Taking a historical figure and writing an entire production based on his or her life sounds like a pretty typical idea. But what if you made it a musical, and what if the majority of that music was hip-hop?

That’s exactly what Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer of the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” did.

Miranda got the idea of turning founding father Alexander Hamilton’s life into a catchy and enjoyable—but still historically accurate—musical after he wrote the first track  and performed it in front of several guests, including former president Barack Obama, at the White House in 2009.

Between that performance and the full play’s debut in 2015, Miranda wrote the rest of the soundtrack. It has won many deserving awards, including a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album for the Original Broadway Cast album.

Although it would have been jaw-dropping to see the original cast perform in St. Louis, the cast that did perform still lived up to my high expectations of the show.

The Schuyler sisters—played by Sabrina Sloan as Angelica, Julia Harriman as Eliza and Isa Briones as Peggy—sounded so similar to the original Broadway cast soundtrack, if you closed your eyes it seemed like you were actually seeing them.

Peter Smith (King George) nailed his songs, including my personal favorite “You’ll Be Back,” adding in the perfect amount of sass and sarcasm as original actor Jonathan Groff did. It was easy to say the entire theater loved him.

Chris De’Sean Lee stood out the most, however, with his performance of not only Marquis de Lafayette in the first half but also Thomas Jefferson in the second half. Lee’s quirkiness made Lafayette and Jefferson easy-to-love characters.

Unfortunately, Austin Scott’s main role as Alexander Hamilton seemed to be lacking an important spunky quality that Miranda incorporated perfectly into the character.

But overall, from acting to choreography to the quality of the voices, “Hamilton” did not disappoint.