Hamilton opened on Broadway on August 6 2015 at the historic Richard Rodgers Theatre in Times Square 6
According to Lin-Manuel Miranda the writer of the musical and original lead actor Alexander Hamilton’s life story embodies hip-hop It is only natural then that Miranda used the words attitude culture practitioners and dance of hip-hop to tell the story of the first US treasury secretary Second only to the rapid-fire record number of words for any musical dance is the engine that drives this high-energy show to its many climaxes tearful lows and fateful conclusion Performances of Hamilton had been sold out since its off-Broadway opening at the Public Theater in January 2015 Still in 2017 the show was sold out months in HIP-HOP AND HAMILTON Alexander Hamilton grew up in a low-income single-parent household in the Caribbean When he was 10 or 12 he and his mother contracted the same severe illness and his mother died Orphaned he got a job as a clerk for a trading company As a teenager he wrote an account of a hurricane that won attention and donations from residents of the West Indies to send him to school in North America He landed in New York From there he eventually became General George Washington’s right-hand man during the American Revolution 1775 1783 Afterward he helped ratify the US Constitution and found the US Treasury all largely on the strength of his own writing and brainpower As Miranda puts it any story of a person who comes from nearly nothing and reaches great success through his or her use of language is a hip-hop story 7
Miranda accepted the 2016 Tony Award for best musical and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama for his hip-hop musical Hamilton 8
BUSTA IN DA HOUSE advance even as tickets sold for hundreds of dollars each For a production intended to make America’s story accessible to everyone it sure was hard to get inside the theater The production worked with the Rockefeller Foundation which donated more than 7 million so thousands of students from New York City and other cities across the country could see the show 1 As part of that privilege students spent time on lessons about history theater and hip-hop They created their own scenes songs and raps about parts of early American history that spoke to them Lin-Manuel Miranda says the scariest performance of Hamilton for him was in the first few weeks when star rapper Busta Rhymes was in the front row Miranda a lifelong fan of hip-hop really wanted the hip-hop community to embrace Hamilton because it’s such a love letter to them 2 Since then President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama Vice President Joe Biden Beyoncé and Jay Z and a host of other celebrities have seen the show But according to Miranda it was all easy after Busta Hip-Hop Is Art Some people have been critical of bringing hip-hop into the classroom as an educational tool Some critics claim it doesn’t seem old enough to be a real art form The attitude ways of speaking and posture of hip-hop have 9
