Broadway hit "Hamilton" drives interest in founding father

the accolades keep coming for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton the production won the Kennedy prize Monday the cast wowed Grammy viewers tickets are sold out throughout at least January next year the show is based on Alexander Hamilton a nation's first treasury secretary chip Reed is at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington he spoke with the author who helped the Founding Father find New Life chip good morning well good morning you know George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are all over this town but good luck finding Alexander Hamilton yes you can pull a $10 bill out of your wallet or you can come here to the National Portrait Gallery but for the most part he's been completely overshadowed by the other founding fathers now he's finally getting his turn in the [Music] spotlight behind the rap inspired lyrics and hip hop beats New York's most talked about show Hamilton serves up a history lesson like no Musical ever [Music] before until recently Alexander Hamilton was best known as the stoic face on the $10 bill that changed when Hamilton hit Broadway so this is Hamilton gra this is Hamilton gra where he lived the last couple of years of his life then you have to remember chip this would have been very far north of the city at the time this would have been virtual Wilderness about 100 blocks north of the theater is where the real Alexander ham Hilton lived in an area now known as Hamilton Heights Ron chernau wrote the 800 Page biography on which the musical is based we are sitting in Alexander Hamilton's house right now there's this dining room table what is it like for you to be sitting here it's a thrill to be in this house cuz this was really the only house that we know that he ever owned Hamilton's story is an extraordinary example of the self-made American immigrant born out of wedlock on a tiny Caribbean island he was orphaned as a child with in just a few decades he became one of the most influential figures in US history General George Washington's top Aid signer of and a major force behind the Constitution a creator of the US Financial system founder of the Coast Guard and the New York Post was Hamilton a war hero yes absolutely a genius absolutely an evil genius not for me but for some people for some people a Visionary uh undoubtedly insecure uh to an extent how about temperamental definitely definitely temperamental but I think what attracts people to the story of Alexander Hamilton is that there are so many things about him that you can admire but he was a flawed enough individual that you can at the same time identify with him how does a bastard orphan son of the play ly Manuel Miranda decided to tell Hamilton's story through Black and Hispanic characters and the rhyming lyrics of rap in a 60 Minutes interview Miranda explained the concept to Charlie Rose your music is rap yes and I also believe that that form is uniquely suited to tell Hamilton's story because it has more words per measure than any other musical genre it has Rhythm and it has density and if Hamilton had anything in his writings it was this density his Furious disputes with the other founding fathers were legendary including a decades long rivalry with Thomas Jefferson over slavery which Hamilton opposed and over the future of the young Republic Hamilton had a vision of the country there' be not only traditional agriculture but there would be large cities factories stock exchanges Banks corporations a Central Bank in other words the world that we know today Hamilton died in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr at the age of 49 at his grave in lower Manhattan there's a surge of visitors here to remember the man who history almost for got he died more than 200 years ago and now he's getting his turn in the Limelight his name is literally up in lights on Broadway doesn't get any better than that the Alexander Hamilton craze is showing no signs of slowing down Ron chernow's book has been on the best seller list for 18 weeks that's 6 weeks longer than back in 2004 when it first came out wow I just got the book yesterday I'm one of the ones thank you so much chip I Marvel that here's Lynn reading his book onac and comes away with that amazing way and knew that it was perfect for R yes so good he says that he'll be happy happiest not standing all the attention when that play is being produced by theater groups and high schools all over the world I can see that happening really easily Char awesome it's a great great great play

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 16,601

Keywords: hamilton, musical, broadway, alexander hamilton, biography, ron chernow, video, cbs, news

Id: F-d2aajrQPk

Length: 4min 48sec (288 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2016