“Hamilton,” the mega-buzzy bio-musical about Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers, opened to glowing accolades unlike any in memory. It received 11 Tony Awards, including best musical, and 16 Tony nominations, the most nominations in Broadway history. It won the Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award. In his review, Ben Brantley writes: “Yes, it really is that good.”
It’s one of the most talked about Broadway shows since “The Book of Mormon” in 2011. Why? It’s a theatrical rarity: a critically acclaimed work, written by a young composer, that’s making a cultural impact far beyond Broadway’s 40 theaters. That it’s told through the language and rhythms of hip-hop and R&B — genres that remain mostly foreign to the musical theater tradition — has put it in contention to redefine what an American musical can look and sound like. As Mr. Brantley wrote in his review of the show Off Broadway, the songs in “Hamilton” could be performed “more or less as they are by Drake or Beyoncé or Kanye.” Ethel Merman it ain’t.
So what’s the story behind a show that’s become a Broadway must-see with no marquee names, no special effects and almost no white actors? Here, in six snapshots, is an explanation of why “Hamilton” is a big deal.
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Students visited the Richard Rodgers Theater, where a dozen groups of them rapped and sang their responses to the “Hamilton” creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, before watching a matinee of the show.
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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
It’s a Genuine Smash
“Hamilton” is on track to become one of the biggest critical and commercial hits in Broadway history. It won 11 Tony Awards, including best musical, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama and a Grammy Award for best musical theater album. Other awards include the Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History and the George Washington Book Prize. Mr. Miranda received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The love isn’t just from theater circles. Mr. Miranda and several cast members performed at the White House, where Mr. Miranda freestyled for President Obama, and Michelle Obama, the first lady, called “Hamilton” the “best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life.” Mr. Miranda has appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and in Vogue, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. “Hamilton” is also a hit in the acting world, after the show’s producers agreed to share some of the profits with original cast members who performed in its development and first productions.
An open-ended run of “Hamilton” is to begin in Chicago this fall, with a separate national tour set for 2017.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda, in his neighborhood in upper Manhattan in 2012.
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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
A Brief ‘Hamilton’ History
Mr. Miranda’s interest in Hamilton was sparked when he wrote a paper in high school about the 1804 duel between Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr, which reminded Mr. Miranda of old-school rap rivalries.
“It’s a hip-hop story,” he said in a 2012 interview. “It’s Tupac.”
He was inspired to write a musical after reading a copy of “Alexander Hamilton,” a 2004 biography by Ron Chernow. After developing the work for a few years, in 2009 he sang a number from what would eventually become “Hamilton” as part of a night of poetry and music at the White House. Three years later, excerpts from “The Hamilton Mixtape,” a proto-“Hamilton” song cycle, opened Lincoln Center’s annual American Songbook series.
The full-fledged “Hamilton” opened in February at the Public Theater to positive — no, glowing — reviews.
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A scene from "In the Heights" on Broadway in 2008.
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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Diversity
Led by a cast of mostly black and Latino actors, “Hamilton” has already helped challenge the perception that Broadway’s nickname as the Great White Way refers to the color of the actors onstage.
“Our cast looks like America looks now, and that’s certainly intentional,” Mr. Miranda, 35, said earlier this year. “It’s a way of pulling you into the story and allowing you to leave whatever cultural baggage you have about the founding fathers at the door.”
A story of immigrants, from creators who are the children of immigrants, “Hamilton” has contributed to the national conversation about immigration. A line from the show – “Immigrants/We get the job done” – gets such sustained applause that the pause that follows has been lengthened to allow time for the ovation to end.
“Hamilton” isn’t the first time Mr. Miranda, who attended the elite public Hunter College elementary and high schools on the Upper East Side, has helped to bring nonwhite actors (and audiences) to Broadway. In 2008 he won a Tony Award for best musical for “In the Heights,” his show that featured Latin and hip-hop-inspired songs and choreography in a story about Latino families living in Washington Heights. In 2009 he translated some English lyrics by Stephen Sondheim into Spanish for the Broadway revival of “West Side Story.” (Some of the lyrics were later changed back to English.)
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Security outside the Richard Rodgers Theater as President Obama and his daughters attended a performance of the musical "Hamilton."
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Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
A Hot Ticket
“Hamilton” started performances on Broadway in July, selling over 200,000 tickets in advance and bringing in almost $30 million. It has continued to be a box-office powerhouse, nipping at the heels of blockbuster musicals like “Wicked” and “The Lion King” to become one of the highest-grossing shows now on Broadway. Among the most high-profile audience members to see it at the Richard Rodgers Theater have been President Obama and his daughters, Sasha and Malia.
An Off Broadway production that ran in 2015 at the Public Theater was an enormous success, selling out 119 performances. Celebrities from the world of pop music (Madonna), politics (Dick Cheney), books (Gay Talese) and Hollywood (Jake Gyllenhaal) flocked to see the show, which became one of the hottest tickets in New York.
Conservatives were particularly smitten. “Fabulous show!” said Rupert Murdoch.
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The director Thomas Kail, left, and Lin-Manuel Miranda at a rehearsal of "Hamilton."
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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Getting It Right
The historical accuracy of “Hamilton” was crucial for Mr. Miranda, whose interest in all things history extends not just to 18th-century politics but also to musical theater. At the wildly popular lottery for “Hamilton” tickets, Mr. Miranda has answered questions from the crowd using only quotes from the musical “A Chorus Line.”
Ron Chernow, the historian whose Hamilton biography inspired the show (and who Mr. Miranda consulted for guidance), said “Hamilton” provides a convincing and “very interior look” at its title character.
Mr. Chernow wrote in a recent T Magazine profile of Mr. Miranda: “I think he has plucked out the dramatic essence of the character — his vaulting ambition, his obsession with his legacy, his driven nature, his roving eye, his brilliant mind, his faulty judgment.”
Some historians, many of them fans of the show, have nonetheless questioned its historical accuracy, asking if Mr. Miranda overglorifies Hamilton while glossing over less attractive aspects of his politics.
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A scene from "Hamilton" on Broadway.
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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Musical Language
Broadway and hip-hop have been troubled partners. Shows like last season’s Tupac-inspired musical ‘‘Holler If Ya Hear Me” have tried unsuccessfully to bridge rap and musical theater.
“Hamilton” has the potential to be a Broadway game changer thanks to its seamless integration of rap and storytelling. Hip-hop aficionados have taken note. Ahmir Thompson, who is also known as Questlove and is a founding member of the hip-hop band the Roots, recently said: “Watching the show I realized: ‘O.K., Lin-Manuel knows hip-hop. This guy has totally done his homework.’”
No less a theater luminary than Stephen Sondheim, who knows his way around a lyric, is a fan of the musical achievements of Mr. Miranda, who has a degree in theater studies from Wesleyan University.
“Rhyme does something to the listener’s perception that is very important,” said Mr. Sondheim, “and Lin-Manuel recognizes that, which gives the ‘Hamilton’ score a great deal more heft than it might otherwise have.”
