Before I finally watched Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s colossally popular Broadway musical depicting the Founding Fathers as rapping Men of Color, I had never heard that it’s so childish. I don’t know how to judge hip-hop, but after a while the endless rhymes about the Constitutional Convention started sounding less like Eminem and more like Dr. Seuss. Hamilton is like if The Butter Battle Book took two hours and 45 minutes to recite.

My guess is that Miranda originally conceived of Hamilton as filling a market niche for parents who don’t want their sons to ruin the family’s costly evening out at the theater by constant eye-rolling. While girls naturally adore musicals, there’s normally barely anything on Broadway that boys would want to sit through.

My Thoughts Have Been ... Buy New $20.24 (as of 03:16 UTC - Details) So why not invent a musical about a boyish hero rising through war and politics only to die in a duel, a true story about the ambitious young man whose face is on the ten-dollar bill? (Granted, judging by that portrait, Hamilton, with his nose so sharp it could carve roast beef, was just about the whitest man ever. But who cares about racial reality?) In an age when Disney Princesses are vastly monetized on Broadway, why not a Disney Prince story about the first Treasury secretary?

So, Miranda left out of his musical most of that girly stuff like melody and harmony, and retold the rivalry of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr as a Tupac vs. Biggie beef about New York City not being big enough for the two of them.

By the way, Miranda is a rare Broadway composer with a wife and kids. Interestingly, the one all-white character in Hamilton is King George III, who is portrayed as a mincing flamer. That’s a very old American stereotype about the English as gay that I haven’t seen much of lately. Yet, the king is probably the most entertaining character in the show. I can understand his diction and he is even given a mildly catchy tune to sing. (There are reasons that gays have traditionally dominated musical theater.) Hamilton: The Revolution McCarter, Jeremy Best Price: $18.98 Buy New $23.69 (as of 03:16 UTC - Details)

Miranda’s inspiration to write a little musical about American history that boys would tolerate when their sisters demand to be taken to a show was a not unworthy one.

And, who knows, Miranda perhaps thought his show might even attract that legendary unicorn, the Diverse audience.

Ironically, however, Hamilton so precisely tapped into the ever-growing vein of childishness flowing through American culture that its tickets wound up being outrageously too expensive (with tickets on the secondary market selling for consistently four and supposedly even five figures) for most families, much less Families of Color.

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Superheroes Hamilton B... Buy New $14.95 (as of 03:16 UTC - Details) The Butter Battle Book... Dr. Seuss Best Price: $2.81 Buy New $6.89 (as of 03:16 UTC - Details) Concert Promoter Hamil... Buy New $14.99 (as of 03:16 UTC - Details)