admin Disney is bringing the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York for a performance of Hamilton with the original Broadway cast.
The show’s producers have announced that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical juggernaut will be released in cinemas worldwide by Disney. Directed by Thomas Kail, it will hit the United States and Canada on October 15, 2021.
Since it opened on Broadway in 2015, a filmed version of 11-time Tony Award-winning production has been in the works with Miranda promising fans that the show would be captured before the original Broadway cast – which includes Miranda, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, Leslie Odom Jnr, Phillipa Soo, Jonathan Groff, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Anthony Ramos, Ariana DeBose, and Okieriete Onaodowan – moved on to new projects.
The PBS documentary Hamilton’s America included a few of the musical numbers, which went behind the scenes of the creation of the production. Since tickets to the runaway hit set records for average prices fans have demanded for the release of the full version. Bots and scalpers targeted the show; some seats at the final performances with the original Broadway cast came to cost nearly US$10,000.
Releasing the footage as a film is a massive move forward in affordability and accessibility to theatre – a topic that has long been important to Miranda.
“We are thrilled for fans of the show, and new audiences across the world, to experience what it was like on stage – and in the audience – when we shot this at The Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in June of 2016,” Kail says. “We wanted to give everyone the same seat, which is what this film can provide.” Hamilton has since launched open-ended productions in Chicago and London, as well as numerous national tours.
Disney paid a reported US$75 million for the movie, making it possibly the most expensive film acquisition ever. While the release of a filmed stage production for the big screen is not uncommon – National Theatre Live is currently offering a stellar line-up on various screens, including Andrew Scott in Present Laughter, Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag, and Gillian Anderson and Lily James in All About Eve – it is rare from one of the major Hollywood studios, which regularly dabble in the movie-musical space.
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