PROVOKR PICK: HAMILTON
The Groundbreaking Musical Streaming on Disney+
Hamilton is the Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda that took the world by storm. The musical, inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The musical is notable for its mix of traditional
show tunes music with hip-hop and R&B. It also made waves by casting non-White actors to play the historicall White founding fathers and other characters. From its initial run at the Public Theater Off-Broadway in 2015, to its Broadway run at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, performances of this play were consistently sold out.
In 2016 a performance of the musical with the original principal cast was filmed at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The recording was offered for bidding to the major movie studios. Disney swooped in and purchased the distribution rights to the filmed version for $75 million. Disney originally scheduled the film to have an October 15, 2021 theatrical release. However, due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the arts and entertainment industries, Disney announced that the movie would be released early on their streaming platform Disney+.
Hamilton stars Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds and Jonathan Groff as King George III.
Watch Hamilton exclusively on Disney+ starting July 3, 2020.
