No tickets necessary for this front row seat to one of the hottest Broadway shows in recent years. “Hamilton: An American Musical,” or “Hamilton” as it has come to be known, will be streaming on Disney + July 3.
The show was filmed with the original Broadway cast in 2016. Creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda says director Thomas Kail encouraged him to film the stage production “just in case” they wanted to sell it in the future. Well that time finally came when Disney + came knocking.
“It’s really a dream. Disney + didn’t exist when we filmed this movie,” Miranda says. “And I’m so grateful that at a time when we have no theater going on, we have this giant love letter to musical theater.”
Many would say it’s a love letter straight from Miranda himself. After all he created the music, lyrics and book for the show. “Hamilton” tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton (Miranda). It was inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.
If you’re one of the people who never got to see the Broadway or touring version of the show, you might have heard some of the music. Miranda collaborated with Alex Lacamoire and infused hip hop, R&B, pop, soul and traditional Broadway show tunes into this musical.
It premiered to a sold off-Broadway in 2015 before moving to the Richard Rodgers Theater on Broadway. It won a record-setting 16 Tony Award nominations the next year and won 11. It seemed everyone, everywhere was talking about “Hamilton.”
Now five years later, on the eve of America’s Independence Day, families who might not have been able to afford the steep ticket prices, can gather around and watch the stage production on Disney +. Kail says nothing was added or taken away from the original productions so audiences will get to see what theatergoers saw when the show was at the height of its popularity.
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“This is the entire show. And the companies you see doing this performance and the cinematic iteration of it, did the show the night before and then had two shows the next day,” Kail says.
Miranda says the timing of the release was not a coincidence. The film was originally slated for a theatrical release and Disney-style premiere in 2021. But with the pandemic, and recent protests, they decided to release it on the 4th of July weekend.
“In this moment when we’re talking about systemic racism, and the original sin of slavery, and the way that nothing in the past is really past. All of the fights and things present at the Founding are still things we are grappling with. The show just resonates in a different way as a result. The language of resolution resonates in a different way as a result.” Miranda says.
And five years later Miranda says the words he wrote for “Hamilton” haven’t changed, but the world has changed. You can see what all the “Hamilton” hype is about when it streams July 3 on Disney +.
