You must’ve seen or heard this name at least once and if not we will give you many reasons why this amazing, original and genius human being is important to acknowledge.
Lin Manuel Miranda was born on January 16, 1980 in New York City, raised in a musically oriented family in Manhattan with his sister and Puerto Rican parents. After studying in Hunters College Elementary School and High School Lin Manuel majored in theater studies at Wesleyan University.
Here is where the fun begins!
In the Heights
During his sophomore year, he wrote the first draft of the well-known In the Heights which is also recipient of many awards. This was his first Broadway musical and it tells the story of a unique Latino community in New York’s Washington Heights’ neighborhood.
Before making it big, In the Heights was played by the student theater company of the University and after seeing the play, two Wesleyan seniors, John Buffalo Mailer and Thomas Kail approached Miranda and asked if the play could be expanded to be on Broadway. The Broadway production ran from March 9, 2008, to January 9, 2011. This musical received many awards some of them are four 2008 Tony Awards (including Best Orchestrations, Best Choreography and Best Musical), with Miranda receiving a Tony Award for Best Score, as well as a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. Additionally, Miranda received an Obie Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the show. In the Heights also took home a 2009 Grammy Award for its Original Broadway Cast Album and was recognized as a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. and that it’s not all.
In the Heights made it to London in 2016, same year in which Miranda received the Oliver Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music.
Right about now you may be thinking “Ok, that’s cool. He’s a cool dude”. Lucky for us we haven’t told you even the half of what this Puerto Rican descendent has done!
Lin Manuel is a composer, lyricist and actor. Those description aren’t adjectives that simply look pretty, he has earned every one of those and I think it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to add genius, yes genius. Manuel has not only written 2 astonishing and successful Broadways (we will tell a little bit more of his second Musical shortly, always leave the best for last *winks*) here is a list of some of Lin collaborations and accomplishments:
- Mr. Miranda is the co-composer, and co-lyricist of Broadway’s Bring it On: The Musical (2013 Tony Nom., Best Musical, 2013 Drama Desk Nom., Best Lyrics in a Musical).
- He contributed new songs to the revival of Stephen Schwartz’ Working and worked with Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim on Spanish translations for the 2009 Broadway Revival of West Side Story.
- He received an Emmy Award with Tom Kitt for their song, “Bigger” from the 67th Annual Tony Awards telecast.
- He won a 2007 Theater World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance, and the 2007 Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Male Performance courtesy of Actor’s Equity Foundation for “In the Heights”.
- Lin-Manuel appeared as Charley Kringas in the 2012 City Center Encores! and can be heard on the 2012 Cast Recording released by PS Classics. He also appeared in the 2014 City Center Encores! Off-Center production of tick, tick… BOOM! in the role of Jonathan.
- In May of 2009, Mr. Miranda received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Yeshiva University, the youngest recipient of such an honor in the University’s 123-year history
- Lin is a co-founder and member of Freestyle Love Supreme, a popular hip-hop improv group that performs regularly in New York City. The group has toured the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as the Aspen, Melbourne and Montreal Comedy Festivals. The group’s eponymous television series premiered on Pivot TV in 2014.
- He has lent his voice to the audiobook recordings of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saen.
- His TV/Film credits include The Electric Company, Sesame Street, The Sopranos, House, Modern Family, Do No Harm, Smash, How I Met Your Mother, The Sex and the City Movie, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, 200 Cartas and most recently the new Disney movie Moana.
- On October 8th 2016 he hosted Saturday Night Live! Click here to see his intro in the show!
The list is almost endless, there are many other accomplishments that are not in this previous list but you get the idea of what we are trying to communicate here, right?
He has also spoken openly about his support for Puerto Rico during these trying times and evoked the United States Congress to make a decision to help our island. He even rapped his plea at the Tonight Show asking for action from Congress.
Hamilton
As promised we have left the best part for last. HAMILTON AN AMERICAN MUSICAL!
With book, music and lyrics by Lin Manuel Miranda, Hamilton the Musical tells the story of the foundation of the United States through the lens of youngest founding father Alexander Hamilton, relying on a black and Latino cast with hip-hop/R&B sounds. The Broadway musical has become a must-see event, not only for theater fans, but also for scores of famous figures, including President Barack Obama and musical icon Stephen Sondheim.
The show debuted in the Summer of 2015 and it’s still playing in New York, recently this year Hamilton started in Chicago too and later in 2017 will be premiering on London. It is almost impossible to obtain tickets; they are currently sold out all the way through May 2017.
Due to the show’s wild popularity, tickets are expensive and hard to get, but for every show a limited number of $10 tickets are made available via a box office lottery. Miranda, however, has made the “Ham 4 Ham” lottery its own experience by performing for lottery hopefuls alongside other cast members and surprise guests from shows like Fun Home and Les Mis.
Hamilton was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and received a record-breaking 16 Tony nominations – winning 11 Tony’s including Best Musical and Best Book and Best Score for Mr. Miranda. The Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hamilton won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. And those are just some of the awards won by the show.
Now you can run along and tell all your friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends and pets about this amazing artist and spread the world about this young son of immigrants that has changed the musical, theater and Broadway world and has climbed latter’s that many dream of climbing.
You can listen and read the lyrics of both musicals by clicking here for “In the Heights” and here for “Hamilton an American Musical”
References:
http://www.biography.com/people/lin-manuel-miranda-041416