“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean, by providence impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

These are the words that start it all and we’re surprised that they were allowed on the telecast but we’re glad that they didn’t change that. They delivered such a powerful performance for the world to see & the impact of the opening lines are needed to draw in the masses. We were surely standing on our feet by the end of it.

Now, we know it’s already hard to get tickets for the show & once The Tony Awards come in June it’s going to be even harder but it’s the performances that air like this that make it even more special once you actually do get the chance.

Hamilton is the highly acclaimed, hip hop-infused story about America’s first treasurer, Alexander Hamilton. It has topped rap charts. It has beat out the almighty Lion King as top grossing musical TWICE. It’s members have appeared on a cypher on BET. And it has welcomed thousands of public school students into the theater to give the gift of the arts. Based on the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Miranda has penned what has come to be one of the most influential and talked about shows of our generation. 

It also didn’t stop after the performance. Hamilton, the musical received more airtime when the musical won Best Musical Theatre Album & the award, as well as the acceptance speech, aired on the main telecast. Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, give a clever acceptance speech in the form a rap. He’s truly a remarkable genius with words.

The post Hamilton The Musical Performs & Wins on The Grammy Awards appeared first on Broadway Black.

If you’re like me and haven’t been able to snag a ticket, you’re in luck. Hamilton is coming to the small screen. Wait. Pause. No, not the full musical! But rather, the incredible story of its journey to the Richard Rodgers Theater and its blockbuster status as the hottest show on Broadway.

PBS will air Hamilton’s America as part of its “Great Performances” series this fall. Filmed by the Oscar nominated film company, RadicalMedia, the documentary chronicles the two years leading up to its Broadway open with interviews, cast trips to Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, and the home of Alexander Hamilton, and of course footage of the production.

“Great Performances” has been making concerts, shows, and performances accessible through public programming for many years. In fact, this is the second time Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work has been featured on the show. In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams aired in 2009, shedding light on Miranda’s other hit, In the Heights.

This intimate look behind the scenes promises to bring fresh insight! I think we’ll be “Satisfied”..At least until we hear of a full length Original Broadway Cast filmed performance in the works. *crosses fingers*

Hamilton is the highly acclaimed, hip hop-infused story about America’s first treasurer, Alexander Hamilton. It has topped rap charts. It has beat out the almighty Lion King as top grossing musical TWICE. It’s members have appeared on a cypher on BET. And it has welcomed thousands of public school students into the theater to give the gift of the arts. Based on the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Miranda has penned what has come to be one of the most influential and talked about shows of our generation. 

The post Hamilton Joins PBS’s Great Performances Series appeared first on Broadway Black.

Inspired by Dr. Kings famous 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” which was performed at Harlem’s Riverside Church, MLK Now will feature historic speeches by many civil rights leaders performed by some of todays hottest actors and Broadway Black stars — including Actor and Civil Rights Icon Harry Belafonte, Actor and Comedian Chris Rock, Oscar-Winner Octavia Spencer, Tony Award Winner Lin Manuel Miranda, Actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, Tony Award Winner Anika Noni Rose, Andre Holland, Condola Rashad and Adepero Oduye.

And thats not all according to the press release;

“MLK Now” will also feature musical performances by Anika Noni Rose, Grammy-Nominated Artist Bilal, Acclaimed Poet/Performer Saul Williams, and Grammy-Winning Artist India Arie, and closes off with an interactive panel discussion addressing the most pressing human rights issues of today – including police violence, racial and social injustice, economic inequality, the prison industrial complex and grassroots and political mobilization. Panelists include Filmmaker and Blackout Member Ryan Coogler, Grammy-Nominated Hip Hop Artist J. Cole, Urban Cusp Founder and Publisher Rahiel Tesfamariam, Arab American Association of New York Executive Director Linda Sarsour, Million Hoodies Movement for Justice Executive Director Dante Barry, Filmmaker/Activist and Sakofa.org Co-Director Gina Belafonte; and Activist Leon Ford, Jr. The panel will be moderated by MSNBC National Reporter Trymaine Lee.

With a line-up like this, this an event that no matter where you are you don’t want to miss it. I can’t think of a better way to honor Dr. King’s legacy, especially during our current social climate.

MLK Now is this Monday, January 18th from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (doors open at 1:30 p.m.), at Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, New York, NY.

Luckily for those not in New York City you can watch the livestream. You can watch below!

The post Harry Belafonte, Condola Rashad, & More Join United Blackout ‪MLK Now: Special Event appeared first on Broadway Black.

Citing dangerous overcrowding and inclement weather, the powers that be have decided to make some improvements to the potentially treacherous lottery event before reintroducing it in the spring.

“We love seeing so many fans show up to participate in the Ham4Ham lottery and show,” Hamilton producer, Jeffrey Seller, said in a statement. “But we need to figure out how to safely accommodate our fans without blocking traffic on West 46th Street.”

Shortly after it began its run at The Public Theater, Hamilton has offered the drawing to fans who can’t afford or even access the $150+ tickets to the currently sold out run. The stage phenomenon garners, at minimum, 500 entrants per drawing: excited fans who, line, crowd and essentially dominate the slim street accessing the Richard Rodgers Theater.

An innovation made popular in 1996 by the cult-classic Rent, lottery, student rush, general rush and “standing room only” has become the poor man’s guide to Broadway.

Hamilton is just one of many Broadway productions offering an affordable digital lottery for what has become quite an expensive medium.  Kinky Boots made the switch this summer and after 18 years on top of the Broadway ticket want list, The Lion King announced in November that they would be offering an online lottery.  Introduced just in time for the holiday season, the lottery would make tickets for the musical, which generally average around $130, accessible to theatergoers at a reasonable price.

UPDATE:  As of 11 AM on Jan. 5, Hamilton has broken the internet!  Since opening the digital lottery at 9:30 AM, BroadwayDirect, the website that hosts multiple Broadway show lotteries, has read a “Service Unavailable” message.  Twitter is all abuzz, including Lin Manuel Miranda who has assured Hamilfans, while he excels at many things, IT is not one of them.  Hopefully the site will be up soon…cause we’re trying to get tickets too!

The post Hamilton Lottery Goes Digital in the New Year appeared first on Broadway Black.

The music of Hamilton feels true. It feels real to the listener. It hearkens back to the very best of what we know rap and the culture of hip hop can be because it tells the story of a man who desperately wanted to make it. Manuel’s songs of struggle, misunderstanding, triumph and failure in the musical make Alexander Hamilton, who many only knew as a man from bit of far away American history into every man. In a world where “Trap Queen” and “Hot Line Bling” describes fantastical situations that many of us don’t ever experience, the music of Hamilton tells the rest of our stories in a lyrical language that we can all understand.The universality of the story, the power of the music and drive of the arrangements envelope the listener in a story that could reflect any one of us. Hamilton captures all of us in one way or another and we have responded by making it number one.

Rappers beware. The important message is that the tides are turning and there is now a return to artistry in rap music and audiences are proving that it’s exactly what they want to hear. It is not limited by ethnicity and cannot be contained by the hood. Hamilton has turned the world of Broadway on its ear and now its coming for the music industry and I suspect Manuel will not be throwing away his shot.

The post Why Hamilton Cast Album Hit Number One on the Rap Charts appeared first on Broadway Black.

If you didn’t catch the special last Sunday on CBS, fret not. The whole episode is featured on the website here, including clips that didn’t make it into the actual show, such as a tour of the set and the making of the cast recording. Here are just a few of the highlights:

• 60 Minutes filmed the entire cast recording, Lin-Manuel was doing re-writes on the spot and Leslie Odom Jr. was the standout amongst his peers singing every song full-out as if he were actual on the Public Theater stage.
• Leslie Odom Jr. and other cast members, most of whom are Black or Latino, tell Rose why they’re so passionate about the project. Miranda has “made these dead white guys make sense to a bunch of, you know, Black and brown people,” Odom, Jr. says. “He’s made them make sense in the context of our time, with our music.”
• Miranda worked on the show for SIX YEARS, as it originally was supposed to be a mixtape.
• It took him a year to completely write “My Shot.” His reasoning: “because every couplet needed to be the best couplet I ever wrote. That’s how seriously I was taking it.”
• When it came to deciding that Hamilton would be a Hip Hop musical, Lin-Manuel agreed it was the only genre that could match the actual writings of Alexander Hamilton because  “it has more words per measure than any other musical genre. It has rhythm and it has density. And if Hamilton had anything in his writings, it was this density.”
• When he was asked to come to the White House to perform something from In The Heights, Lin-Manuel took a risk and sang “Alexander Hamilton” instead for the first time in front of the First Family. While people in the room originally were laughing at the concept of a Hip Hop Hamilton, by the end they were “completely sucked into the story.”

Special productions like this are dangerous and exciting at the same time. Dangerous because now I am willing to give away organs to see this show again. Exciting because Hamilton has done something amazing for Broadway that gets to be shared with the world. The musical has already succeeded expectations financially, it’s offering amazing opportunities for low-income youth to be able to take part, it blends two seemingly different music genres together seamlessly, it makes history fun and engaging, and its cast is richly diverse and talented. I don’t think Hamilton can go anywhere but up. If you haven’t seen or haven’t planned to put “See Hamilton” on your bucket list, I highly recommend you do so.

Also watch the bonus footage below on CBS website for 60 Minutes HERE

The post Behind the Scenes of Hamilton on 60 Minutes appeared first on Broadway Black.

Some of us live life on the whim and some of us have every minute calculated. Wherever you fall on this spectrum, you’re in luck– there’s no throwing away your shot at seeing Hamilton when you’re able to book tickets through October 30, 2016. Yes, almost a whole year in advance! Gather up your family, hit your group texts and GroupMe, grab Bae, and collect your coins because we’re going to see Hamilton!

Hamilton is the highly acclaimed, hip hop-infused story about America’s first treasurer, Alexander Hamilton. Based on the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Lin-Manuel Miranda has penned what has come to be one of the most influential and talked about shows of our generation. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Jay and Queen B, and Auntie Oprah have seen Hamilton. Join the ranks in experiencing this groundbreaking and history making work of art. 

Hamilton currently stars Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Andrew Rannells as King George (Jonathan Groff will be back in the role after November 29) , Daveed Diggs as Marquis De Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens and Phillip Hamilton, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds.

In case Hamilton breaks the Internet, #NoKimKardashian, there’s no reason to fear, as you can keep trying your luck at the lottery. Stay thirsty, my friends! Who doesn’t love a little #Ham4Ham? 

The post Yes, There Are More Tickets For Hamilton On Sale Now! appeared first on Broadway Black.

The fundraiser will be held on a Monday, which is typically a night that cast members have off. However, the Democratic National Committee is paying the costs for the special Monday night performance. Seats are selling for up to $5,000 each which will benefit the Democratic Hope Fund. The Fund raises money to help retire Mr. Obama’s campaign debt.

Margo Lion, a Broadway producer and an investor in Hamilton, is organizing the event. She also organized Broadway fundraisers in 2007 and 2012 for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaigns.

The show, which tells the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton to a hip-hop score, has received rave reviews. Hamilton debuted off-Broadway at The Public Theater in January. It started Broadway previews July 13 and opened on August 6 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. In addition to Mr. Obama, other political figures have attended the performance, including former President Bill and former Senator Hilary Clinton, and former Vice President Dick Cheney. First lady Michelle Obama has seen the hit musical twice.

Other early guests have included comedian Jimmy Fallon and actresses Julia Roberts, Whoopi Goldberg, Laverne Cox and Olivia Wilde.

The post President Obama Set to See Hamilton Again appeared first on Broadway Black.

UPDATE: WATCH BET CYPHER BELOW!

If you were to ask me three years ago if some of the cast from a Broadway show could participate in The Cypher, I might have laughed in your face. However, Hamilton isn’t your average musical. It effortlessly blends both musical theatre and Hip Hop in ways unimaginable. It would be unthinkable not to include them in this year’s Cypher. They don’t have those high rankings on the charts for no reason. Plus, a cypher shouldn’t be too hard for this cast, since they already spend eight nights a week rapping and singing non-stop in their own show for two and a half hours.

The cast tweeted their excitement over the inclusion into the mainstream Hip Hop world. Miranda wrote earlier on twitter;

Warning: you haven’t really seen me in cypher mode be4. I’m different. You know how when Bruce Banner gets heated… https://t.co/Ie5d1w5LDj

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) October 12, 2015

Daveed Diggs shared his excitement via Instagram with this message:

So tonight my first ever #BETcypher will air. It’s kind of a lot to process because I’m going to be part of a tradition that I have followed very closely from its inception. I have no idea what it will come out like, but I’m excited that I get to share this moment with my @hamiltonmusical cast mates @reneeelisegoldsberry and #LinManuelMiranda and of course the legendary @blackthought and @questlove also, I’m gonna be on stage at the Richard Rodgers when it airs so if you see it, let me know how it goes. #loveyall #BET #hiphopawards2015

A photo posted by Daveed Diggs (@daveeddiggs) on Oct 13, 2015 at 3:34pm PDT

Meanwhile Renee Elise Goldsberry updated her twitter with photos of Hip Hop artists that have made their way to the Great White Way to see Hamilton in action with the twitter message:

From Busta to Queen, meeting Hip Hop Royalty on Broadway! #HipHopAwards WATCH 2NITE CUZ WE’RE DOIN THE CYPHER!! @BET pic.twitter.com/QiL9Z0JI2T

— RenéeEliseGoldsberry (@reneeelisegolds) October 13, 2015

Taping of this year’s award show took place on Friday, October 9th at Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center in Atlanta, GA with Uncle Snoop returning as host. The broadcast premiered October 13, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. ET on BET. UPDATE: WATCH BET CYPHER BELOW!

That was sooooo dope!!! @HamiltonMusical on @HipHopAwards @BET was so LIT! @DaveedDiggs @reneeelisegolds @Lin_Manuel

— Broadway Black (@BroadwayBlack) October 14, 2015

“Playing these dead presidents I’m getting my reparations!” -Daveed Diggs DAYUM!!! #HamiltonBway

— ThereWillBeTypos (@CijiTheGeek) October 14, 2015

I am watching the BET Hip Hop Awards for the first time in my life thanks to #HamiltonBway

— Sara Koenig (@sara_koenig) October 14, 2015

YASSSSSSSS ANGELICA!!!!! #HipHopAwards #HamiltonBway

— OVO queen (@AngieWorldOrder) October 14, 2015

The post Hamilton Cast takes part in BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher appeared first on Broadway Black.

From the perspective of an audience member, I would most like to see a broader spectrum of diversity. The world of theatre is open if we as patrons of the arts also allow ourselves to be open to the idea that the color of an actor’s skin should not dictate their suitability for a role. From the outstanding performance of the late Black actor Kyle Jean-Baptiste cast as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables to the cutting edge foresight of the multi-cultural casting in the Broadway musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the doors are opening.

If there is to be a perfect actor in a perfect role, it is achieved by casting the actor that can truly embody the character and transport the viewer into a world where only the art remains. If we are to see an evolution on The Great White Way, we must be willing to see the theatre that we love and cherish so much in technicolor. We must be willing to embrace and accept that the world we live in holds opportunity and promise for all and not just a privileged few. That talent does not live within the skin color of a few but can be found in a diverse array  of people. This is the only way that will allow us to ever find the perfect actor in the perfect role. The question is, are we ready to set aside our preconceived stereotypical notions of who should be acting in what and instead open ourselves up to the enormous wellspring of talent diversity in casting can bring?

The post Opening More Doors: Finding Perfection in Diversity appeared first on Broadway Black.