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Lin-Manuel Miranda, ‘Hamilton’ Cast Reflect On Memories And Future Plans For Award-Winning Musical

By Liz Kelley
Published on: 15:40 PST, May 15, 2016

In light of the hit musical Hamilton‘s success, creator/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda and his fellow cast members have shared some of their most memorable moments and experiences throughout the numerous productions.

Lin-Manuel has said, according to Stripes, that some of the strangest things anyone has asked him to do for them involved the topic of tattoos.

“I’ve had fans say, ‘Can you write down this music phrase? I want it tattooed in your handwriting,’ which is a lot. I have terrible handwriting. You do not want this thing you think you want.”

Miranda also noted that one of his most cherished memories was when he, his family, and various cast members all got together to watch the Tony nominations.

“We have a little kid, so we’re up early. A lot of my cast slept through it, but we were up early.”

Miranda put on pot of coffee and they all sat around and watched (or slept through) the nominations. It probably wasn’t much of a party, but it is impressed upon Miranda’s memory as an historic day.

“We brewed a big pot of coffee, and we just sort of kept ticking off the nomination,” he said, according to Stripes. “My dad was making a list, and I was just sort of screaming every time I heard a name. It was really crazy. It sort of piled up slowly.”

Ironically, one of the most controversial aspects of Hamilton is also one of Miranda’s favorite aspects of the show.

The rap in the musical can sometimes be a deterrent for viewers and listeners, but Lin-Manuel finds this to be one of Hamilton‘s strongest attributes.

“Broadway music used to just be pop music. Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin — it was just music. […] I remembered being really inspired when ‘Rent’ came out. I was a teenager and Jonathan Larson said pop music and theater music should be friends again. I have always agreed with that philosophy. I think great musical storytelling is great musical storytelling, regardless of genre and I think the fact that we’ve thrown so many genres in the pot, sort of allows for that to creep off of the arts page.”

Lin-Manuel also said that the popular musical Rent was a “major source of inspiration” in his writing career and particularly for Hamilton, according to The Inquisitr.

Arguably, the rap does not detract from the musical. In it’s own right, it fits in the musical setting. Rap is putting words into a poetic lyrics and metrical patterns, not unlike the habit of singing lines in musical theater. Yet, many have claimed that rap is not only just not music, but it also does not have a place in a Broadway musical–especially one that presents the lives and actions of the founding fathers.

However, this has not dampened the overall reception of Hamilton, but instead the musical lives and thrives, promising even more success in the future.

Playbill posted an article on Saturday recounting various cast members’ memories and experiences while performing Hamilton.

Leslie Odom, Jr., who plays Aaron Burr, claimed that he will never forget the first time he saw the show himself.

“I’ll never forget what it was like to see it. I saw the very first reading of it at Vassar as an audience member, so, I know how it affected me. And so, I can always… Whenever I’m tired or, you know, achy, the body has sort of given out, I can remember what that was like, and I can imagine there’s somebody that’s out there that, you know, I can sort of imagine myself in the back row of the theatre and kind of do it for that person that’s seeing it for the first time and experiencing it for the first time because there’s nothing like that. Nothing like that.”

[Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP Images]
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