smile more;

leepacey:

listening to hamilton like

“

In the musical of my life after I’m long gone, my wife Vanessa is going to be the one who steps forward as the hero. Vanessa is not particularly fond of musicals—she only likes good ones. She is not effusive in her praise, or boastful. But when I looked up from that Chernow book and said “I think this is a hip-hop musical,” she didn’t laugh, or roll her eyes. She just said, “That sounds cool.” And that was all I needed to get started. As I fell in love with the idea of a love triangle between Eliza, Alexander, and Angelica, she said, “Can you have Angelica rap? That would be cool.” 

I am someone who is so averse to travel that I wrote a whole musical about not wanting to leave my block in Washington Heights.
It was Vanessa who booked us trips and time away from New York. “You don’t get any writing done here because life keeps popping up.” Thanks to her, Hamilton was written in Mexico, Spain, Nevis, Sagaponack, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic—long trips where Vanessa would take me there and then leave me alone to write while she explored. She is my first audience, and she’s a tough audience, so I know if I impress her I’ve cleared the highest possible bar. She’ll come home from work and say, “Your king tune was stuck in my head all day—that’s probably a good sign.” This started out as a note trying to explain how my wife really is the ‘best of wives and best of women,’ but I’m trying to get at something more important—this show simply doesn’t exist without Vanessa. It’s a love letter to her.

”

Lin-Manuel Miranda on the role of his wife, Vanessa Nadal, in the creation of Hamilton. From the annotated libretto in Hamilton: The Revolution

entertainmentweekly:

Can’t get your hands on a copy of the Hamiltome?

Lin-Manuel Miranda reading it is the next best thing. 

linmirandamn:

5/12/09 - 3/15/16

“Seven years ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda came to the White House Poetry Jam. He took the mic and announced that he and his musical collaborator, Alex Lacamoire, were going to perform a song from a hip-hop album they were working on, and I’m quoting him, ’about the life of somebody who embodies hip-hop, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’. And so, we all started laughing, but Lin-Manuel was serious. And who’s laughing now?” - Barack Obama

natchios:

[On his first time feeling represented in pop culture] It’s so scarce, as a kid, that like the examples are insane. Like I’m thinking of the chihuahua in Oliver & Company, voiced by Cheech Marin. I was like, “Oh, that guy sounds like my uncle. That chihuahua, that’s us!” That’s how bad the ‘80s were when it comes to Latinos. I’m trying to think what else, but literally the first thing that came to mind was a fucking cartoon chihuahua.

thatsthat24:

flawlyssa:

That Would Be Enough, I’ll tell you another very personal story. I wrote that song, probably the fastest song I wrote for the show. I wrote it in 45 minutes. It just… Eliza needed to say it. I had another song I was trying to write and then I was like, “Oh Eliza needs to say this now.”

It makes me infinitely happy that Emma Watson and I just had the same reaction at the end there.