A Hip-Hip Hamilton Coming to the New York Stage

Early next year Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical about Alexander Hamilton is scheduled to open Off Broadway in New York. Miranda, who won Tony and Grammy Awards for In the Heights, performed some of this material as “The Hamilton Mixtape” at an evening of poetry at the White House in 2009 and at Lincoln Center. That song cycle was in turn inspired by Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton.

This month the Hamilton producers announced some casting choices, in addition to Miranda himself in the title role:

• Leslie Odom, Jr. (NBC’s Smash) as Aaron Burr
• Phillipa Soo (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812) as Eliza (Schuyler) Hamilton
• Renee Elise Goldsberry (Good People) as Eliza’s sister Angelica Schuyler
• Christopher Jackson (Holler if Ya Hear Me) as George Washington
• Brian d’Arcy James (Shrek the Musical) as George III
• Daveed Diggs, musician, as both Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette

The New York Times reports that the show “blends an array of musical styles – including traditional showtune-like numbers and elements of hip-hop and rap, which dominated In the Heights. The musical explores Hamilton’s life as a teenage orphan in the British West Indies, a young leader in the Revolutionary War, a confidant to Washington, a key force behind the American constitution, and the first Secretary of the Treasury, with moments of scandal along the way.”