Monday, February 29, 2016

Hamilton in Schools




For this week's blog post, I wanted to talk about the interesting effect that Hamilton has had on education throughout the country. When Lin-Manuel Miranda set out to write Hamilton, he must have known it would have some presence in an academic setting, but I doubt he knew it would be this profound. What makes Hamilton good for teaching is that it tells a (mostly) accurate story of something that really did happen. What makes it great however, is that it is history told through modern means.





Putting history to song is one thing, but making that song hip-hop is totally different. Many younger people today enjoy the hip-hop genre, as can be seen in its' past few decades of success. Suddenly, it becomes cool to learn about how our nation's financial system was created! There are countless stories of students living Hamilton, and teachers who love the fact that it teaches a part of American history that was previously not as popular. Could this be a trend for education in the future? I sure hope so!

http://www.newsweek.com/hamilton-biggest-thing-broadway-being-taught-classrooms-all-over-424212

Monday, February 22, 2016

Who is Lin-Manuel Miranda?


This post is dedicated to Hamilton's creator and star, Lin Manuel Miranda. Born in New York City, Miranda began showing a passion for music and theater at a very young age. Recently on Twitter, he shared his first rap ever written, which he wrote at only three years of age! There are also several interviews in which Miranda shares his first experience with a Broadway show, Les Miserables (I have linked one such interview, check it out). The ironic, and amazing thing is that Les Miserables is currently playing right next door to Hamilton in New York!

Miranda attended high school at Hunter College High School where he would eventually end up teaching English for a few years. He then went on to enroll at Wesleyan University. While in college, Miranda began writing early drafts of his first Broadway musical In the Heights. After several trial runs for the show, In the Heights opened on Broadway in 2008 where it ran for 1,185 performances. With his first Broadway hit, Miranda took home four Tony awards including best musical and the Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. With the completion of In the Heights, Miranda began working on his next project Hamilton (If you want to read more about this project be sure to check out my second post!) Current projects Miranda has been working on include, a special composition for the new Star Wars film along with composing music for the new Disney film Moana. Lin Manuel Miranda certainly has an exciting life ahead of him!

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Grammys!

This last Friday was a momentous day for Lin Manuel Miranda and the entire cast/crew of Hamilton. First off, they had the incredible opportunity to perform the opening number in front of the entire nation. To say this performance was successful would be an understatement. Filmed live via satellite from the Richard Rodger's Theater on Broadway, a massive audience tuned in to see this fantastic performance. The performance provoked a lot of interest on Google with a massive spike in people googling about the show to learn more. The most common phrase googled was simply "Who is Alexander Hamilton?"
Besides this surge of even more popularity for the show, Miranda and crew took home an award that night. They won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, a award few were surprised to see won. There is no doubt that Hamilton cast and crew had a fantastic night.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Ham4Ham


With the booming success of Hamilton, it becomes increasingly more difficult to score tickets each and every day. However, for a few shows each week, a number of lucky people get the opportunity to purchase extremely discounted, front-row tickets to a performance of Hamilton. This amazing promotion is known as Ham4Ham and it has been quickly gaining in popularity as word of the fantastic deal spreads. The premise of Ham4Ham is very simple; it is essentially a lottery in which names are entered into a drawing, and the names drawn have the opportunity to buy these discounted tickets for that day’s show. Now this isn’t an entirely new idea in the Broadway scene, but Hamilton takes it a step further by offering a free small performance for participants of the lottery. These performances, hosted by Lin Manuel himself, are the major cause for the success of Ham4Ham. Audience members are treated to small performances such as a Capella
tunes, lip syncing performances, surprise guest performances, and several other offerings. The success of Ham4Ham cannot be doubted, however, this also poses a problem. As word of this lottery spreads, the chances of actually obtaining a tickets drastically decrease. Recently, producers have started a digital Ham4Ham lottery, which has made it even easier to enter the lottery but has also increased the number of participants but an immense amount. Although presently it is very difficult to obtain one of these tickets, it should not stop anyone from entering the drawing every time they get. With persistence and a little luck, you may win the opportunity so many seek.