Lin Manuel Miranda is an accomplished actor, music director, composer, and writer. But, the latest addition to his cap seems to be “a bad influence on children”. He helped a kid miss history class because he was having lunch with him.
‘Hamilton’ is the most significant musical ever. And no, Steven Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd Webber didn’t make it. Lin Manuel Miranda did. So, it should be no surprise to anyone when a kid skipped history classes for Lin Manuel Miranda? On a lunch date with a child from Georgia, he made a cute apology video for a history teacher. But, what makes him so unique?
Highlights —
- Lin Manuel Miranda legacy
- Hamilton and history
- The kid who missed the history class
The legacy
For Lin Manuel Miranda, the arrangement of the musical theatre space was not a long-time coming. He was famous for the musical he originated, ‘In the Heights’. The story, which is the story of immigrants in NYC, became a smash hit with several songs climbing up the charts. He also made several set pieces for Tony’s. Most famously, in the 2013 iteration of the ceremony, he penned down an iconic performance of Neil Patrick Harris, where he introduced all the musicals that were being represented on the stage.
He also helped write the iconic James Corden performance, introducing the show in 2019. He has also since scored the music for ‘Moana’, acted in the famous ‘Mary Poppins’ remake, and worked with the Disney films to produce more shows musically.
He has also directed the Netflix film ‘tick, tick… boom!’ which takes the charts by storm.
With such an itinerary in tow, it seems that Lin would be ideally placed to become one of the best people on Broadway. However, his crowning achievement was ‘Hamilton’, a biopic of the young Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America who was eventually forgotten.
‘Hamilton’
‘Hamilton’ did the “Say my name!” shtick before Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made it famous with his verse in “Face Off”. The show is a celebration of American history. However, Lin’s innovation was making the presidents and key players of the American democracy into Black men and women.
The story changed completely under the political scene when it was being performed. And when Lin Manuel Miranda performed the songs in front of the first Black American president, the musical was enshrined in history. The anthem-like quality of the songs propelled them to the top of the charts, and the musical became an instant classic because of how detailed it was. It showed the drafting of the constitution and some of the first cabinet debates.
Historians might have frowned at the profanities being spouted in the first American parliament, but still, there was a lot of power in the image of African-American men taking charge of the country being led by an immigrant. “Immigrants, we get the job done” from the mixtape became an anthem and Lin Manuel Miranda was on the way to fame.
So, when history teachers say that they revere the history lessons that ‘Hamilton’ teaches them, they mean it. The struggle for American independence received beautiful documentation from the Miranda musical, and the seats consistently sold out because of how great it is.
So, when Lin Manuel Miranda said that he would be discussing the first drafting of the constitution in detail with a kid, the history teacher was ecstatic.
The excuse
Tamara Stevens, a Georgian mother, had Lin Manuel Miranda over for lunch. While Luke Stevens, her son, was only too happy to get a history lesson from the musical, the history teacher was sceptical. That’s when the excuse of Lin Manuel Miranda for lunch at Stevens was made. In the short video, Lin says that he will go over history with Luke and would be able to help him bridge the course he had missed during the day.
The history teacher was also very excited and said that she planned to use the show to teach some students. She also asked Lin to make a guest appearance in her class and give a lecture to clear some of the student’s confusion. There’s no news on whether that happened, but the tweet went viral, and there might be a Hamilton-class in store for Luke’s history class students.
You might think that being famous makes Lin Manuel Miranda arrogant. But, when a kid skipped history class for Lin Manuel Miranda, he made an apology video for the teacher. Now, Luke Stevens has a bragging tweet with video proof, and his teacher Mrs. Roshner has asked Lin Manuel to give a guest lecture to the students.
