Essay about Lin-Manuel Miranda: Rise to Success and Musical 'Hamilton'

In recent years, one of the most discussed and highly venerated musicals on Broadway is undoubtedly the hip-hop sensation known as Hamilton. The show has made millions of dollars since it opened at the Richard Rodgers Theater on August 6th, 2015 (Vine). Hamilton was a smash hit far before it even stepped on the Broadway stage. Then President, Barack Obama, even went to see a preview of the show in June of 2015 before its official opening night (MacGregor). Written by a young and doe-eyed Lin-Manuel Miranda, reminiscent of an ambitious Alexander Hamilton himself, it achieved what many have called “overnight success”. Some would say it was an accomplishment in and of itself to create a musical about the life of a founding father set in the 17-the 1800s that somehow manages to entertain audiences young and old alike. Award winner, actor, playwright, lyricist, performer, whatever you want to call him, Lin-Manuel Miranda has marked the world of theater in more ways than one. He may even be “Broadway’s current biggest and brightest star” (The Sandy River Review Literary Magazine).

Miranda was born in New York City on January 16th, 1980. Both his mother, Luz Towns-Miranda, and his father, Luis A. Miranda Jr., were originally from Puerto Rico (biography.com). When his father was 17, he left his job as manager of a Sears on the island to study at NYU, despite speaking little English (Gioia). His father became a political consultant later on and his mother found a career in clinical psychology (biography.com). Being a man of politics, Miranda found his dad to be slightly less supportive of his artistic endeavors than his mother was in his youth. However one of his earliest moments of encouragement came when he had to decide whether to teach English at the high school he graduated from or to pursue his interest in writing. His father surprised him by responding in total understanding and telling his son to do what makes him happy (Gioia).

Despite being born in New York, he and his family stayed very close to their Puerto Rican roots. Miranda spent at least a month every summer during his adolescence with his grandparents at their home in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico. Sometimes his older sister would come along but even when she didn’t, he remembers it as being some of the best summers he ever had. Since the primary language in Puerto Rico is Spanish, he slowly started to learn by way of immersion every time he visited. The last summer he went was in college and he was finally able to drive around and see new parts of the island. During this time he wrote his first Spanish language song, “Siempre”, featured in his first musical, In The Heights (Jones).

Throughout his childhood, Miranda had grown up hearing his mom play cast albums of shows like Man of La Mancha and Camelot, never really having a lot of money to spend on actually attending live productions. The first show he ever saw was Les Miserables which he merits as being one of the biggest influences to get him into playwriting, largely because of the way it affected his parents (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert). It was that ability to affect an audience that sparked his imagination and passion for theater. It also helped that his family was always very musically oriented. His siblings took piano lessons and they were all culturally influenced by their parents (biography.com).

Having this theatrical influence at home, he started participating in school productions as early as 6th grade. When asked whether he knew about musical theater during his summers in Puerto Rico in an interview with Playbill Miranda stated, …we did a sixth-grade play every year, so when I was 12, we did 20-minute versions of six musicals, and they were Oklahoma!, Bye Bye Birdie, a mash-up of The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz, Peter Pan, Fiddler on the Roof and West Side Story. So literally, by age 12, I'd played Conrad Birdie, a cowhand, a son in Fiddler, an Addapearle backup in The Wiz, Captain Hook, and Bernardo, which is a pretty lethal dosage at such a young age. (Jones)

Being a performer while only in middle school really set him on the track to becoming the award-winning man he is now. Although he is best known for Hamilton, it was in his college years that he began writing his first hit musical, In The Heights.

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After completing his high school education at Hunter College high school, he attended Wesleyan University (biography.com). There he wrote the first draft of what would become his first theater success during his sophomore year in 1999. Miranda promptly applied to put on a student-run production and was given dates to work with. All he did in the following weeks was write, he was non-stop. He incorporated all the things he’d like to see in a show. That meant salsa numbers, freestyle rapping, diversity, bodegas, and of course it was all set in the city he calls home, New York. When In The Heights was finally put on, it broke box office records at the ’92 Theater. Miranda was approached with an offer to work on his show with a production company; this comes back into play in 2002 when he graduates from Wesleyan (Miranda).

In the following years, he spent his time rewriting the show and perfecting it with a whole team behind him. He had people tweaking dialogue, book writers, arrangers orchestrating music, some doing script notes, and choreographers perfecting blocking, and it was all coming together in his vision (Miranda). In The Heights finally saw the stage in 2008, taking home four Tony Awards that year, including one for Best Musical (biography.com). More than two years after the initial success of the musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda was able to bring his greatest pride to his parent’s homeland of Puerto Rico. Even at the risk of not making much money while on the island, he knew that he wanted to keep prices as low as he could because the most important aspect of the whole tour was to entertain and be embraced by as many people as he could. Miranda and his father said, “We don’t know if we’ll make money, but we’re gonna make history” (Jones).

Following his In The Heights tour, Miranda took some smaller jobs more on the behind-the-scenes side of theater as a sort of well-deserved break; considering he was the lead in his own music. He appeared on screen in a few television shows and won an Emmy award in 2014 with Tom Kitt for a song they performed on the 67th Tony Awards. He also worked on translations for a revival of Westside Story in 2009 and provided music and lyrics for Bring It On: The Musical in 2012. During this time he was already working on what would soon become his second smash hit in a few short years.

In 2008, Miranda had picked up a copy of Ron Chernow’s 800-page biography of Alexander Hamilton while on vacation with his now wife, Vanessa. Before he read that book he knew no more about the founding father than any other average citizen. He knew the man was on the $10 bill and he died in a duel. He got to reading and was quickly fascinated by the story unfolding before him. It took years for him to get around to writing it into the musical it is today, however (CNBC). He first performed the show’s introductory song in 2009 at the White House an invitation from the President to attend the first-ever Evening of Poetry and Spoken Word (biography.com). The video of this performance goes viral and Miranda spends the next few years hard at work on this idea of his (MacGregor). In an interview with CNBC he clarifies, “This is no overnight success — took me a year to write the second song in the show ‘my shot.’ I’m in awe of people who can just write well and quickly”.

Nevertheless, he persisted. In August 2015 the show opened its doors at the Public Theater for the first official performance with Miranda starring as Alexander Hamilton himself. Not long after that it moved right up to Broadway and has since continued to draw in sold-out audiences all over the country (Vine). A little over 4 years later, the show has won a slew of awards, garnered millions of dollars in ticket sales, gone on tour, and continues to entertain individuals of all ages. Some notable acclaim includes the Pulitzer prize for drama won in 2016, the 11 Tony’s that the musical won (just one short of tying for the record), and the 16 Tonys it was nominated for; the most in Broadway history. Miranda himself won two Tonys for Hamilton, as well as a Grammy for both In The Heights and Hamilton. He also won an Emmy for the music and lyrics of the musical in 2013. (broadway.com) When he won an Oscar for his original song in the Disney movie Moana, he joined the small group of 14 other individuals who can call themselves “EGOT” winners, that is Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony; all four major American entertainment awards.

Since his success with Hamilton, Miranda has grown his family. He now has two sons, Sebastian and Francisco. He also played a leading role in the 2018 film Mary Poppins Returns (biography.com). Last year he released a book called Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep talks for Me & You which is a collection of poetry-like tweets of his. This book was illustrated by his good friend Jonny Sun and was created purely at the request of his followers as every morning and night he tweets a small inspirational or insightful message (Fierberg). Lin-Manuel Miranda is a force to be reckoned with and there’s never a moment he’s not planning something new, much like Alexander Hamilton. He’s constantly coming up with fresh ideas and these ideas flourish into something better than expected every time. All of this success has come within less than 40 years of his life. There’s no telling what his artistry and talent will bring to life next.

Works Cited

1. Alexandra Bryer, Tania, and Alexandra Gibbs. “Award-Winning 'Hamilton' Musical Was 'No Overnight Success', Says Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.” CNBC, CNBC, 28 Dec. 2017, www.cnbc.com/2017/12/28/hamilton-creator-lin-manuel-miranda-on-the-making-of-the-musical.html.
2. The Biography.com Editors. “Lin-Manuel Miranda.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 16 Apr. 2019, www.biography.com/writer/lin-manuel-miranda.
3. Fierberg, Ruthie. “Lin-Manuel Miranda Talks Bringing Tick, Tick...BOOM! to the Big Screen, His Upcoming Book, More.” Playbill, PLAYBILL INC., 24 July 2018, www.playbill.com/article/lin-manuel-miranda-talks-bringing-tick-tickboom-to-the-big-screen-his-upcoming-book-more.
4. Gail. “Alabanza Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Obligatory Lin-Manuel Miranda Praise Post.” The Sandy River Review, 11 Sept. 2018, sandyriverreview.com/2018/03/21/alabanza-lin-manuel-miranda-the-obligatory-lin-manuel-miranda-praise-post/.
5. Gioia, Michael. “Where It All Began-A Conversation With Lin-Manuel Miranda and His Father.” Playbill, PLAYBILL INC., 8 July 2016, www.playbill.com/article/where-it-all-begana-conversation-with-lin-manuel-miranda-and-his-father-com-353054.
6. Jones, Kenneth. “Lin-Manuel Miranda Takes In the Heights to Puerto Rico.” Playbill, PLAYBILL INC., 24 Nov. 2010, www.playbill.com/article/lin-manuel-miranda-takes-in-the-heights-to-puerto-rico-com-173914.
7. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, director. Lin-Manuel Miranda Talks 'Hamilton', New York and His Influences. YouTube, YouTube, 12 Dec. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7YTPuEMgaE.
8. MacGregor, Jeff. “Meet Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Genius Behind ‘Hamilton,' Broadway's Newest Hit.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 12 Nov. 2015, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lin-manuel-miranda-ingenuity-awards-180957234/?no-ist.
9. Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Lin-Manuel Miranda: Scaling the Heights.” Broadway.com, 9 Jan. 2007, www.broadway.com/buzz/6213/lin-manuel-miranda-scaling-the-heights/.
10. Vine, Hannah. “Take a Look Back at Hamilton's Opening Night on Broadway.” Playbill, PLAYBILL INC., 6 Aug. 2018, www.playbill.com/article/take-a-look-back-at-hamiltons-history-making-opening-night-on-broadway.