"Hamilton" is Making the Move to Broadway

Nora Dominick ‘17 / Emertainment Monthly Assistant Stage Editor

Looks like the Founding Fathers are making their way uptown this summer in the critically acclaimed production of Hamilton by legendary composer and actor Lin Manuel Miranda. Although the hit new musical will miss the cutoff date for the 2015 Tony Awards—in order to be eligible, the show has to have had an official opening performance before April 23^rd—it’s sure to be a frontrunner for the 2016 Tony Awards.
Hamilton opened off-Broadway on January 20th and received killer ratings all around. The reviews have been nothing but spectacular as celebrities, press and Broadway’s finest flock to the Public Theater in Lower Manhattan. With a predetermined closing date for the Off-Broadway production announced for May 3^rd, Broadway fans were worried this incredible piece of theatre would be lost to the ages. But fear not because the Great White Way has swooped in to whisk Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Eliza Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and King George to a new home at the Richard Rodgers Theatre following the closing of Idina Menzel‘s Tony Award nominated musical, If/Then. The Richard Rodgers Theatre previously housed Miranda’s Tony Award Winning Musical, In the Heights in 2008.

Featuring a book, music, and lyrics by Miranda and directed by Thomas Kail, Hamilton is inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow with a hip-hop modern musical twist. This intelligent and amazing new musical follows the young immigrant, Alexander Hamilton, who forever changed America. From bastard orphan to Washington’s right-hand man, and from rebel war hero to loving husband caught in America’s first renowned sex scandal, Treasury Head Hamilton has it all. Alexander Hamilton made an already distrusting new world believe in him and in the American economy. Who’s to say the audience won’t believe in him too, as familiar historical characters make appearance in this inspiring, imaginative and incredible new musical?
Most of the original cast will follow the production when it moves to its new home on Broadway. Miranda will continue to star as Alexander Hamilton and will be joined by his cast members Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton, Daveed Diggs as Marquis De Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, and Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler. The only original main cast member not transferring will be Brian d’Arcy James in the role of King George. d’Arcy James is already scheduled to depart the production on March 1st in order to star in the Broadway musical Something Rotten! alongside Christian Borle.
Jonathan Groff, star of Broadway’s Spring Awakening and currently starring in the HBO series Looking, will take over the role of King George at the Public from March 3rd until it’s closing. No word yet on whether or not Groff will follow the production when it makes it’s move to Broadway.
Hamilton will end its initial Off-Broadway run on May 3rd at the Public. Then the production will make its official move to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on July 13, 2015 with opening night set for August 6th.