Understanding Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” and its casting

“‘Hamilton’ Denver: Offended by casting, unimpressed by costumes,” March 3 letters to the editor.

Letter-writer Walt Bonora stated: “All I can say is musical standards in this country have gone into the toilet. I found ‘Hamilton’ to be one of the most offensive shows I have seen. A black George Washington, a black James Madison, a black Aaron Burr, and a rapping and strutting Thomas Jefferson?”

He seems to have overlooked the fact that “Hamilton” is an art form based on history, not a history lesson. Some liberties were taken, but only some. Read your history and you’ll find that there was more right than wrong in the musical.

As for the color of the cast: When millions of your ancestors have been brought to this country in the holds of slave ships, suffered the deprivations of more than 300 years of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and continued second-hand citizenship, then you can compare “Hamilton” to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or Frederick Douglass being portrayed as white.

Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda was making a point. I think Bonora missed it. Daniel Grace, Arvada

More than 20 years ago when I cast an African-American actress in the title role of “Annie” at Manual High School, a student complained to a teacher that Annie was supposed to be white. My colleague pointed out that the cartoon Annie didn’t have pupils in her eyes. Audiences loved Annie, pupils and all.

Lin-Manuel Miranda didn’t write a musical about George Washington, white slave owner. His work is about the tumult of ideas that formed our nation. One suspects the Founding Fathers did not rap to each other, either. (Presumably a piece about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life would necessarily be about being black in America).

Happily, “Hamilton” tells the stories of legions of Americans of all sorts. I can only hope the notions expressed on casting musical theater are, well, history. CV Martyn, Denver

Lin-Manuel Miranda has taken the facts about the founding of this nation and made them accessible. The takeaway should not be the color of the actors but that immigrants are the cornerstone of this country. That stands in sharp contrast to the rhetoric of our president, who sounds more like King George than Alexander Hamilton or George Washington. Henry Goldstein, Englewood