Back in New York, Miranda, (Hamilton) and Leslie Odom, Jr. In Virginia, Christopher Jackson (George Washington in the musical), grapples with our Founders’ legacy of slavery while preparing for the role. Highlights of the film include Miranda performing an early version of the musical’s opening number at The White House in 2009 and composing songs in Aaron Burr’s Manhattan bedroom. Bush, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Secretary Hank Paulson, Secretary Timothy Geithner, Questlove, Black Thought, Jimmy Fallon, John Weidman, Nas, and Stephen Sondheim are among the notable interviews. President Barack Obama, President George W. Vernon, Valley Forge, and other historic locations with Miranda and other cast members further flesh out the story. Newly shot footage of the New York production with its original cast and trips to Mt. Hamilton’s America, produced by RadicalMedia ( Great Performances – In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams) and directed by Alex Horwitz, offers an intimate look at the creation of the show, revealing Miranda’s process as he adapts Hamilton’s epic story into groundbreaking musical theater. Lin-Manuel Miranda, writing in Aaron Burr’s bedroom at The Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights, NYC, in a scene from Hamilton’s America. With its young cast claiming America’s history as its own, Hamilton is redefining how audiences learn about history. Today, Hamilton’s fan club is vocal and growing, thanks, in no small measure, to Miranda’s revolutionary musical. But the full story of this political genius – a poor immigrant who built himself up from nothing to become the architect of modern finance and one of the nation’s most vital authors – has largely been forgotten by history…until now. The story of Alexander Hamilton is most remembered for its dramatic conclusion, which saw Hamilton killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr. It’s also the subject of Hamilton’s America, a new documentary from Great Performances airing this month as the season premiere of the PBS Arts Fall Festival on Friday, October 21 at 9pm ET. During a backstage visit afterwards, Miranda told the author that as he was reading his book, hip-hop songs started rising off the pages.Įight years, 11 Tony® Awards, and one Pulitzer Prize later, Hamilton, Miranda’s hit musical, is the hottest ticket on Broadway and a pop culture phenomenon.

When he returned to New York, he invited Chernow to see In the Heights, his first Broadway show and winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical. Lin-Manuel Miranda was on vacation in Mexico, reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton – all 832 pages of it. The cast of “Hamilton” at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City.

Lin manuel miranda alexander hamilton