Jacob Herrmann

Music’s Impact in History

4/28/21
Renaissance Man: The Lin-Manuel Miranda Story

As a child of a Puerto Rican immigrant, Lin-Manuel Miranda often recounts that he led a

double life. One was the spanish speaking, salsa dancing, music loving boy with his family. His

family introduced him to a lot of latin music and even some classic musical theatre such as The

Sound Of Music. And the other was the english speaking, highly educated (even at 6 years old),

upper class kid with all white and jewish friends at his elementary school, Hunter College

Elementary. At this point in his life, he was introduced to rap and hip hop because it was the

new, up and coming, style. Both of these worlds combined tell the story of the theatre kid that

was destined to be great. A man who was raised to recognize greatness and find humility in

recognizing his own.

When Miranda was just 6 years old, he attended a highly respected, Gifted Program at

Hunter College Elementary. It was a very exclusive program that only 25 boys and 25 girls, out

of a pool of 2500 students, were accepted into. It was this school that not only fueled his ever

broadening knowledge of the world, but brought him into the creative limelight. It was a

creatively focused program with each 6th Grade “graduation” class culminating in a full

theatrical performance of a popular broadway show. That is, until Miranda’s 6th Grade year. For

years, he had been wondering what show he would finally be able to do, only to discover that the

teachers had new ideas for the future of the program. With limited appropriate resources for

Broadway material, the teachers decided it would be best to have students write their own.

Miranda was unsatisfied. He had longed to take part in something that someone else had written.

Teachers eventually landed on a review style show including works from the past shows and

original works combined. Miranda was in not one, but six, of the scenes, playing a slew of
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characters from Captain Hook to West Side Story’s Bernardo. His favorite of the roles was

Conrad Birdie from Bye Bye Birdie. In recalling the show he noted, “At the time Bye Bye Birdie

might not have looked like much, but gyrating around in that gold lame suit, and having every

girl in the sixth grade pretend to faint and fall in love with you, this is the moment that I realized

that I would be doing this for the rest of my life.”

After getting a taste of the live theatre action, he couldn’t stop. Aside from a break he

took in 7th Grade when he was practically M.I.A. (After all, he was a 12-13 year old boy, the

distractions can be overwhelming.) He proved to be a very creative student, always writing in the

back of the classroom and turning in projects with a creative element about them. His life was

not only being shaped by the music of others, but by the music he began to write himself.

Through High School, Miranda was excited about music and theatre. He decided to go all in and

do theatre “as long as they’ll let me.” With the excitement and passion, came massive growth.

He wrote mini musicals for his school’s theatre group, he directed West Side Story as a senior in

High School, he got so excited about music he would practice all hours of the day and night,

sometimes even calling his more musically inclined friends thinking he had invented a new

chord. They assured him “No, they all exist.” Finally, when Miranda came to college at the well

respected Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he decided to major in Theatre. Originally, he

had thought of double majoring in Theatre and Film, but his love for theatre overtook him. It was

here that, by his sophomore year, he wrote his first draft of In The Heights, a show that would

take him all the way to Broadway. The first version was 80 minutes long split into two acts. It

was also full of passion and discourse that you might expect from a young adult. Miranda kept

writing, keeping a notebook on him at all times and taking the advice from his friends, finding
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inspiration everywhere. He threw himself into his work, even saying in an interview “I barely

slept. I barely ate. I just wrote.”

The show In The Heights would prove to be a success as a Second Stage Show at

Wesleyan University, catching the eye of two seniors who told Miranda that they were starting a

production company. They wanted to bring the show to New York once Miranda graduated.

After their conversation, Miranda went to a cast party and promptly forgot about the opportunity.

It wasn’t until 2 years later, when he was about to graduate, that he was reminded about the

offer. He decided to take one last look at In The Heights to make sure it, and he, was ready. He

began meeting with Backhouse Productions, the company started by Wesleyan Alumni,

including Tommy Kail. Kail, Miranda and a few others worked on producing the show, writing

more, rewriting, and eventually trying to make it Broadway worthy. During this time, Miranda

and Kail would often freestyle rap as a way to get the creative juices flowing. They formed a

small show called Freestyle Love Supreme that they performed in their small theatre in the

basement of a bookstore for a somewhat sporadic income. It eventually also made its way to

Broadway but not until well after In The Heights and Hamilton had seen success. Finally, In The

Heights was accepted into a small experimental theatre in Connecticut. Miranda’s hard work was

starting to pay off, but he had even more work to do to finalize the show and make it as perfect

as he possibly could. After a successful run, it was time to take his production to the Off-

Broadway level. He did and kept making revisions, even up to opening night. Off-Broadway was

also the first time Miranda was allowed to perform in his now professional show. Because of this

26 week run Off-Broadway, In The Heights would reach a wide audience, gather fame through

word of mouth, and eventually even win Miranda and the show multiple awards. Finally, it was
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ready for Broadway. After a well deserved trip to Broadway, Miranda earned, through the show,

the Tony award for Best Original Score and in 2008, In The Heights won the Tony award for

Best Musical.

Lin-Manuel Miranda deserved a break. Actually, he really needed one. He had been

working Non-Stop on a show that he was Not Throwing Away His Shot on for 8 years. So he

Took A Break. (I hope you see where these puns are going.) He traveled to Mexico with his then

girlfriend, Vanessa Nadal, for a few weeks. But creative minds never sleep, and Miranda’s mind

is his strength. He recalled, “The moment my brain got a moment’s rest, Hamilton walked into

it.” And the newest Tony Award Winning musical was born. Of course, it took even more

preparation and hard work, but similarly to Alexander Hamilton, Miranda was determined to

succeed. Because he had already reached a certain level of respect and fame, Miranda was asked

to perform at the White House for then President Barack Obama’s Evening of Poetry, Music, and

the Spoken Word. He was told that any selection from In The Heights would be great, however,

Miranda was a risk taker. He stood in front of a White House full of dignitaries, celebrities,

fellow artists, and The First Family and he said “I'm thrilled the White House called me tonight

because I'm actually working on a hip-hop album. It's a concept album about the life of someone

I think embodies hip-hop, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.” The audience laughed, but

when Miranda burst into a passionate performance of what would become the opening number of

the musical Hamilton, people stared in amazement, Obama even turned to his wife and, as

Miranda recalls, mouthed the words “This is great.” Miranda couldn’t look at them for the rest of

the performance, he was too nervous. The video of this particular performance went viral on

YouTube and, in the blink of an eye, the world was buzzing with anticipation for Hamilton. The
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first incarnation of Hamilton was titled The Hamilton Mixtape and had people jumping in at the

opportunity to workshop. Songs would come to Miranda in the oddest locations including “Wait

For It” which came to him on the train to a friends Birthday Party. He could only stay at the

party for 15 minutes before continuing to write on the train back home. Miranda was immersed,

fully and completely. Through Miranda’s dedication, Hamilton made it through it’s workshop

phase and ended up making its way to Broadway. Not many people are unfamiliar with its

success. Hamilton premiered on Broadway in 2015 and was nominated for 16 Tony awards that

year, winning 11. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Hamilton Original Cast

Album won a Grammy.

Miranda, though massively successful, still remains a humble, family oriented, child of

immigrants. He still loves and supports his community, the community of Washington Heights,

and Puerto Rico. He will live on as one of the most talented and creative minds of this

generation.