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‘Hamilton’ on Disney+ makes Broadway experience affordable
“Hamilton,” the phenomenally popular Broadway musical with ethnically diverse rapping Founding Fathers, comes to home viewing Friday on Disney+.
That’s surprising in many ways, not the least that Disney had planned to release it theatrically before it became a July 4th streaming event.
This “Hamilton,” it must be noted, is not the big-screen film version that is still being planned for the distant future. This is the Broadway stage version, filmed over three days in 2016 with the original cast.
What happened, explained LinManuel Miranda, the show’s composer, lyricist, playwright and star, “is the world turned upside down, the world changed and it took us a while to realize ‘Hamilton’ wasn’t going to be playing live in any theaters for a long time. That took us a few minutes to adjust.
“Over the course of that happening, we heard, ‘You’ve got a “Hamilton” movie. We’re all home!
Please give it to us.’
“We realized this was an incredible opportunity. We always said we wanted to democratize the world seeing this show.”
“This captured what it felt like to be in a theater in June 2016,” said “Hamilton” director Thomas Kail.
Added Daveed Diggs, who plays Thomas Jefferson and is currently starring in TNT’s “Snowpiercer,” “One of the things we were always running up against on Broadway — and this group you’re seeing only did it on Broadway — was how prohibitive it was (financially) for people to see.
“Still Broadway is Broadway and this democratizes the process a little bit. There’s something nice about this, it makes me feel good this show is going to be seen by so many people.”
“We’ve been running for five years and more people will see ‘Hamilton’ between July 3 and 5 than have ever seen ‘Hamilton’ before,” Miranda, 40, noted, adding, “This is better than the best seat in the house.
“Tommy goes over our head, breaks the proscenium in places. It’s really thrilling. I can’t say enough about Tommy’s work in putting this together.
“And,” he promised, “this is going to sound incredible in your home.”
For Kail, it was important “to create a document of what it felt like to be in that room.”
“This is not trying to be the show,” he emphasized. “This is its own experience and embraces the love we have for the theater and makes a cinematic experience with a musical that can support that.”