Hamilton Movie On Disney Plus Gets You The best Seat In The House Lin-Manuel Miranda Says

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Lin-Manuel Miranda and Phillipa Soo in Hamilton.

Disney


Got plans for July 3? I'm dressing up, heels and all, heading to my couch and streaming [/news/hamilton-movie-streams-on-disney-plus-july-3-how-to-watch-the-hit-broadway-show/ Hamilton on Disney Plus]. The [/news/hamilton-on-disney-plus-a-heartwarming-hybrid-of-play-and-tv-movie/ hit Broadway musical] was filmed at New York's Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2016 over the course of three days. Lyricist and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, rapper Daveed Diggs and the rest of the original cast, including Okieriete Onaodowan, Phillipa Soo and Anthony Ramos, were still telling the story of US founding father Alexander Hamilton.
I'm curious to see how the [/news/why-hamilton-streaming-on-disney-plus-is-so-important/ small-screen "live capture" version] of Hamilton compares with the live performance I saw last January in San Francisco with a different cast and a much more substantial price tag than the [/tags/disney-plus/ Disney Plus] monthly subscription fee. 







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"One of the things that we were always running up against on Broadway is how prohibitive Broadway was for a lot of people," cast member Daveed Diggs, who played Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, said during a Zoom press conference with the Hamilton team on June 16. "Folks just couldn't afford the ticket. And even if you could, there are only so many seats."
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Producer and director Thomas Kail, who also directed the filmed version of Hamilton, said [/tags/disney/ Disney] originally planned to release the musical 15 months later than its current release date. But the team felt now, amid the many cultural limitations of the [ coronavirus pandemic], was the right time. "Not only are there no Hamiltons, but there's no live performance," the director said. "There are no concerts. There's no Broadway. There's no regional theater." 

Miranda, wearing a hat because of what he said was "very bad quarantine hair," insisted on the idea of democratizing the Hamilton experience. Even after a five-year run on Broadway and multiple productions of the show being performed simultaneously, the [ Grammy, Emmy, Pulitzer and Tony award winner] thinks more people will see Hamilton between July 3 and July 5 on Disney Plus than have already seen it altogether.
Filming Hamilton
You won't have to worry about being at the theater on time, parking won't be an issue, and you'll probably be more comfortable at home than seating in a theater seat with limited leg room. But how much of the live energy can this recorded performance actually capture?

"The task for me was to try to create a document of what it felt like to be in that room," Kail said. "This is not trying to be the show. This is its own experience and I think we tried to embrace the love we have for being in the theater."

For the final version of this movie, Kail explained, the team captured two live performances. The show never stopped during filming, with cameras positioned in the audience. Kail also had some time with the cast in the theater without viewers. The filmmaking crew could jump on stage for those shots and used steady cams, as well as cameras on cranes and dollies.