By Melissa Griegel…
Fans of multi-hyphenate Lin-Manuel Miranda packed the entire sixth floor of the Marriott Marquis on February 8th, waiting over an hour to enter the BroadwayCon main stage panel featuring the award-winning creator of Hamilton. Cheers usually reserved for rock stars erupted as Lin-Manuel was seen heading to the stage. Lin-Manuel sat for an hour with 11X Emmy-Award-Winning host Frank DiLella (On Stage Spectrum NY1 News) discussing his start in musical theater and his future plans. They were joined by Aneesa Folds (Freestyle Love Supreme) and Joshua Henry (Hamilton, Into the Woods) who regaled the packed room with songs by Lin-Manuel.
Lin-Manuel took us back to his childhood to discuss how he formed a love for theater. “It started with cast albums,” he shared. “My parents had an amazing vinyl collection of cast albums. My mom would ‘boom’ Camelot at top volume in the Subaru!” His first show was Les Misérables at the tender young ago of seven. “Seven is a debatable age to see Les Misérables.” he said to laughs. “I wanted to be Gavroche.” He began his acting career in earnest in sixth grade, performing in shortened version of six musicals. He continued to act and direct in high school. Seeing RENT on Broadway for his 17th birthday was a turnkey moment for me. “That was the thing that made me go from just loving musicals to writing musicals. All of the musicals I’ve listed take place in some other time or in some other land and I didn’t see an access point for me to be able to write one. And then you have Jonathan Larson who writes about right now, about our city, about gentrification, about living with HIV/AIDS and being scared of dying, about being scared of selling out as an artist—all of the things I was thinking about. That was the show that gave me permission to start writing.”
His first two attempts at writing a musical were RENT-inspired musicals that he wrote in High School. After moving into a Latino program house at Wesleyan, he began thinking more about his Latin roots and what it was like for him to experience code-switching between American culture and his Puerto Rican roots. He wrote a first version of In the Heights, which he says bares so little resembles to the Broadway version that they only share five notes: “In Washington Heights”. He credits the real start of the musical coming together when Quiara Alegría Hudes came on board to write the libretto. “Quiara really cared about making the community a character,” he explained. Aneesa Folds and Joshua Henry joined Frank and Lin-Manuel on stage to sing “When the Sun Goes Down” from In the Heights. They remained on stage for the rest of the interview to interweave musical numbers from Lin-Manuel’s works in between the conversation.
Lin-Manuel stepped in to sing harmony on “Cross the Line” from Bring it On, which he told us is one of his favorite songs he has ever written. He let us in on a a little known fact; his wife is on the demo as the robotic voice that says “deduction” every time a cheerleader steps over the line. Of course, the conversation led to that fateful moment when Lin-Manuel picked up a copy of the biography of Hamilton to read on vacation. “I am not actually a big history-buff,” he said, “but I am a big biography-buff. I love spending a whole book in someone else’s life.” Hamilton was originally slated to be a concept album, but eventually morphed into the Tony-Award-Winning musical that is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
The main driving forces and inspiration behind Lin-Manuel’s work is developing a show based on a community such as Fiddler on the Roof, or a strong central character such as those in Sweeney Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Gypsy. This year will be filled with a variety of small celebrations honoring the tenth anniversary of Hamilton. “I’m excited to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Hamilton with you guys,” Lin-Manuel told the audience. “We’re going to do lots of little shit all year. I didn’t want to do just one thing. I wanted to celebrate all year with you guys.”
The interview also touched on Lin-Manuel’s other works and acting roles such as several Disney soundtracks, Freestyle Love Supreme, All In, and the recently-released concept album Warriors based on the 1979 movie The Warriors. Lin-Manuel is hoping to eventually bring Warriors to the stage. Lin-Manuel perked up when Frank asked him about his love of Disney. “I think everyone in this room knows that Little Mermaid is the reason I am here talking to you,” he told Frank. “because I saw the Caribbean calypso number when I was nine-years-old, under water, and my brain exploded and the pieces still haven’t come back together.” The audience laughed and sang and cheered along with Lin-Manuel, Aneesa, Joshua, and Frank for the hour-long exploration into the workings of this creative genius’ brain. It was the most highly-attended session I have seen in 10 years of BroadwayCon, and definitely did not disappoint.
Photos and videos by Melissa Griegel Photography
