‘Hamilton’s’ Lin-Manuel Miranda: The genius behind Broadway’s biggest hit
I’ll say this to all of my fellow ‘Hamilton’ fans: I was in the room where it happened with the man who made it happen. The man is Lin-Manuel Miranda and the room was the Joe Allen Restaurant in New York City. The restaurant might not be the place where he found his inspiration for ‘Hamilton,’ but it was the site of our interview.
You’ve probably heard the story about that fateful day at a Borders Bookstore when Lin-Manuel was looking for something to read for a vacation in Mexico. He picked up the 832-page biography titled “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow and after the second chapter, he saw a Broadway musical forming before his eyes. And not just any Broadway musical — one inspired by rap, hip-hop and British pop.
Since it’s debut last summer, ‘Hamilton’ has taken the world by storm. President Obama has seen the play twice, the original cast album became the first Broadway musical to top Billboard’s rap chart, and hundreds of people wait outside the theater daily for a chance to win lottery tickets to see the show — something that served as inspiration for #Ham4Ham. The hashtag, which has since been spun off into hilarious spoofs like #Force4Ham about ‘Star Wars’ or #Bam4Ham when the cast visited the White House.
“History has its eyes on you,” one of the famous lines from ‘Hamilton’ could have been written about Lin-Manuel himself. Already, he has inspired new waves of individuals to listen to a Broadway musical soundtrack; he’s even partnering with top musicians like Common and the Roots to create “The Hamilton Mixtape,” set to be released this fall.
Lin-Manuel jokes that his one-year-old son, Sebastian, has already caught the same musical bug that he had as a young boy.
“I got to be… Conrad Birdie in Bye, Bye Birdie. Which was really the killer, because suddenly I’m 12 years old, I’m 3' tall, and every girl in my grade has to pretend to be in love with me and faint at my feet when I sing in my gold lamé jacket that my grandma made me. And I go, ‘Well, I’m doing this. Whatever this is, I’m doing this for the rest of my life.’”
Safe to say, Lin-Manuel is not throwin’ away his shot.
Watch my complete interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda on Yahoo! News.
