As 'Hamilton' heads to movie theaters, Lin-Manuel Miranda always knew it would last
What if the Founding Fathers rapped?
It's been exactly a decade since playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda floated that concept to Broadway audiences with a show that became a smash, pulling off a cultural ubiquity rare for musical theater. As "Hamilton" turns 10, it remains as resonant as the year it premiered, playing to a nation as ruled by factions and enthralled by contentious debate as the America of the late 18th century.
To celebrate a decade, Miranda previewed a rollout on TikTok of his own wax figure as Alexander Hamilton alongside late-night host Jimmy Fallon.
'Hamilton' on the big screen in movie theaters
The musical is also marking the milestone by sending the film version (already on Disney+) to movie theaters starting Sept. 5.
"We filmed most of the original cast performing in 'Hamilton' in 2016, and we always wanted to release it theatrically," Miranda said during a recent appearance on Fallon's "Tonight Show." When the pandemic hit, they opted for streaming, the history-teacher-turned-entertainer said. Movie theaters nationwide and in Puerto Rico will now offer "Hamilton" the big-screen treatment.
The release will coincide with Leslie Odom Jr., who played Aaron Burr in the original production, returning to the cast for a 12-week stint.
"You don't get shows that run 10 years," Odom told host Savannah Guthrie, announcing his return on the "Today" show in April. "There's a lot of shows we love, great shows, that you know they come and they go. That's the nature of the theater."
'Hamilton' in theaters after Tony Awards reunion, scrapped Kennedy Center performance
While fans can expect to catch the long-running show in New York's Theatre District, elsewhere in Washington, D.C., producers pulled the plug on a planned performance at the Kennedy Center for 2026.
The move followed a move by President Donald Trump to clean house at the arts organization, firing the chairman and installing himself as the board leader. The reason for the overhaul, the president said, was based on the organization's decision to host a drag show performance.
"THIS WILL STOP," he wrote on Truth Social at the time. "The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation."
In response, "Hamilton" producer Jeffrey Seller pulled two scheduled performances of the touring show and wrote in a statement: "Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy. These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of 'Hamilton.' However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution."
Much of the original cast also reunited for a recent performance at this year's Tony Awards.
That the play has become a political flashpoint may come with little surprise to Miranda, however, who previously told Paste BN he always expected it to have a longevity of resonance.
"It’s always going to have something to say,” he said. "If I had any insight in the writing of this thing, it was everything that was present at the founding is still present: the sins of it, the paradoxes of it, the ways in which we fall short of the ideal 'All men are created equal' the moment we wrote it down."
Contributing: Brian Truitt