Lin-Manuel Miranda is changing the face of pop culture and has jump started a revolution. His creation has won the world over with love for hip-hop history. The mastermind and lead of the epic Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, the rap musical based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, has done the what no one believed possible: He turned a Broadway musical about American history into the coolest, most sought after ticket on the planet.
Cast members perform musical selections from the Broadway musical “Hamilton” in the East Room of the White House, March 14, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
It’s a cultural phenomenon, a wildly popular musical about “a scrappy young immigrant who forever changed America.” That description is of a young lad from the Caribbean named Alexander Hamilton. This broadway blockbuster was created by epic composer, wonderful lyricist, and killer rapper Lin-Manuel Miranda. He was awarded with the Pulitzer Prize for drama last month, making him the third Latino writer to win a Pulitzer in that category in its 100 years.
As the show’s description on Playbill puts it: “From bastard orphan to Washington’s right hand man, rebel to war hero, loving husband caught in the country’s first sex scandal to Treasury head who made an untrusting world believe in the American economy, Hamilton is an exploration of a political mastermind.”
Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1757 on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean. At age eight, Hamilton moved with his family to the island of St. Croix. He lived in Christiansted, St. Croix for almost eight years, before emigrating to the “mainland” of the British North American colonies in the fall of 1772 to receive a college education. Hamilton was George Washington’s chief aide during the Revolutionary War, he founded the US Coast Guard and became the country’s first Secretary of the Treasury.
Miranda himself plays Hamilton, but just as important are his co-stars, in a wonderfully colour-blind cast. On stage, Miranda is supported by an ultra-talented and diverse cast of singers, rappers and dancers who brilliantly shout out the highs and lows of early America. Together, they offer an unlikely history of the United States’ revolution, characterized by dramatic stories of aspiration and vengeance. Playing Hamilton’s rival, Aaron Burr, is Smash‘s Leslie Odom Jr. and Phillipa Soo plays his wife, Eliza. Renée Elise Goldsberry, from The Good Wife, is Eliza’s sister Angelica. Frozen‘s Jonathan Groff plays King George III, who provides epic comedy relief. Daveed Diggs does an amazing Busta Rhymes impression as Thomas Jefferson and the role for George Washington is played by the talented Christopher Jackson.
The cast of Hamilton even performed at the White House receiving high praise from President Obama and his wife Michelle. Michelle called the musical “a work of genius, true genius…the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life”.
I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews here in the UK regarding Hamilton, I’ve even been advised that the next time I go to New York I should book the Hamilton tickets first – then my flight tickets. Apparently it’s difficult to get your hands on a pair of these tickets, they are hot and it’s a guaranteed hit. And if FLOTUS says so …
