Some Queens students got an up-close look an award-winning Broadway performance. NY1's Shannan Ferry explains how the play was incorporated into the students' education.

The smash-hit musical 'Hamilton' is one of the hardest shows on Broadway to attend.

However, students from Thomas Edison Career and Technical High School were able to get front row seats.

"They're calling it the number one show on Broadway, and I got to go see it, like this is my first Broadway show," said one student.

1,300 students from across the city visited the Richard Rodgers Theatre this week for an exclusive student matinee, the first ever.

The matinee is being used as part of a new educational program, where select schools get to teach about the founding father using a 'Hamilton' curriculum.

"You see how he really goes from being in poverty, to getting his own education," said another student.

As part of the program, students study the musical's lyrics and songs in the classroom before seeing the performance.

Thomas Edison was the only school in Queens selected to see the April performance, which included a Q&A with the cast.

"Because it was in song, and the lyrics were so close to the story, it was easier for you to remember things and it was just more fun," explained a third student.

Some students even got to perform original songs and monologues on stage, including Zaviel Young.

"I wrote about Thomas Paine's common sense essay, and turned Common Sense into a rap," Young said.

The students said they were so inspired by Hamilton, they're now creating their own musical based on Thomas Edison, the namesake of their school. 

"If they really apply themselves anything is possible, cause we have students here who think that there aren't that many doors open to them," said Brett Clark, an English Teacher at Thomas Edison Career and Technical High School and the liaison for the Hamilton curriculum.

"Hamilton says constantly I'm not throwing away my shot, and seeing the play gives you more momentum and more motivation to not throw away your shot and do what you believe in it," said another student.

The program will provide 20,000 city students with the opportunity over the course of the next year.