Lin-Manuel Miranda in Conversation with Chris Jones

good evening I'm Phillip Behar and I'm the executive director of the Chicago humanities festival and it is my pleasure to welcome you here tonight for a conversation with Chris Jones in lin-manuel Miranda a little bit of housekeeping if you have any phones or devices that beep please do turn it off because we are documenting tonight's conversation and if you don't have the Hamilton book by Miranda and Jeremy McCarter or the Ron chernow biography unabridged books we'll be selling them in the lobby afterwards a few thanks first I want to thank the Chicago Tribune for partnering us with us on the event tonight 26 years ago the humanities festivals very first program was with the great playwright Arthur Miller and the Tribune was with us at that time 26 years later 26 years later with the artist who's really transforming theater today and we're just thrilled to have this partnership I want to thank the lyric opera for giving us this spectacular house tonight they're there rehearsing for Das Rheingold which opens next week so getting it the house tonight is really greatly appreciated I want to thank the underwriters for the program tonight Laurie and Jim Bay they are passionate about the lyric opera they are passionate about theater and they're passionate about the humanities festival so Jim and Lori thank you so much for all you do and a special thanks to all of you in the audience who are Chicago humanities festival supporters our members this entire house is filled with humanities festival members and Chicago Tribune subscribers and you're the reason we bring great art culture and ideas both to the stage and to print so thank you you're the reason we're here and we're thrilled to be part of your night at the humanities festival we really believe that humanity thrives when people connect have open conversations and open themselves up to ideas that go beyond themselves and certainly tonight I know that all of you are here to connect with the people you're with to connect with Chris and lin-manuel onstage and maybe even to meet someone next door to you who is going to become a long friend you come here to learn something new and walk away transformed so we hope that between October 29th and November 12th you join us for the hundred plus other programs that we're going to be doing as part of our Fall Festival we have Phillip Pratt last the great composer coming Maureen Dowd from the New York Times Trevor Noah from The Daily Show and Melissa harris-perry the political correspondent so we have a great great lineup for you you can download our app and see everything that's coming up and on your way out you'll also get a summary of some of the other programs so thank you thank you for coming out tonight now it's my pleasure to introduce Bruce stoled our partner the editor and the publisher of the Chicago Tribune Thank You Philip thank everybody yeah what a crowd you think Hamilton was opening tonight all right I gotta ask how many of you have already got tickets for Hamilton all right all you with your hands up you know that you got to be really careful around the people that don't have their hands up you have something they really want you know Hamilton is that the transformative musical starts performances on September 27th in Chicago and we hope it stays here forever you know the I see if peace I think they're listening you know the amazing career of its creator the Tonys the Grammys the Pulitzer Prize the genius grant from Chicago's MacArthur Foundation Lincoln Park Zoo named one of its new baby residence Alexander Hamilton and lin-manuel Miranda the subject of all this acclaim is only 36 the fact that Chicago is the first stop in what will be the Hamilton world tour says a great deal about him and about our city too last night on TV he calls Chicago the best theater town in the US you're not going to get an argument in this crap the Chicago Tribune has covered Chicago for for 170 years it's art its culture it's its sports we're around the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series just saying we continue to cover this rich city with energy and thoughtfulness and and a great deal of pride so I'd like to thank the humanities festival for our long and and successful partnership and I'd like to thank you for your support for the Tribune tonight mr. Miranda will be in conversation with the tribunes Chris Jones one of the most influential theater critics in the country and also one of the most delightful people I know Chris earlier this year won the George Jean Nathan award the theatre world's highest honor for drama criticism and he's written extensively about the impact and the importance of Hamilton there's nobody better to do this conversation than Chris Jones I know if you're here tonight you're a fan of his mr. Miranda has a friend in the audience Jeremy McCarter his co-author of the magnificent book Hamilton the Revolution if you miss trick Kogan's wonderful piece on Jeremy McCarter last Sunday you should find it online in that piece mr. McCarter calls mr. Miranda the busiest man in the world there's note that that's true and it makes it all the more special that he's here that he gave us time to be here with us tonight please give him a real Chicago welcome ladies and gentlemen Chris Jones and lin-manuel Miranda well are you feeling alone I am yeah I love you so wanna thank you is the first and the last time in my life I'll ever be on StubHub and I appreciate that and then my kid Evan he's in one time we're in the car together I guess a morning before last and he said to me I dream lin-manuel Miranda came to mom's book group last night while you were out of the show and you're always at a show and I said that's cool and then he said and then she left you for it on that note we begin our conversation alright so let us just ponder for a sec so this work this time is convenient for nobody these tickets were a pain in the neck to get everyone risked right you risk rush-hour traffic to get here these tickets sold out in ten minutes flat it's just two guys really one guy with a microphone and yet here everybody is so how are you doing with all of that lin-manuel pretty good you know it's this feels like that very special episode of family ties where Michael J Fox is just talking to a black space and it's just very special and to party and intense ayuk you know I'm an open book I wore my Sunday in the park with George Sox I'm going to take my son my shoes off because I tell the truth more when my shoes are off let's do this well I mean you're a pretty you know you're a pretty powerful guy you've got now you've got a kid and creativity comes out of struggle sometimes you're at the point now where you can say you know I've got a musical idea I could do you know a chris christie musical and everybody would go great it's the next hamilton he'd hold up traffic fit so you couldn't get here and I would play huge in New York was the place but it's true that when you did Hamilton you came out every day into the lobby of the Public Theater and then in the last days of Hamilton on Broadway when people were sort of frantic because you were leaving I mean it must have been a change for you right you're a genial fellow you can't do what you used to be able to do right yeah it was um it was intense towards that last month it was I think people felt the crush of time they felt like oh my god original cast we have to get selfie a moment a piece of this before it's gone and fans were lovely the fans have remained lovely throughout but when you set up a barricade it sets up a different thing it became very unsafe for me to leave through the stage door I'd have little kids in the front and even if I said please don't rush please don't rush please don't rush I'd see those kids get crushed so I ended up escaping through shuffle along his theatre on 45th Street for the last month of the run and having security there take me to the I mean it got really crazy and not because of fans but because of autograph mercenaries who I know we're making a living off of me signing the play bill and then selling that play bill on on ebay so the mercenaries kind of messed it up for everyone so when when Alexander Hamilton the subject of this little cool there's got a lot of attention around here so when he was 10 his father basically walked out on him right when he was 12 his mother died of a fever in the bed right next to him he was adopted by his cousin who then killed himself and I think during that same year like the same couple of years like his aunt his uncle his grandmother also died and essentially he got all his possessions seized and then he became an orphan so he's a teenager and he's an orphan and he's desolate and in a matter of it feels like weeks or months he was one of the founding fathers so what do you what are you seeking that story I mean how did he possibly pull that off I think the moment I realized this thing was a musical was towards the end of the second chapter Ron chair now posts one of the first writings we have of Hamilton he's about 14 years old all of what you've listed has already happened and he writes a letter to his friend Ned Stevens and he says and I'm paraphrasing because it's been awhile since I read it I may be said to be building castles in the air' and I hope you won't think less of me but we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant I shall conclude by saying that I wish there was a war and that's that's the best musical theater character you can hope for that's that's Molly Brown saying I don't believe in down I'm going up that's Pippin saying I want my corner of the sky that's Tony saying you know something's coming it's that drive that irrepressible drive and we have seen such scheme successful when the projector is constant that kind of idealism say that again we've seen we have seen such schemes the life he imagines for himself successful when the projector of that fantasy is constant so I'm not going to stop until I get the thing I'm imagining in my head and then what undercuts it is that sentence I shall conclude by saying that I wish there was a war which is the most adolescent thing ever written it's also but it's also it also speaks to his awareness of his situation he's broke and he's from nowhere and the only way to rise when you're in that position is through Military Glory so he's also showing intense smarts and cynicism about where he is so I was like I know this guy I want to ride with this guy and I want to see what happens so he died too early to prevent other people from thrashing his reputation including Thomas Jefferson well he has succeeded the next four presidents do not have a ton of love for Hamilton right there's Adams who he wrote a screed against while he was in office then comes Jefferson his best friend said no one ever then Madison his other best friend who actually was friends with him for a time but then sort of fell into political disagreements with him then John Quincy Adams the son of the guy he talked smack about so that's that's four people in charge of the country who who don't want to see this guy remembered well so it's not a you know it it drives home the lesson which is it's not even about what you do in your life it's about who survives you and you can have done incredible things in your life and career but if those who survive you don't tell your story it's like it never happened so how do you ensure that those who survive you tell your story or can you not worry about it you can't worry about it I can't worry about it I don't think you can either you will have your writings you will have your incredible reviews you will have the things you've done and you know the the takeaway you know we end Hamilton with Hamilton's extraordinary wife Eliza who lives another half century who does incredible things in her own right and dedicates herself to his legacy and and and it's and it's even more tragic in real life she's pushing her kids to write the definitive biography on her husband she passes away before that project is done so she never lives to see that happen one of her sons does eventually write the biography but she doesn't live to see it so we also are survived by the people who love us and tell stories about us and and keep our our love alive I think about it every time I see one of Roger Ebert's wife's tweets I am yeah I was I was a film nerd before I was a theater nerd and I would read the entire book the entire book of reviews every year when it was updated every year I could I could recite his know star review of North by Rob Reiner which is one of the best written destructions of a movie I've ever read and and that's how we were survived by the people who love us and tell our stories I think when you watch Hamilton though you get this sense I don't know how you were all feeling when you're like in traffic or whatever on the train on the way down here you sometimes we all sometimes wonder we have a finite amount of time and we don't know how long that amount of time is and some people including you a my dad seemed incredibly good at packing in a lot of things and Hamilton to write it sort of is almost like the model of how to do a lot quickly and really if you don't know when you're going to die it makes sense that you would do a lot quickly right and by the way we all don't know when we're going to die so it becomes about how do you respond to that news how often are you aware of that fact and I think Hamilton and burr were both people who are acutely aware of it and responded to it in different ways and so in constructing their relationship we look to models but there isn't really one it's not Valjean and Javert it's not a pursuer to pursued it's not Salieri and Mozart because they're equally brilliant men it's not one any of you see the others genius it's one envious of the others temperament you can't change your temperament I feel like I've been burr in life in terms of temperament as often as I've been meaning whoa how do you describe your temperament me meaning I'm on year 1 of writing Hamilton and I'm watching colleagues win Tony's and win awards and I'm just starting my next project and you have to go well I'm alive I'm breathing air another day I'm just going to get as much writing done as today as I can and waiting for it and basically waiting for the right opportunity for things to happen and and I think we're all a mix of both right Hamilton doesn't wait for anything Hamilton is like we got to go we got to go we got to go and burrs like wait I want to reserve the right to change my mind if goes sideways one of the biggest sort of history what-ifs I wrote in to the show and it was interesting because you know I was always working with Ron Schara now and sending him what I wrote and some of the stuff he'd write back right away no that's not how it happened and some of the stuff he didn't bat an eye at and it's um it's a scene in non stop where Hamilton invites burr to help him write the Federalist Papers that never happened Hamilton did consult other people who didn't participate governor Morris being one among them but I wrote that because I wanted I needed to underline the point of their coming up at the same time they're both lawyers they're both in similar positions in society but one that goes out on a limb and writes this thing to help convince people the Constitution's the best way to do things and one is like now we don't know that this is going to work I'll be over here good luck to you and so that that was a that that historical what-if was sort of a great way to underline your differences prior to the end of the Act you famously say sometimes that you get your best ideas on vacation right you got your idea for Hamilton while you were on vacation from in the heights right so what kind of vacations do you have you lie on the beach and you go well where's my how do we get that kind of vacation well if you're looking for your next project on vacation you're not really on vacation right that's the catch-22 of it you have to really unplug and that's very hard it's hard for me to do as my Twitter followers can tell you I'll be like I'm never coming back and the next day but here's like a thing here's like a cat with a camel and it's really cute I couldn't resist sharing this with you okay so do you get do you think Twitter helps your big like okay most of us we have little bits of creativity a really good tweet and then we have big bits of creativity Hamilton some people would say you get sucked into the tweets young people maybe you might say think this you get sucked into the tweets you're never going to write Hamilton you seem to do both so how do you do that honestly this is going to sound so crazy they're opposing muscle groups what that again they're opposing muscle groups I things that I know we're going to take years to finish I started writing Hamilton in 2008 and it's in Chicago here in 2016 so the opposing muscle group while I still haven't figured out what Jefferson is going to say to Hamilton in that battle is let me write some things over here to my friends I found that Twitter was a really nice substitute for caffeine over the course of writing Hamilton there are people in this audience who were probably with me while I was saying okay I'm going to be up all night writing this Jefferson section and you know send me cat videos while I work this out and you know getting a response from the world is like a little shot of dopamine you know for those of us who are addicted to being on stages and getting applause it's like a low-level methadone of just like an audience whenever you want in your pocket are you in fact addicted to being on stage again I mean could you walk away from all this and be happy yeah but you know I thought you said yes uh I said yes but question it's a big question it's the opposite of second city I didn't say yes and I said yes but you need both again back to opposing muscle groups I feel filled up when I get to perform a Hamilton Hamilton is a 14 course meal of a role I don't think I'm done with the role although I'm certainly done with it for now right I'll be back when there was all the hoopla over meat'll leaving I just kept flashed forwarding to like you know me being Ted Neely or Yul Brynner and like people being like oh my God is doing it again his back is Hamilton in the 19th national tour cuz I watched the show in as much as I loved watching it and as much as I'm proud of it there's a part of me that wants to be on stage with it always that doesn't go away so you grew up on the northern tip of Manhattan right in Inwood and there's that lining in the high streets always my favorite line which is I think it's Nina right when she says I I thought I lived at the top of the world paraphrasing to the author when the just covering myself or so I thought I lived at the top of the world when my my will was a subway line did you that was a subway map yeah thank you subway map is that how you felt that's how I felt my world was prescribed by the New York City subway map and there used to be a little arrow in the corner is a reverse arrow that looked like a black pac-man and I used to pretend that the pac-man was eating train lines and local local were regular and then like Express lines that were the white circle were power pellets that was my my map of the world and we lived at the top of it particularly in the old maps where the Bronx is not as sharply defined as it is now which was above us but yeah that's that's a very autobiographical line and this is I always every time I see in the heights I seen it a lot of times as you can imagine the I always wonder where you are in that show and I think okay well he's partly he's partly Nina he's partly is Navi wait you know where where is he in the show are you I'm guessing you're all over that show right Chiara and I are all of them we are all of them and it really is a love letter to our families and our neighborhoods growing up she North Philly me northern Manhattan and and there's also I mean there's love letters literal love letters to our family like there's a line about my cuca came into the salon you know Chiara has an aunt cuca the main characters Kevin kameena and Daniela are the names of my three cousins who live in Puerto Rico so it was a love letter to our families but in terms of where we find ourselves we are all over it Chiara in many ways was a ringleader growing up and she would hold readings and Latino poet readings in the book shops in northern Philly and I'm just as much a Nina as she is as a new Sanofi you know I I went to school in the richest ZIP code in the country on the Upper East Side but I spoke Spanish at home and all my friends in the neighborhood spoke Spanish and I remember that drift I remember feeling like I was drifting away from my neighborhood even as I in it as I sort of assimilated more in the culture of my school you still live in that neighborhood yeah I live well I moved all the way downtown to 180s and you know from 260 how do you feel about that question now if you were feeling that when you were riding in the heights I mean I remember you then we met a few times when you were not like this so it must be more acute now that feeling of drifting away from your neighborhood no I actually on the contrary I feel like my neighborhood is sort of the last place where people still kind of knew me when and I I can mark the passage of time by seeing the kids who grew up there with their kids that's like a real world experience that I wouldn't trade for the world I mean I wrote a whole show about it while live my neighborhood and and so I love that you know one of the one of the best moments I ever had was I remember my my dog was still a puppy this is like 2011 and I was I had to go into a store but the store didn't allow dogs and I was struggling with tying her up because she was a puppy and really ornery and this construction dude who was sitting on the curb outside said relax with Navi I'll hold until you get back and that was like oh my god this is what I've always wanted just like the guy on the corner saying you snobby it's cool I'll hold your dog to get back and that is success and that is that is all I've ever wanted out of Fame everything else has been extra so all you've ever wanted out of Fame is a construction worker to hold your puppies and you go bingo the neighborhood in being able to sorority is not all about we don't care about that it's all about the construction work yeah while you were living there you would spend a week in the summer ride in Puerto Rico with your grandparents in a month okay what was that like so you went from as a young person you went from Manhattan to that so what was that like what would the sense memories like what what happened to you when you landed on the island it's an excellent recipe for making a writer if you make if you make your kid just a little out of place everywhere he goes it's a great way to become a writer because I was the kid who went to the fancy school in my neighborhood I was the only one of the only Puerto Rican kids in my class at school and then I'd get sent to Puerto Rico where I was like Gringo's with the like whack job Spanish accent you know who's know my accent say that when you came walking down city kids my age would be like you talk weird we're going this way and so my friends and I think this is why abuela is such a prominent character in the show all of my friends were my grandparents friends they were they were the via Heat those who made the mill and and would take care of me and watch shows with me I couldn't make friends my age in Puerto Rico and so the other thing that's but but I also had such a profound connection to the island I think when you grow up in New York you see the roles prescribed for Latinos both on stage and in movies and in real life as we are the janitors we are the nannies we are the ones who take care of you and do the jobs no one else wants to do and then you go to Puerto Rico where we're also doctors and lawyers and firemen and we do all the other jobs I can't tell you how much that does for your sense of self-worth it is oh we it's like it's like the little girl in the Blind Melon be video you're going to see all the other bees like she's out of place everywhere and they go oh we're all little and B outfits over here that's what it felt like going to Puerto Rico and I also you know I I feel like I have a connection with my family and connection with my roots and also you know what it was if Nina's central question is I imagined what life would be if I'd grown up there if my parents had stayed there instead of here that was my glimpse of it every year from my dad did you write yeah what do you write I wrote letters to my friends I made movies my grandfather was the general manager of the local credit union and he would borrow the surveillance camera and I would make movies with the surveillance camera so I have movies and in between the movies you see footage of people online at the bank because those were the tapes I was taping over so I made lots of films and my grandfather would bring home friends to be in the movies with me a lot of animated movies of GI Joe ever these movies man you've got to get these my Twitter followers know I have and I've been digitizing them slowly and they're terrible but but they were how would you know they were how I'd that were they were how a lonely kid keeps busy in Puerto Rico and I also wrote a lot of letters to my friends I was a a really good pen pal in the summers even high school when were you happiest when you will leave in New York and going to Puerto Rico when you were coming back that's a good question I I was always happy to come home you know again I'm a homebody New York is my Island at the end of the day but at the same time you know it's not just being in Puerto Rico it's being with your grandparents any of you were lucky enough to Olivia your grandparents get spoiled rotten I ate starbursts for dinner we'd go to there's a the biggest mall in puerto rico's in some huang and it was called la salon america and they had a thing called time out which was the arcade and the highlight of Puerto Rico you know people who don't know anything about put her go go like so were you taking in wonderful culture and going to the beaches and learning about your roots I was like no i was eating starbursts and playing video games all day it was the best so you've been singing with the Puerto Rican community here in Chicago right what do you what do you wish the people of Chicago knew about Puerto Rico they don't presently know well the lights have been off for two days they're just coming back you know III don't think there's anything I could tell them that they don't already know one of the things that's been wonderful about this trip was my first time in Humboldt Park yesterday incredible and as we were going there my father who is you know been in in politics and advocacy all my life he said I'm going to do a great impression of my father right now Linc man when the Puerto Ricans in Chicago did what New Yorkers could never manage to do they said this is our block and they bought up all the businesses and this is their block forever and there's a flag that marks the beginning of Division Street and there's a flag that marks the end and when you go through that town and you see and that Street and you see all of the businesses have names that are towns in Puerto Rico you know it's very weird to come to a city you've never been to before and feel instantly at home on the street and that's how I felt no more so you started riding Hamilton when you were at Wesleyan right and many of the people and some a couple of whom I just saw knocking around this very building in fact are people with whom you started working when you were 18 19 years old so is the lesson for everybody here stick with your like the people you know when you're 18 because those people are your best collaborators even when you become lin-manuel Miranda of Hamilton that's the title doesn't mean anything to me the lesson actually is if you find collaborative partners who believe in making the same stuff as you hang on to them it is very rare I had the great good fortune of meeting Tommy Kail the week after I graduated college he actually didn't meet at Wesleyan in fact at Wesleyan he just knew me by reputation as the pissant freshman who was borrowing his lights from his production from my 20 minute production of a musical I'd written so he was like who's this freshman stealing my lights and we met the week after I graduated mutual friends had given him a CD and copy of my script for the heights to college version the 80 minute one-act and the first three things he said to me were well and the height is a really good song but it introduces your world but it's the third song it should be first who snob he's a really interesting character he's only in the third scene he's only in three scenes and the thing it would be great if he could be the narrator and that way all the stories filter through his bodega and he can be the storyteller of the thing and at that speed and I thought this guy's a lot smarter than me and two I had two years distance from the show I'd put the show up my sophomore year and I thought this guy's going to make my show a lot better than it would be if it were just me by myself and and that's a really important thing to be able to recognize is to find the people who can make your work better I will never play piano I will never have the musical gifts of Alec slacker more he is he's just got an incredible ear it's like he was sent from heaven to help me work you know he's Cuban he's got every month little pattern in his brain but at the same time he studied under Stephen Schwartz it was the associate conductor of wicked when I met him so it was like he had the exact skillset I needed so you know I felt very lucky that I found collaborators I trusted and and you know working with those people as because we have a shorthand now so I remember talking to you when they hired you that they were updating Studs Terkel 'he's working consummate chicago story and studs had always written about blue-collar professions and you were hired and I think if I get this right to write about working in McDonald's which I believe you really did correct yeah it was my first big job that was kind of a moment when you had working a show about working that was sort of you were there to sort of say this is what working is now it's not just about being a gravedigger or a bookbinder or something it's about fast food well well actually to be honest when Stephen approached to me it wasn't with anything Stevie Schwartz it wasn't with anything particularly in mind it was just Gordon Greenberg's directing a new production I think there's room for new songs in here we'd love for you to do something and so I listened to it it's a great score it's got some of the best songwriters alive who've contributed songs Mickey grant and Craig Cornelia and James Taylor the late great Mary Rodgers and he said what what do you think you could contribute and I said my first instinct is there's not really a my first job song what's your first job and my first job was at McDonald's on McDuck our are you were making the burgers so what were you doing I had several shifts did you flip around I did I did the counter from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. so I was the one you yelled at when you were too late for breakfast but can I just get an Egg McMuffin I see it I see it there behind the thing can you just give me that one I'm sorry it's 11:10 we're serving lunch now yeah but sometimes I mean sometimes they've not changed the menu and that's really irritating when you can see the breakfast menu yes someone like you is that going and I'm going I just work here buddy but the best thing about the job was we were the rare McDonald's that did delivery and with delivery you make tips and when you're making 425 an hour tips are huge so that's what my song is about it's about the drudgery of the counter which really like gave me anxiety and anxieties working to Madonna oh I mean I I caught a counterfeiter once I speaking of speaking of dead presidents I caught a $20 bill with Washington's face on it during the lunch rush said this presidents not supposed to be on his way and at that moment Yule I how about $10 Hamilton wait 30 years I can have a good idea no the but you know like the anxiety of just you know getting it wrong and and having your register not add up at the end of the day it had to add up within $2.00 otherwise your pay was docked so you know that's stressful but delivery was free delivery you're walking around you're in your outfit I was 14 so I'd see like girls in summer school and I'm like and I smelled like burgers but that was that was the freeing part of the job and so that song was was about that so then I encountered you working on a musical call bring it on bring it on reverse shame a version of the movie that the 2000 movie with Kirsten Dunst which I remember seeing in Atlanta actually and the thing about that that particular musical it was interesting because you're using cheerleading but there was some interesting unconventional I think rhythmic kind of things that you were doing that I'm thinking maybe informed the musical that follow them a little bit absolutely you know when I was a child dreaming of a life in musical theatre bring it on was never a thing I aspired and yet and yet and II Blanken Bueller approached me he said I don't have the rights to the first movie I have the rights to the title and I said I'm not interested in doing an adaptation of a movie and he said it's not an adaptation of any of the movies Jeff Whitty has an idea and as soon as he said Jeff Whitty has an idea I was interested his Jeff waiting is an incredible writer he wrote the book to Avenue Q he's one of the funniest writers we have in the theater and he said I want to do all about Eve with cheerleaders and I said oh that's interesting I said I don't know that I could write the whole score he said I don't want you to write the whole score I want you to write it with tuff kit and I went oh and and and it underlines a very important point which is we write musicals and one out of five shows that reaches Broadway makes its money back that's a four out of five failure rate in terms of seeing a return on your investment so what is the lesson you take away from that you cannot do something because you think it will make money you cannot do it because you you know it's just it's a bad investment you have to do it because you believe in it and you have to do it because you love it or you have to do it because you believe you will learn from it now I knew I wanted to be in the room when Andy Blanken Bueller was choreographing cheerleaders I wanted see what an Andy Blanken Bueller cheerleading routine would look like so to that end one of the things I learned very quickly was that Andy had the whole show in his head already even though we hadn't written the songs and we hadn't written the book he saw a rise and a fall and the energy shifts of it and he would say to me things like when they come in it's got to have a rhythm of kukukaka got and I would go God God God I literally copy the tempo he yelled at me I had to write backwards from the beat and the rhythm he had in his head and then I played for him ego that beat is great where did you get that and I like the the kid in the drug ads from the 80s ago you all right I got it from watching you that's a deep cut kids don't know what I'm talking about how did you use that in Hamilton so what if cheerleaders thought to do with how it's a musically rhythm up the the biggest lesson we got from bring it on was you know if you ever see it's your leading routine and please do go turn on ESPN dur the craziest things I'll ever see in your life it's like teenagers but somehow even more caffeinated and the music is this incredible dance electronic music it's how do you write lyrics over that how do you tell a story over that kind of energy and so what we kind of had to do by trial and error was write the kind of song that would not feel out of place in a real cheerleading routine but also told the story of what these cheerleaders were going through in real time and so it was a lot of and this is logistical but it helped us a lot how much do you pre record and how much do you play live and we pre-recorded a lot on bring it on and found that the sound was always an issue mixing live instruments and pre-recorded instruments is always sort of a weird wash and so by the time we come to Hamilton Alex said I knew exactly I know exactly how I want to arrange this this is a rock band with a string quartet and we're going to play all of the sounds even if it's a sound I made in a demo and it was a loop I found in logic or Final Cut there's a drummer on a pad playing it live so even in satisfy the boots to Kotak but it back up again there's a drummer playing that line it's not a pre-recorded beat everything's played live the only pre-recorded thing in our whole show is the collage that accompanies the satisfied rewind when satisfied presses rewind all the other players put down their violins and cellos for a second and we play this thing that Nevin Steinberg worked for days on and if there were justice in the world there would be a sound design Tony and he would have a Tony for it that short of rewinds the previous 10 minutes on stage and then takes us back to the beginning of the love story something I've always wanted to ask you I'm going to ask you now the day of triumph or Hamilton the Tony day Orlando happen and you came out I'm very curious what that day was like the first thing and then you know in newspapers we always laugh at award shows we sit there going shut up get off enough thank you we're little bit were a tally reverent you might say and you came out and you said love is love is love is love and I remember thinking and I'm not blowing smoke I'm really not I remember thinking how did he manage that how did he how did he perfectly encapsulate what everybody was feeling at that moment and what the theater you get the clamp talking about it what the theater represents to people in moments like that and here was your day and that was what you were faced with and I thought it was one of the most admirable things I've ever seen anybody who at a cocktail and so well how did you come up with that then yep here's the reality I woke up that morning at 6:00 a.m. we went to the Beacon Theater 7:00 a.m. it really was the hamiltonian ear we were in like five things so I had to be there first thing in the morning we had to rehearse the opening number which my cast appeared in in which I appeared in we had the interstitial because we convinced them that we should do like a ham for ham type thing on the bumpers two commercials so I had to rehearse with Steve Martin and Andrew Lloyd Webber I had to rehearse our actual number the the world turned upside down into Yorktown and we had in case we won we were going to perform the Schuyler sisters for the the closing ceremony so we had two very superstitiously secretly rehearse that as well so I'm basically in show mode from 7 a.m. to about 1 p.m. all day don't really even have time to look at my phone I'm in costume I hear the news as I'm leaving the theater I pick up my iPhone and read what's happened the reason it was in my thoughts is that I hadn't written a speech had written acceptance speech for anything I thought all right I'll have between 2 p.m. and the end of the day to write whatever thoughts are in my head and sort of that'll be what I bring to the podium if I'm lucky enough to win and then this thing happens the worst shooting tragedy in our nation's history and the victims are all Puerto Rican and they're all you know it's in a gay club and you know the theatre community doesn't exist without the gay community it is it is they're the same thing and the first thing I get is a phone call from Tommy Kail saying I don't I don't want to be doing a number where we're waving around guns tonight so we take all the guns out of Yorktown just because that's not the the image we wanted to send into the world that night and then I'm alone with my thoughts and I knew I was I was thinking about my wife I was thinking about my child and I could not stop thinking about what had happened that day and it's sort of um it's sort of when you're I don't want to say this in a way that sounds wrong my job is to musical eyes moments and meet the moment as honestly as I can and sometimes the moment is presented to you in real time and so I couldn't imagine freestyling about this I needed to look for some kind of different form to express it and so I thought okay this was going to be a love sonnet to my wife but it's going to have to be about more than that and so that's sort of what happened and I had written love is love on there that's a phrase that's been that's been constant throughout the LGBT community that's not a new phrase but then I just kind of felt myself pounding at home as I was saying it because it was almost as an incantation against the morning and and that's that's all I can say is when you when you write musicals you're trying to meet the moment honestly and and I felt like I had a duty to meet the moment as honestly as I could with what I had in me how are y'all doing are you needing to rush off or should we keep going for a little bit you keep going all right so so we could like try some freestyle type thing Chris Jones as you know I have a rule that if a reporter asks me to freestyle they must beat box you got to have skin in the game to stay in the game if I gotta maybe look like an idiot you're coming with me am i right so it looks look the way let's see has no idea what's the Tanner kid with no idea okay wait wait just wait just everyone stay away you're off for just a second so I'm gonna play President Obama right here except by the way he you know he had like a military drummer to do the beat FYI so now I've got a hold a microphone I'm gonna put the cards here can y'all not get a look I haven't seen these this is not a bit he's no idea I'd like to address my sons and apologize for the future embarrassment this is going to cause I know at middle school this isn't going to go down well on you two and I'm really sorry I lost my right arm is complete again all right so I'm just going to do a pathetic sort of beat here and then you are and I'm gonna pull out these are that this is the common theme the common theme is Chicago look we're ready okay he's even got the brakes Chris Jones has got what it takes all right well I won't be a liar so let's freeze stop up the Great Chicago Fire Oh what's it mean to me i watch the shotgun show Chikako PT and ya ain't famous but I used to know that girl like Monica Raymond Oh Chicago theater is so pretty don't know why y'all call yourself the second city cuz you're first and my oh yeah but your sewin freestyling and I put it in the air meet my big box of my man Fozzie Bear the blue is the Blues Brothers you know you're lovers you gotta talk about the Blues Blues Brothers and yes Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi they rap so well make me shake matushi we gotta talk about cubbies all yeah so wives kiss on your hubby's and oh my gosh if it gets from - to worse I hope to list that century curse hope y'all win dependent I went in the second city I'm not right in this by committee I'm writing this off the top of the dome and Chris Jones watch I walk up makes me feel at home yeah we got the Michael Jordan oh yeah I wish this was being recorded cuz you know that when it comes to me I'm stylin free I'm like mr. number 23 if you wanna Windy City my name is Michelle Obama oh yeah I'm going from like table to forum and I wish I had her arms chance the rapper tomorrow night coloring book out of sight yeah one of the Windy City's finest I wish I could go you and chill in that climate oh yeah my name is lemon well that is Rahm Emanuel yes you know went very well yes he is your mayor and his brother is Ari Emanuel who is also quite a player Oh Oprah yes that is right that's what I'll show you Oprah Winfrey look where you are because you get a car you got a car you got a car okay you got the thick crust I will rap about this if I must it's so nice to meet you I want to take a bite into your like a deep-dish pizza ha all right so now we come to the interactive portion of evening so you'll never forget that moment and neither will our so we some of you filled out cards and Morgan green from the trip is going to walk right out here with these say hello to Morgan everybody all right okay so we I carry a board in QA so here's my here's my suggestion my suggestion is we do a lot of people's questioning we do it fast your for that okay let me share that thank you I appreciate that what advice would you give to young actors aspiring to revolutionize Broadway start by getting the job that's the glib answer the real answer is you have to treat auditioning like the job treating as as the thing you're preparing for and the thing you're going to learn from so that getting the job is gravy and then get another job that pays the rent until then what is your favorite time or era in history or other historical figure and PS if you're reading this I love you I love you too Chris that's the question and I am NOT me necessarily honestly you know I've read about a lot of different eras I wouldn't trade 2016 for the world we live in really interesting times and and I'm glad I'm a live one if you could have breakfast with one person in the world alive or dead who would it be and why Jesus in a large group of people I hear he was a very dynamic guy and if we need seconds I know he provide if you were to ride another musical about a historical if you were to write another musical about a historical figure who would it be but wait the questioner has suggestions Eleanor Roosevelt Queen Elizabeth anybody really covering your ass with the third one of those till there is a female yeah of those two Eleanor Roosevelt is by far more interesting to me you know incredible powerful husband she also was incredibly powerful in her own right she's got that apartment with the lady in New York she got her girlfriend on the side she's got a side chick there's a musical there when you were doing Hamilton what was the single funniest aka weirdest thing that happened during that this is a good question during the process of Hamilton what was that the weir there must have been some moments that was just weird wackadoodle bizarre strange there was a day when Seth Stewart sat on the chair like any other day and it splintered underneath him so hard I was actually on the second level you know it's a two-level set and it was like out of a cartoon he went and sat in that chair he's supposed to be watching a cabinet battle and the thing exploded like it was rigged and I will cherish that memory of Seth Stewart ass over teakettle the rest of my life what keeps you up at night Twitter if you could bring three things to an island what would they be a power source went Oh Rico I bring a power source I bring a device on which to listen to music and I would bring my hard drive in my collection of music and I that that's what I couldn't live without do you have any advice for a young playwright who is being advised to get a real job and only do his riding on the side it's good advice only only in that it's practical but here's the thing you you have to do what you love if we weren't sitting here and we weren't talking I would still be writing musicals I would just be writing musicals as a substitute teacher at Hunter College High School so pay your rent cover you're not you know get health insurance but at the same time do what you love and don't let anyone stop if you could play any other role in Hamilton what would that role be Angelica it's best song in the show any chance have you playing it not in Tommy's version the outfits don't fit me but hey somewhere down the line someone will let me okay if this Ariana asked this question is it it has been evident that's a great way to start a question it has been evident that smart people come to the Hamilton limo arm around her event it has been evident that you're one of those people whose brain is constantly working and constantly thinking how do you shut down your brain and just relax every once in a while how do you do that's great question it is a great question um I I again music saves my life my family saves my life a lot my wife's the most extraordinary person I know and she doesn't she doesn't care what ideas in my head if the trash isn't out and if if Sebastian needs a diaper change and you need that you need the people who keep you honest and keep you grounded and you know this entire time that Hamilton has been happening and and the world has taken notice of it we've been raising a child together and that keeps you humble and it's the hardest video game you've ever played the second you're good at swaddling doesn't need swaddling the second you can mix formula with one hand on two solids the second you've got the crawling figured out on to walking it's like it never lets you get comfortable ever he's growing faster than I can possibly imagine it and you want to slow down time and you want to cherish it and and so that's that's the great blur of my life so you walk around all day everyone kisses your ass it's lin-manuel Miranda or so and then you go home and she's not interested in any of that I mean she's nice to me I don't want to make her sound me as my wife that loves me she's really great but but at the same time yeah we're we're doing our own thing we have we have a different set of concerns when we get home and and that's that's important what song are you currently obsessed with oh there's a song on watts keys new album called don't be nice um there's Watts key right there and it's he changes the meter like midway through the song and it's thrilling that's all I'll say go download it what was your favorite part of filming drunk history and can you share any insights about the upcoming Hamilton episode says I'm on my favorite part was that it even happened I'm a huge fan of that show and the fun of it was it was actually I don't remember a ton about the film it's just a beautiful I am as curious to see it as the rest of you but I got calls from a lot of friends the next day saying do you even remember talking to me I said vaguely what did I say I remember Jonathan Groff I FaceTime Jonathan Groff and I just hold it for one time I forgot to ask this that song you know you'll be back give me two seconds on how you came up with that because it's it's it's a distinctive song well it's um it's a literal British Invasion era song for a literal British Invasion and and so for me the fun of it was to write a breakup letter to have the king think of and I was nudged along this path actually by the John Adams documentary when John Adam does a great scene in the John Adams miniseries where John Adams meets with King George and King George is sort of standing in the corner and he doesn't know whether to address him as another head of state or not he's just sort of like good luck like it's it feels very personal even though he's addressing the head of a country and so I thought okay well let's extend that let's make this a breakup letter to the colonies but it's a really dysfunctional relationship like I'm going to it's you know if this were an actual relationship to a romantic partner it would be an Eminem song it would be it would be you can't live without me I love you I'm gonna you know hurt you until you come back and and so it was fun playing with how did you get that dad you know it's one of the only songs I wrote without an instrument anywhere near me I wrote most of the lyrics on my honeymoon I was on an island without any access to electricity or anything and I just had to the tune had to be so catchy that it survived to me being without a piano for two weeks and stayed in my head until I got home so I wrote down the lyrics and the da da da helped me keep it catchy when you're casting actors in the show what do you look for in the people who try out that you can sing an act and dance number one but but I'll tell you something really important that Tommy looks for and he really looks for a positive energy it's not unlike what when Lorne Michaels is sussing out sort of cast members for Saturday Night Live he has this thing like you've got to know that you're going to be around this person at 3:00 in the morning in a building when it's dark and lonely and everything's to be okay so he tries to cast good people so if you're talented but the energy in the audition room is one of entitlement or you're not all there or there's just there's something going on Tommy's going to be wary about trusting you he wants to cast people with great energy who are collaborators who know they tell the story Tommy knows he goes away at a certain point and it's the in theater unlike any other medium the actors are in charge of telling the story night tonight it's the most empowering thing you could have so we cast people we want to spend eight times a week with if you could use a discount the disorders discography of one hip hop artist to create a new jukebox musical who would you pick great question I don't know that I want to reveal the answer to that what if I want to really do it I can tell you some that would be great Big E has some of the best storytelling in hip-hop Eminem has more characters than any other rapper jay-z's Ark is I mean both business moguls and and kids teenagers listen to that because it is the most aspirational music you could listen to so those are three great candidates right there and they end by by virtue of the careers of the artists involved there's a there's a there's an arc there's an arc of a rise and a fall and a rise again those are pretty off the top of my head are you going to the champs concert tomorrow night I can't got a show to do no I'm going home I'm going home to New York for the weekend then I'll be back on on Monday you know I that's I I have a babysitter during the days of the week and when I'm home it's my kid time on the weekend so I'm going home to be with my kid and then I'll be back on Monday look you thought that you're supposed to be home with your kids Sara Newcombe ask you this question would you ever consider casting a disabled person in Hamilton absolutely do you think Hamilton would have made a great president I don't know there are certainly issues of temperament it would not be unique that I think I think I think um the presidency is a revealer of who you are you don't become less yourself you become more yourself George Washington was very obsessed with his legacy he calcified over the course of his eight years he became more statuesque more aware of the burden of history as first president I think you become more yourself and so that the things you look for are temperament so think about who has the best mm sister if Hamilton were turned into a movie I'm gonna change that too when Hamilton is turned into a movie 2035 will you consider starring in it it depends when it happens you know we're pretty close to making it in the heights movie happen I've said that before I don't believe it when I see it I'm now jaded and bitter about it but but it's it's close and Kiara is writing a new screenplay and we have producers and and a director in Jon M Chu who is an incredible filmmaker he made the step up movies and though I went to all of those in the theater so I'm really excited about that that being said I'm not playing with Nathalie in that movie I'm too old so it depends if it comes along at a time when I'm still young enough to be able to carry the Ark of the guys life I'd love to do it if not I'll be over here making new question from me question from me would you consider a career in politics yourself I would rather I would rather listen to a four-hour recording of your beatboxing then then one I would rather I would rather do almost anything than run for public office my dad runs campaigns I know what's involved I've seen how the sausage gets made I'm not interested in any part of that life if New York is the greatest city in the world is Chicago the second greatest city in the world can I say something so I did like 300 interviews for you guys yesterday and every reporter asked me why did you bring Hamilton to Chicago why is that the next stop what's with your complex and I would say to them there's your Chicago like your home of more Metcalf and Jessie Mueller and Steppenwolf and a million brilliant theatre practitioners where else would we go so I know you call yourselves the second city but you're pretty freakin fantastic that's all I'm gonna say that well I would say this that right now lin-manuel Chicago is your town ladies and gentlemen lin-manuel Miranda

Channel: Chicago Humanities Festival

Views: 136,595

Rating: 4.9320717 out of 5

Keywords: chicago humanities festival, chf, humanities, chicago, festival, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chris Jones, Hamilton, In The Heights, Chicago Tribune, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Broadway, Broadway in Chicago, Puerto Rico, Humboldt Park, Manhattan, Orlando, Tony Awards, Studs Terkel, rap, hip hop, freestyle

Id: yDacl3CBx2M

Length: 68min 44sec (4124 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2016