ideas and actions. During his life cut too short, he served as George Washington's chief aide, was the first Treasury Secretary, a loving husband and father, despised by his fellow Founding Fathers and shot to death by Aaron Burr in their legendary duel.