Lin-Manuel Miranda responds to critics calling to cancel ‘Hamilton’ By Zachary Kussin
https://nypost.com/2020/07/07/lin-manuel-miranda-responds-to-hamilton-criticism/
In the wake of recent Black Lives Matter protests, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s multi-Tony-winning “Hamilton” has fallen under scrutiny over its glorification of slave owners.
Miranda, 40, took to Twitter on Monday to respond to those critics.
This wave of criticism stems from the buzzy July 3 release of the show’s movie version on the streaming service Disney+, more than a year ahead of schedule, bringing with it a much wider audience.
On Sunday, Tracy Clayton — host of the Netflix podcast “Strong Black Legends” — tweeted that “ ’Hamilton’ the play and the movie were given to us in two different worlds & our willingness to interrogate things in this way feels like a clear sign of change.” In her thread, which earned 32,000 likes, she goes on to say that “ ’Hamilton’ is a flawed play about flawed people written by an imperfect person that gave my flawed and imperfect little life a big boost when i needed it most … but i do appreciate the change this illustrates & will be following the convo’s evolution.”
“Appreciate you so much,” Miranda tweeted on Monday morning in response to her tweet. “All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game.”
The show, which quickly gained theatrical fame after debuting in 2015, focuses on Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers who became known for promoting the abolition of the international slave trade in New York City. But, as the Daily Mail notes, Hamilton married into a New York slave-holding family and managed the sale of slaves. Separately, Hamilton — who never appeared to own slaves — did accounting for a trading company in his native Caribbean that participated in the slave trade.
The show, which famously cast primarily actors of color to play white historical figures, has long been discussed as problematic. One point of criticism: his relationships with other founding fathers, like George Washington — shown as his father figure in the play — who was a slave owner.
These points drove social media users to push to cancel the show following the streaming release over the weekend. On Saturday, actor and director Michael Rapaport tweeted, “Is it time to discuss canceling #hamiltonmusical? Celebrating a singing George Washington?”
But not all were on board.
Replied one user: “Sorry mike . . . normally I’m with you but nah don’t hate on Hamilton. One of the best from [Miranda].”
Comments are closed.
