How a Founding Father, a Frustrated Biographer & a Swimming Pool Inspired the Hip-Hop Hit Hamilton

After earning dizzying raves and armfuls of awards off-Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton officially opens on the Great White Way August 6 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. How did this original account of one of America’s Founding Fathers take the stage—and the musical theater world—by storm? It’s a story involving a Bronx DJ, a frustrated historian, and a swimming pool reading session you won’t find in any history book!


Though we’re not sure exactly when Alexander Hamilton was born, his effect on American history is undeniable. In a remarkably short period of time, Hamilton accomplished the following: fought in the American Revolution (where he was George Washington’s aide); led the efforts to reform the iffy Articles of Confederation; helped design the American government as outlined in the Constitution; and served as the country's first Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton died at age 47 on July 10, 1804, one day after being shot by his rival Aaron Burr in a duel.


Fast forward more than two centuries: Bronx based DJ Kool Herc had a unique approach to the turntable. He talked over the records he spun, a trick he learned from the DJs in his native Jamaica. Kool Herc also mastered the self-described “Merry Go-Round,” using his two turntables “to switch back and forth repeatedly between two copies of the same record, extending the short drum break that the crowd most wanted to hear,” according to The History Channel. On August 11, a big crowd was on hand to hear Kool Herc work his sister’s birthday party. That’s how word of hip-hop, born at the rec room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the West Bronx, spread.


Two decades later, Ron Chernow has just published his successful third book, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr., but the respected historian was experiencing mixed emotions. “I began to sense the danger of becoming stereotyped as the chronicler of American tycoons,” Chernow told the Biographers International Organization. “When I finished a lecture, people in the audience would start shouting out, ‘Do Carnegie next! Do Vanderbilt next!’ as if I would go on knocking off Gilded Age moguls for the rest of my career.” Who will be his next subject?


Ultimately, Chernow decided to tackle the life of an important founding father. “Alexander Hamilton was the perfect transitional figure for my next book, because there would be financial history galore while also opening up vast new subjects for study: military history, constitutional law, foreign policy, and dozens of other topics,” Chernow said. The 832-page Alexander Hamilton was not only a critical hit—Kirkus Reviews deemed the book “a model of the biographer’s art”—it became a New York Times bestseller. And for one Tony-winning musical theater writer, it became a vacation read.


On a break from In the Heights, the show’s young creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, sojourned to Mexico with his future wife, Vanessa Nadal. Miranda cracked open Alexander Hamilton on an inflatable pool lounger. He was floored. “It was the fact that Hamilton wrote his way off the island [St. Croix] where he grew up,” he told Vogue. “That’s the hip-hop narrative.” The story also reminded Miranda of his father, a native of Puerto Rico who eventually became an adviser to Mayor Ed Koch. Convinced Hamilton's life could become a hip-hop-influenced show, Miranda scours Google to see if that’s been done before. It has not.


“The idea of hip-hop being the music of the Revolution appealed to me immensely,’’ Miranda explained to T Magazine. In April, the White House invited Miranda to participate in a concert focused on “the American experience.” He used the platform to bust a four-minute rap about Hamilton’s first 20 years. The audience, which included the Obamas, were entranced. Miranda relayed to The New Yorker that “the President’s first reaction was to remark that [Treasury Secretary] Timothy Geithner had to see this.” Chernow, who eventually became Hamilton’s historical consultant, was serenaded by Miranda in his living room. “I think that’s the most astonishing thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said.


At the presidential soiree, Miranda had announced that he was working on a musical about Hamilton. That was true—kind of. What he performed was his only song. A year later, he’d only written one more. Miranda’s friend and In the Heights director Thomas Kail interceded: “You know, Lin, you took two years to write two songs. If we could crank it up a little, maybe we could see what we’ve got.” Six months later, Miranda performed 10 new songs at Lincoln Center's American Songbook series. When John Kander’s face “lights up” during the rap battles between Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton, Miranda knew his hunch was right.


After years of readings, workshops, and struggle—Burr is tough to write; half the songs in Act One are jettisoned—a completed first act of The Hamilton Mixtape is performed at the Vassar Reading Festival in Poughkeepsie, NY. Miranda sticks to his guns, including casting Latino and black actors as America’s forefathers. “Our goal was: This is a story about America then, told by America now, and we want to eliminate any distance—our story should look the way our country looks,” Miranda said. “Then we found the best people to embody these parts. I think it’s a very powerful statement without having to be a statement.”


Featuring Miranda in the title role, theater favorites Brian d'Arcy James and Phillipa Soo, and Miranda's old hip-hop improv buddies Christopher Jackson and Daveed Diggs, Hamilton opened off-Broadway at The Public Theater on February 17, 2015. The production earned borderline hyperbolic raves (the show “shot open like a streamlined cannon ball,” gushed The New York Times), trophies galore (including seven Drama Desk Awards), and red carpet-worthy attendees. Julia Roberts, Busta Rhymes, Helen Mirren and Robert De Niro paid a visit. (Madonna showed up, texted incessantly, and got denied a backstage visit by Miranda.) “Everybody I know has seen it or is screaming for tickets,” Cosmopolitan editor Joanna Coles told The New York Times.


With the majority of the original off-Broadway cast in tow (Brian d'Arcy James departed to star in Something Rotten! and was succeeded by Jonathan Groff), anticipation is high as Hamilton arrives on Broadway. “It is a rare thing: not just a theatrical landmark, but a show that jolts our thinking about popular culture and casts new light on some of the most storied events in American history,” T Magazine proclaimed. Will crowds and critics agree? A very imporant audience member has already given the musical his seal of approval: After attending an early preview with daughters Malia and Sasha, President Obama gave the show a standing ovation.