Lin-Manuel Miranda
This week’s delight is easily summed up in one word: Hamilton.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you may not have heard of this smash Broadway musical. It is, indeed, delightful.
I had wanted to see “Hamilton”, but like so many others, didn’t have access to the show, and/or just couldn’t fork over the hundreds of dollars it cost to see it. So, what made this a delight for me (and MILLIONS of others) this week, is that we were able to watch it on our television sets for $6.99, the cost of a monthly subscription to DisneyPlus.
“Hamilton” is delightful because of the obvious: the lyrics, the singing, the dancing, the acting, the sheer exuberance of the performances. Then perhaps the less obvious: the playwright got us interested, no, fascinated in history! I mean, whoever would have thought we’d be checking out 400-page biographies of Hamilton and his Founding Fathers cohort! Then, there is the brilliance of casting Black and Brown actors for nearly every part.
I have heard Lin-Manuel Miranda interviewed on Public Radio. Not only is he brilliant – he wrote the story, the lyrics, the music - but he actually seems like a very nice guy. And, more than anything, I believe that he is a very generous guy.
Of course, Mr. Miranda was generous in sharing his amazing gifts with us by creating “Hamilton”. But, even more, I think he showed his generosity by sharing it with us, with nearly all of us, for a price much lower than we would have paid to see it live. I mean he (and Disney) can afford to be generous, I suppose, but I truly believe that Lin-Manuel Miranda gave the go-ahead as a gift to all of us stranded at home. His act of making it accessible to each of us was a real demonstration of his belief of equality for all.
What a delight in this time of Covid.