Mon, 05/24/2021 LAWRENCE – What is the essential quality that has made “Hamilton” one of the most successful Broadway musicals ever? That was the question Paul Laird, University of Kansas professor of musicology, and his co-author/editor, Mary Jo Lodge, associate professor of theater at Lafayette College, asked themselves and their colleagues a couple of years ago. Their answer, spelled out in the form of the new book “Dueling Grounds: Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton” (Oxford University Press), is that liminality – that condition of being on the border between two disparate things – is key to understanding the play’s awesome power.