Trivia / Hamilton

• Acting for Two: Several roles are doubled between Acts One and Two: Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson, John Laurens / Philip Hamilton, Peggy Schuyler / Maria Reynolds, Hercules Mulligan / James Madison, Philip Schuyler / James Reynolds. When Lin-Manuel Miranda was asked on Twitter why Peggy Schuyler joined her sisters saying "Me, I loved him," in the opening number, he said the actress was meant to represent both Peggy and Maria in that moment, and that so too did the other doubled actors, congratulating listeners who caught the double meaning in such lines as "We fought with him", which could refer to Jefferson and Madison, who opposed Hamilton politically, or Lafayette and Mulligan, who fought alongside him in the war; as well as "Me, I died for him", which is sung by the actor playing Phillip Hamilton and John Laurens, both of whom were close to Hamilton and died. Named roles other than the principals are played by chorus members, who often return as soldiers, townspeople, courtiers, and/or slaves, often with ironies such as the slave identified as Sally Hemings returning as a woman who has sex with Philip.
• Actor-Inspired Element: In the Australian production, Māori actor Matu Ngaropo, playing George Washington, performs kapa haka (traditional Māori dance) actions at the ends of some of his songs, such as pūkana (dilated eyes and tongue out, intended to intimidate an opponent) at the end of "Right Hand Man" and wiri (quivering the hands, signifying shimmering heat) with a sword in hand.
• Approval of God:
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda has made it quite clear he loves it when people make fan content for the show, and often shares some of it on his social media pages.
  • Miranda also gave his seal of approval to Forbidden Broadway's Spamilton, which sends up Lin, the show, and the following it received. Lin even took a selfie with the actor who plays him!
  • He was also delighted with the "Weird Al" Yankovic parody "Hamilton Polka", especially since he's been a fan of Yankovic his whole life.
• Ascended Meme: The CIA, of all entities, made a HERCULES MULLIGAN joke on their official Twitter account on the Fourth of July. No, seriously.
• Billing Displacement: Of a sort. The curtain call has only Hamilton and Eliza's actors getting individual bows, with everyone else (including those two) bowing together. It makes sense for Hamilton since it's his story, but Eliza being the only other now is odd considering that Burr is the second largest role and he doesn't receive one. Eliza's bow could be chalked up to leading the final number which also places her right in front of the audience at the end, but it still gives off the wrong impression of the leading parts' sizes.
• Cast Incest: Jasmine Cephas-Jones (Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds) and Anthony Ramos (John Laurens/Philip Hamilton) dated from 2015 to 2021. Peggy is Philip's aunt.
• Colbert Bump:
  • This musical has sparked interest in not only Hamilton's life, but that of Aaron Burr, John Laurens, the Marquis de Lafayette, Hercules Mulligan, and the Schuyler sisters, especially among young people. In fact, the show's popularity has been credited with the U.S. Treasury forgoing their plan to replace Hamilton on the $10 bill.
  • Copies of the Chernow biography (the source for the show) now have "Inspiration for the hit musical Hamilton" stickers on them, and newer editions use the show's poster as the cover. It's also a common joke in the fandom that reading the biography is shorthand for "I can't afford tickets to Hamilton." Copies of the book have also been sold in the lobbies of theaters holding the show.
  • The show has also brought much-deserved attention to Graham-Windham, which is the current name of the orphanage Eliza Hamilton founded.
• Creator-Preferred Adaptation: Ron Chernow, who wrote the Hamilton biography that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda in the first place, was initially skeptical about making a musical from Hamilton's life, but changed his mind after his first meeting with Miranda, who stressed that he wanted Hamilton to be taken seriously by historians and asked Chernow to help him develop the script. Chernow said his skepticism melted away the moment he heard Miranda's first song, and he was completely on board afterwards. He's supposedly seen the show dozens of times, always as a paying customer.
• Cut Song:
  • "Dear Theodosia (Reprise)", in which Aaron Burr must tell his daughter that her mother, his wife, has passed away.
  • "Congratulations", a song for Angelica right before "Burn", calling Alexander out for the dumb choices he's made. One section ("I know my sister like I know my own mind...") was inserted into "The Reynolds Pamphlet" when it was removed.
  • There was also a rap in which Hamilton gave John Adams a "Reason You Suck" Speech. The line "Sit down John, you fat motherfuckstick" made it into "The Adams Administration". Listen to it here.
  • "One Last Ride", a song in which Washington puts down the Whiskey Rebellion before retiring from office. It was reworked into "One Last Time" which had Washington convincing Hamilton help him write his farewell address.
  • The Dark Reprise of "The Story of Tonight" was left off the cast album, mostly because the scene is almost entirely spoken instead of sung or rapped, but also to leave something for the stage show.
  • "Diplomacy Happens at Night" was to be a song for Benjamin Franklin, who ended up being cut entirely from the show. His role was cut early on in the show's development, but Miranda finished writing the song anyway, joking that they'll add it back in after his death. How does he write like he's running out of time? The song was retooled as "Ben Franklin's Song" and performed by The Decemberists, being the first of The Hamildrops to be released.
  • The song is still present, but "Schuyler Defeated" was much longer at first, with Eliza having a greater reaction to Burr usurping her father's Senate seat and rushing to the chamber (with Phillip in tow) to keep Alexander from losing his cool. This would have been Burr and Eliza's only direct interaction in the play, and Burr also alludes to his wife Theodosia's illness.
  • In 2020, Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed a cut song titled "I Have This Friend", where Hamilton asks Washington for advice after the accusations against the former start to pile on. It was originally going to be the lead-up to "The Reynolds Pamphlet" before being replaced with "Hurricane".
• Dawson Casting: In the original Broadway production, Anthony Ramos plays Hamilton's son Phillip at both 19 and 9 years of age.
• Descended Creator: Miranda, who wrote the musical, also starred as Hamilton himself during the original Broadway run.
• Development Hell: Miranda has noted that, for a while, he was managing to write only one song for the show each year. It took seven years to complete.
• Enforced Method Acting: Jonathan Groff has been quite open about how he's a "naturally wet" guy, prone to massive drooling when he has to play big emotional moments. This fits quite well with his playing King George, who was noted for the same thing during his mental breakdown.
• Fan Community Nicknames: "Hamilton Trash", which is usually shortened to "Hamiltrash", or rephrased to "the trash of the thing", as LMM once put it. They're also called "Hamilfans."
• Filmed Stage Production: An official recording of the show released on Disney+ in July of 2020, consisting of three 2016 performances featuring the original cast edited into one production.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: "The Reynolds Pamphlet" is the only song in the show that doesn't give directions to the cast and instead has them improvise the chaotic moves they do.
• Killer App: As a result of the film version of the show being a Disney+ exclusive, a flood of people were brought over to the service. The service's app got downloaded 266,084 times upon the film's release (an increase of 72% compared to the whole previous month!), and one month later, 37.1% of subscribers had watched the film.
• Meaningful Release Date: The July 3 Disney+ release date of the filmed performance falls on the last Friday before Independence Day in the US. It is also the day the Declaration was signed and right after the Lee Declaration on July 2. John Adams even wrote that the 3rd would be treated as the "true" Independence Day.
• Orphaned Reference: Hamilton's singing along to some of Burr's lines during "The World Was Wide Enough" is a leftover from the Off-Broadway version of the song, "Ten Things, One Thing", where Hamilton's verse used the same melody as Burr's, with those lines in particular overlapping across both verses.
• The Other Marty: The workshop reading had only a handful of the same cast members from the OBC. Among the notable differences: Utkarsh Ambudkar played Burr, Anika Noni Rose played Angelica, Joshua Henry (who would later play Burr in the first US tour) played Mulligan, Madison and King George, and Javier Muñoz played Laurens/Philip.
• Production Posse: Many of the original cast and crew worked on other projects with Miranda: mainly Chris Jackson (Miranda's Freestyle Love Supreme bandmate and the original Benny in Heights), Alex Lacamoire (who also was music director and conductor for Heights), Seth Stewart (an ensemble member and Lafayette/Jefferson understudy, the original "Graffiti Pete" in Heights), and Andy Blankenbuehler (choreographer for Heights).
• Reality Subtext:
  • Aaron Burr's feelings towards his daughter Theodosia become even more powerful when one realizes that Leslie Odom Jr. had a daughter on the way during the initial run. During each performance of "Dear Theodosia", Odom would quietly say a prayer for her at the point in the song where Burr bows his head.
  • Not quite intentional, but Javier Muñoz's turn as Hamilton (as Lin's alternate and eventual replacement) is almost certainly colored by the fact that he is HIV+ and had cancer during the first year of the show. "I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory" indeed.
  • The performance of "The Schuyler Sisters" at the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Given how hard New York City was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how even the much-beloved parade had to be massively re-worked due to the new safety precautions, the lines "look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now...in the greatest city in the world" take on a whole new meaning.
• Release Date Change: In February 2020, Disney announced that they would be releasing a filmed performance of the show (recorded in 2016 with the original Broadway cast) to theaters in October 2021 with a Disney+ release to follow soon after. Three months later the theatrical release was scuttled for just a Disney+ release, which was moved up to July 3, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic throwing the state of movie theaters in flux (not to mention all of Broadway).
• Romance on the Set:
  • Daveed Diggs (OBC Lafayette/Jefferson) and Emmy Raver-Lampmann (OBC Ensemble, Chicago cast Angelica) met and started dating during the Original Broadway run.
  • Anthony Ramos (OBC Laurens/Philip) and Jasmine Cephas Jones (OBC Peggy/Maria) dated for years following the show's premiere.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: At the Adrienne Arsht Center performance of the play, the conductor and orchestra pit is too far from the stage for Jefferson to hand a copy of the Reynolds Pamphlet to the conductor. Instead, the conductor reveals he already has a copy and waves it. This was then adopted for any other venue in which Jefferson can't reach the conductor.
• Shrug of God: In an interview after the show was released on Disney+, Miranda joked that, while the Schuyler sisters are definitely not Disney Princesses (since their entire point is to join the revolution and not be part of a monarchy), he isn't certain if King George III now counts as Disney royalty.
• Star-Making Role: While some of them were decently established beforehand, all of the Broadway principles' profiles were noticeably boosted by the show.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda was already known in the theatre community after In the Heights, but much like the show itself, he skyrocketed to mainstream popularity, effectively becoming a bonafide A-lister and consistently working afterwards as an actor, composer, producer, and director.
  • Leslie Odom Jr. gained steady work with major roles in film and television while also focusing on his career as a musician, later picking up award buzz for both his acting and songwriting for One Night in Miami....
  • Daveed Diggs would go on to make prominent appearances in cinema and TV, even getting to star in, write, and produce his own film (Blindspotting).
• Those Two Actors: Christopher Jackson and Javier Muñoz also starred in Lin-Manuel Miranda's other Broadway hit In the Heights, along with Miranda himself.
• Throw It In!: Jefferson's response to Madison asking "Where have you been?" of "Uh... France?" was ad libbed by Diggs.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before deciding on Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda considered writing a musical on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. However, he decided against it after Steven Spielberg's Lincoln went into production first.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda original conceived the show as a Concept Album. If his 2010 White House performance of the first number is any indication, the first number was originally only sung by Aaron Burr.
  • The original Off-Broadway workshop version was heavy on swearing, with the only censored moment being "The Adams Administration"(which has retained the censor in the final product). Some of the curses were changed to Curse Cut Short or the usage of "Eff", instead of "Fuck". Others curses were cut entirely including Eliza's sole use of "shit" in "Alexander Hamilton" and Lauren's Cluster F-Bomb usage of "shit" in "My Shot".
  • Hamilton's line "How could I do this?" in "Say No to This" was originally "How could you do this?", until Miranda realized that his recognizing his own guilt was the only way he could retain any sympathy.
  • John Laurens, in-universe and in history. Lin-Manuel Miranda has stated in the libretto that he considers Laurens' potential to be the greatest 'what if' in American history—as Laurens was (possibly/probably) gay, an ardent and outspoken abolitionist, and a favorite of Washington's (not unlike Lafayette and Hamilton himself). Lin goes on to state that he has no doubt that Laurens and Hamilton together could have accomplished so much more had Laurens' life not been cut short.
  • Leslie Odom Jr. was contracted by NBC in late 2013 to play "Lucas Newsome" in the NBC show State of Affairs. To take part in the workshops for "Hamilton," though, he had to ask to be released from his contract to do so. (He admitted once he saw the script, he wanted to join in.) If they hadn't released him, he might not have won the 2016 Tony for Best Actor in a Musical because he'd have been stuck on a show that only lasted part of the 2014-2015 season.
    • Fortunately, Robert Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, did so with his okay, as he was also a theater fan himself (and a producer who later invested in "Hamilton" as well).
  • In 2020, Miranda released a Cut Song called “I Have This Friend” which was originally the lead-up to "The Reynolds Pamphlet" before being replaced with "Hurricane," where Hamilton asks Washington’s advice and is told to just ignore any accusations, only to not listen and publish the Pamphlet. He explained that it seemed like too much of a "one joke" song, and the moment should be treated more seriously.
  • One of the drafts for "The World was Wide Enough" showed us Hamilton's thoughts in the same style as Burr's immediately after Burr's segment with a sort of rewind. It also had a few different lines for Burr, showing him to be more hesitant about the duel initially only beginning to take it seriously because he saw Hamilton was wearing his glasses. And it the aforementioned second half, we see that Alexander only brought his glasses so he could see Burr's face. Misinterpreting what he saw, he figured that Burr, who hated dueling, wouldn't seriously try to shoot him so he could just throw away his shot and they could go home. The changes make the affair out to be a tragic misunderstanding compared to the final product where Burr is more blinded by his anger towards Hamilton and Hamilton throws his shot away more out of moral and legacy concerns.
  • Prior to the Disney+ release, Miranda occasionally discussed a future film adaptation of Hamilton, working with In the Heights co-writer Quiara Alegría Hudes on a screenplay while also stressing that a film wasn't likely to go into production until the Broadway show passed the peak of its popularity. After the Disney+ release, Miranda suggests that any plans for a film have been shelved, admitting that "I don’t know what a cinematic version of Hamilton looks like. If I had, I’d have written it as a movie.”
  • A scene featuring George Washington passing away was initially included in the musical. Had the scene remained, the line "I hear wailing in the street" would have been sung by Hamilton, before Burr would later reprise the line in "The World Was Wide Enough".
• Word of Gay: Sort of. Miranda has mentioned Hamilton's bisexuality a couple times on twitter and confirmed there are intentional "nods" to it in the show. He openly speculates about the possibility in one of the footnotes in Hamilton: The Revolution, pointing out that the notoriously outspoken Hamilton, whose pages and pages of writing about every subject he felt even a little strongly about are a major theme of the show, wrote almost nothing about John Laurens' death, and that the silence itself is profound.

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