Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs at the White House Poetry Jam: (8 of 8)

Here he is in 2009, performing Shakespeare at the (Obama) "White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word": link (Othello's speech defending himself: [1]) (Incidentally, it was on the same occasion that Lin-Manuel Miranda first announced he was working on a hip-hop album about treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, to some laughter, before performing a sample: ▶ this video — the musical came out six years later.) [1]: link .

The main sign it was going to be a success was a performance Lin-Manuel Miranda did at the White House. Listen for where the laughs are; they're not there when you see it on Broadway (and I assume The Public Theater). ▶ this video That's important because the premise is high school cringy. Let's take a historical story and set it to rap! If it wasn't so well-executed, it would have come off as painfully gimmicky.

It's inspiring to observe how long the path can be between initial forays (or even middle-career forays) and publicly-recognized success. This seems a relatively universal truism with only rare exceptions (too rare to bet one's future on, certainly). I'm reminded of the video of Lin Manuel-Miranda performing at the White House Poetry Jam in 2009 [ ▶ this video ]. The work he presented was already pretty well-polished, and the musical that included it wouldn't open for another six years.

"Hamilton" by Lin Manuel Miranda. This is the story of how the play came to be after his first white house performance. Here is a short post I wrote a few days back: Hamilton is an absolutely fantastic musical. An amazing history : probably the most interesting story of a founding-father. It has got everything : rags-to-riches, heroism, fighting, betrayal, sex scandal, .. you name it. The musical is based off of Ron Chernow's door-stop sized biography. Lin Manuel Miranda adapted it to a Broadway play. And if you are like most, you will end up becoming a huge fan of Miranda. The musical won a Pulitzer as well as a lot of Tony's including the best musical. What a beautiful way to tell the story of a founding father with Rap, Hip-Hop, R&B and a bunch of other genres. Mind blown! If you can get a ticket to the musical, consider yourself lucky and go watch it. I haven't. So ended up doing all the other reading / listening before the musical finale. :) I got so interested in this that I have now listened to the musical (many times), read all the coverage of it in NY Times (published as a book) and also the book that Miranda himself wrote about the genesis of the show and watched a dozen videos of Lin on youtube. Here's Lin's first presentation of this idea in a poetry recital at the White House: ▶ this video The entire musical is available on many streaming services and on youtube too. The book by Lin Manuel Miranda : Hamilton : link This is the book that covers all articles on NY Tim

It's popular because it uses all types of musical styles including rap, R&B, and brit pop to tell Hamilton's story. The cast is also racially diverse, the only character that has a cast member with the same race as he is King George, a minor character. IMHO, it has resonated with people because it takes a stuffy topic and makes it more relatable to younger generations allowing them to see a bit of themselves in the founding of this country. It also goes against a prevailing thought that it's ok to "white-wash"(recast minority roles with white actors) but not the inverse. Also, the internet, this was the viral video that started it all: ▶ this video Unable to score tickets to see the show, fans have coalesced around the really awesome soundtrack.