HAMILTON Interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda

hey because you've been tweeting my hand there's a build-up to the NW I know I'm just considering staring about eight minutes secondly this is frost/nixon there's absolutely no reason it should have worked a musical a hip-hop one at that about one of America's founding fathers and yet Hamilton it is the single hottest ticket anywhere off or on Broadway it's the hottest ticket in New York City Hamilton it's so good [Applause] before Hamilton became the worldwide sensation you could neither ignore nor get tickets to Miranda stumbled across Ron chernow is biography Alexander Hamilton and made the most unlikely of connections American history and hip hop I was always taught growing up that hip hop R&B I think you've said this as well is the music of a revolution is the genius of Hamilton that they just never specified what revolution it was I don't know what I don't know that Hamilton's genius you know I think the UM for me my way into the story of Alexander Hamilton's life was the fact that he wrote his way into every circumstance he wrote his way out of his unendurable cruel early life and then wrote his way into Washington's good graces but then also wrote his way into trouble with lots of the other founders and sort of you know didn't know when to stop writing and so to me that that reminded me of the world of hip-hop you know when you are so good at putting words together that you can get out of that neighborhood you can get out of that situation that to me is sort of the thing I love best about hip hop is sort of taking everything you know and then creating something new out of it I want yeah that I want and also but also just sort of making you know making a new identity for yourself you know when I got to the part where Hamilton wrote under a pen name Publius as he was battling Samuel Seabury I was like that's who them scene you know like he literally took on an emcee name to battle another set of ideas so it just I had that notion very early on in reading the book and then it just kind of kept proving itself right over the course of the reading the biography it started simply as a modern day mixtape of sorts the Hamilton mixtape a fun collection of hip hop songs about the ten dollar founding father without a father emerging from a musical skill set Miranda developed at a young age and the rest quite literally was history now I want to sort of flash back a little bit I know they used to make mixtapes for girls in grade school and everybody writes it and and Hamilton is sort of kind of that ultimate mixtape I think it even started out as if that Hamilton mixed tank so what degree did you have to sort of revert back to grade school women well Miranda the pool office musical I don't think of it as reverting I think that I I feel really lucky that I grew up in an era where the currency of cool was to give someone a Maxell 90 minute 120 minute cassette I think you learned a lot about building a score that way you know you're giving them you're showing that your tastes you're showing them what you want them to feel you want it to have variety you want to sort of think about an actor break between side a inside B so the fact that I grew up when that technology was popular I'm really happy about it because I think it was excellent training for for creating an evening of music in 2009 Miranda was invited to Washington DC to perform at the White House poetry Jam where he decided to try out a number from the Hamilton mixtape to say the least it was met with skepticism on a hip hop album it's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip hop Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton you laugh but it's true I'm back to to 2009 your performance at the White House for the president the first lady whenever you were first describing it to people and you compared hip-hop to Alexander Hamilton everyone laughed now you said you laugh but it's true right but then something happened it actually worked got around and said this kid is insane man took up a collection just to send him to the mainland get your education don't forget from whence you came and the world is gonna know your name what's your name Alexander Hamilton the president personally everywhere on the feet clapping when you were pitching this show how long did it take to get people from laughing to on their feet clock yeah it's so interesting you bring that up because that is a sort of a microcosm of my experiences it is a terrible pitch but I just I knew the events of Hamilton's life and I knew that this music was uniquely suited to tell it and I knew I wanted to tell it so it was just a matter of you know I luckily I'm working with the collaborators I've been working with my whole professional life it's Tommy kale as Alex like more so our producer Jeffrey seller so they were just like alright finish no I go for it yeah absolutely I'd add real support in that regard the Hamilton mixtape would eventually evolve into a workshop musical simply called Hamilton and moved into an off-broadway theater the Public Theater the first preview opened on January 20th 2015 and at that moment history kicked off with one very long question how does the best often son of a and des Scotsman dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Kouga B and by Providence impoverished and squalor grow up to be a hero when the scholar essentially says how did this guy become this guy at what point in your incredible journey did you discover the answer to that question and what is the answer oh I think I'm always going to have more questions than answers I think that's part of the fun of being a writer you know the the joy of putting together that sentence which took me a little while to put together so long funny is it but you're also throwing the ball really high in here you're like okay I've got to keep this ball in the air because we're starting with this crazy epic run-on sentence and so it was sort of in writing that line I kind of figured out the vernacular that we use to create the show and it is this mix of contemporary speech and speech from that era and doing so sort of figure out how we interact with cards basically miss the late 80s overnight the show was a worldwide sensation critics called it genius first lady Michelle Obama called it the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life and Miranda was flooded with every award imaginable from Tony's two Grammys to even appeal it surprised Miranda received a flood of love from everyone who saw it though there's one person's opinion they'll never truly know I was wondering if you could imagine for a moment as difficult as it may seem that you're able to get two tickets to come and you're able to give one to Alexander Hamilton sit down next to them watch the show and sort of see what his reaction is and then when it's over lights up curtains down you can lean over and ask him what he thought about one thing in the show what are you asking wow that's a great question you did to your home this week um if I were to lean over and ask Hamilton one question I suppose uh I don't know why I I guess I'd ask it you know does this feel like your life does this feel do you recognize yourself in it at all and you know whether it's the momentum or the music or the events I'm sure you'd have a lot of thoughts or to hear in them yeah I think we've had a long intermission 13 months after landing on Broadway the show is now taking its first step outside of New York with a resident production at the privatbank Theatre in Chicago something Miranda says is only natural when it comes to Chicago and Broadway I think Chicago oftentimes plays two roles it's either the city where the show warms up before going to New York or usually the city where the show will stop first after leaving Newark when you tell the story of Hamilton the musical the legacy of it what role will Chicago playing it well Chicago is just the next step I mean that's you know Chicago's the best theater town in the United States the way you support theater the the local theaters the caliber of talent that comes out of those theaters it's it's really unlike anywhere else in the United States so to have had success in New York you don't really know you've had success until you go to Chicago when it works I mean that's that's just the so it was always going to be the next [Music] shop and I'm not going away Miranda has since left the Broadway production behind he soon to be London bound as he gears up to take on a lead role in the long-awaited Mary Poppins sequel but considering he stumbled across the idea for Hamilton while on break from his other Tony award-winning musical in the heights one can't help but wonder what genius this new break may inspire I know that you came up with the idea for Hamilton wiring or on vacation on a break from in the heights now that you are a bit on a break from Hamilton yeah are your creative juices flowing in a different direction or things starting to form for that next step yeah I mean I'm starting to read for fun again I mean that's that's what this was it was me reading for fun and then falling in love and so that's a nice feeling I was very busy during my run in the show so it's nice to relax and read books and see movies again and just sort of really I'm sort of like a pop culture caveman right now I'm just really emerging and being like you know I just saw Deadpool yesterday you know I'm lost it over lost exactly what else is emerging okay yeah so I'm just sort of undisturbed catching up to the rest of the world right now the life of Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton it's not quite material it screams out Broadway musical and yet here we are who knows maybe one day they'll say that about the life of Miranda as well one day inevitably when they make Miranda the musical boy what is the opening over going to be called the opening numbers are going to be called me casa su casa yeah because it's going to be it's probably going to take place in my house and we you know grew up in a loving Porto Rican house but we always had other people living with us I think that's I think everyone who lives around Humboldt Park has that experience too of like you have the family that comes from Puerto Rico you have the people from out of town we're going here for school and our house was just always a home base for whatever family was around and I think that also it also contributes to me being a writer because literally stories outside my family would walk in the building and will there so I think me casa su casa would be the opening that I love it oh I've got it so this has been one of the single greatest honors of my entire life I've been so nervous and been doing so much homework I've been chilling down yeah your rocks thanks man Alexander Hamilton

Channel: Jake's Takes

Views: 117,589

Rating: 4.9825501 out of 5

Keywords: Hamilton, interview, Lin-Manuel Miranda, musical, clip, lyrics, song, Alexander Hamilton, score, The Room Where It Happened, What'd I Miss, Tonys, Grammys, Jake Hamilton, footage

Id: ewlEIOPBcC0

Length: 11min 4sec (664 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 26 2016