Hamilfacts Round 1

By now, most of the country has at least heard of Hamilton: An American Musical. Full disclosure, after listening to the soundtrack in 2016 I started geek-ing out over it and it hasn't stopped. I've done a deeper dive into the founding fathers & revolutionary war than my younger self could have ever imagine (history is boring was a preconceived belief for my younger self). The next few weeks I'm going to be posting from a series I wrote several years ago (originally in email form) that gives historical context of both the historical figures and the musical. For week 1, we get to visit the White House. The first public performance of the “Hamilton Mixtapes.” That’s right, Lin Manuel Miranda originally did not intend to make the musical Hamilton, he was simply inspired by Ron Chernow’s biography. Miranda was on a mixtape of some songs inspired by the book and got invited to join an evening of performance artists at the White House by the Obama’s. It’s brilliant. Watch the faces in the audience as he explains the concept and how they react as the song goes on.