While there is nothing quite like the experience of seeing a live hit Broadway play with its original cast, there is an obvious hiccup with it as a form of popular entertainment: not everybody in the world can experience it. Not only can it be expensive to travel to New York, but tickets can be costly and hard to get. Because of this system, individuals who really love musical theater regularly have to simply settle for listening to soundtracks over and over. Soon, however, Disney will be doing its best to bring the exclusive experience right into your living room with a special recorded version of Hamilton – the trailer for which you can watch by clicking play on the video below:
It was back in February that we first learned that a filmed version of the Hamilton stage musical was in the works and set to be released on Disney+, but at the time the plan was to have the presentation come out in late 2021. World events ended up hastening the schedule and now we are less than two weeks away from seeing the whole thing. To get us ready, the streaming service debuted the above trailer on ESPN and ESPN2 during the ESPY 2020 awards, giving us an idea of what to expect aesthetically from the thing.
What is being released is a recording of a June 2016 performance of Hamilton at The Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway featuring the entire entire original cast – most notably including Lin-Manuel Miranda (who stars in the titular role in addition to being credited for the book, music, and lyrics. The collection of actors is full of familiar faces thanks to all of the success that the stars have had in the years since the hit musical debuted, including Daveed Diggs (as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson), Leslie Odom, Jr. (as Aaron Burr), Jonathan Groff (as King George), Jasmine Cephas Jones (as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds), and Anthony Ramos as (John Laurens/Philip Hamilton).
Inspired by the book “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow, the production takes the story of one of America's most important Founding Fathers and matches it with a score that mixes hip-hop, jazz, R&B and classic Broadway styles. The show not only won 11 Tony Awards, but also a Grammy and a Pulitzer Prize. There was chatter for years about the possibility of Lin-Manuel Miranda working on a version of Hamilton made specifically for the big screen (like the upcoming adaptation of his musical In The Heights), but it seems that this recording may end up being the closest we get to that.
The hype for Hamilton is definitely flowing, and as mentioned above it is almost here. After originally being scheduled for October 2021, the show will now be available to stream (and terrifying Daveed Diggs in the process) on Disney+ starting July 3 – just in time for the Independence Day holiday. Will you be watching? Hit the comments section with your thoughts, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for updates about the project as we get closer to its release date.
