SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Ten years ago this week, "Hamilton" opened on Broadway - a musical inspired by politics, of all things. Of course, it's become one of the greatest hits in theater history. Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical tells the story of America's founding fathers with a hip-hop score and a racially diverse cast. And despite today's different political backdrop, reporter Jeff Lunden says the musical retains much of its original appeal.
JEFF LUNDEN: Lin-Manuel Miranda was taking a break from his Tony Award-winning musical "In The Heights" and sitting on a beach when he cracked open Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, he told me in 2015.
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LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: I feel like a mosquito that hit an artery (laughter). That's how I felt when I read Ron Chernow's book. I just thought, Hamilton's life story contains multitudes.
LUNDEN: The story of a brilliant young immigrant from the Caribbean who comes to New York and becomes a major figure in the founding of the country so inspired Miranda that he wrote a song. He thought it might be part of an album and performed it at a poetry reading at Barack Obama's White House.
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MIRANDA: (As Aaron Burr, singing) 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?
LUNDEN: Encouraged by the response, Miranda spent the next six years turning the idea into a musical. It was developed off-Broadway at the Public Theater. And artistic director Oskar Eustis says from that opening number, audiences fell in love.
OSKAR EUSTIS: For many of us, we were so desperate to feel patriotic. We were so desperate to feel proud of our country again. And "Hamilton" gave us a way to feel proud of the United States at a time we needed that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALEXANDER HAMILTON")
MIRANDA: (As Alexander Hamilton, singing) Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton. And there's a million things I haven't done. Just you wait. Just you wait.
LUNDEN: Miranda presents the founding fathers as flawed human beings. And after the revolution, they have different ideas about how to build a new nation.
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MIRANDA: The fights we had then in the formation of our country will be the fights we have a hundred years from now, 200 years from now. They will be, what is the role of the state versus the role of the larger country? What is our responsibility to other countries that are not our own? We'll always be having those fights.
LUNDEN: And certainly, the past 10 years have been politically contentious. Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, who's written a biography of Miranda, says...
DANIEL POLLACK-PELZNER: It's hard to remember that it was a bipartisan success story when it first opened, so the Cheneys were as enthusiastic about it as the Bidens. Barack Obama used to call it the only thing he and Dick Cheney could agree on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE SCHUYLER SISTERS")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTISTS #1: (As characters, singing) Now look around. Look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now. History is happening.
LUNDEN: Music director Alex Lacamoire, who visited the Obama White House with the show, thinks there are reasons Hamilton has remained popular for the past 10 years - from its catchy songs and complex staging to its casting.
ALEX LACAMOIRE: And the way that we choose to have people of color represent founding fathers makes a statement that makes people realize, oh, my gosh. Wow. This is a way to turn history on its ear. This is a way to highlight music that was brought about by this country that we live in, right? Like, hip-hop is an American art form. Musical theater is an American art form. So it's very meta.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (As Aaron Burr, singing) I want to be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens.
LUNDEN: Right after the 2016 election, Vice President-elect Mike Pence wanted to be in the room where it happens. Brandon Victor Dixon, who was playing Aaron Burr at the time, gave a speech from the production directed to Pence after the curtain call.
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BRANDON VICTOR DIXON: We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet...
(CHEERING)
DIXON: ...Our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.
LUNDEN: Producer Jeffrey Seller wrote the speech.
JEFFREY SELLER: President-elect Trump decided to amplify it by tweeting his dissatisfaction with the speech and the statement the next day and demanding an apology, which, of course, was not forthcoming. And all that did was make the story bigger and bigger.
LUNDEN: At the time, Hamilton was very big. Not long after its opening, tours of the show began playing across America. It was a hit at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., during the first Trump administration. There were plans to bring a tour back to the Kennedy Center for the country's 250th birthday. But when Donald Trump took over as chairman and ousted the leadership, Seller withdrew the booking.
SELLER: Pulling Hamilton from the Kennedy Center was a painful and easy decision. Painful because we love the Kennedy Center.
LUNDEN: Seller says the show will return to Washington, but at an apolitical venue. Author Daniel Pollack-Pelzner thinks part of the enduring appeal of Hamilton is that, as Lin-Manuel Miranda says, the story contains multitudes.
POLLACK-PELZNER: It's never been, you know, an Obama campaign show or an anti-Trump show or a one, unitary vision of what America is like. It's always been multifaceted. And so, you know, like most shows that are mirrors, we get to see different reflections of ourselves depending on when we're looking at it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHO LIVES, WHO DIES, WHO TELLS YOUR STORY")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: (As Eliza, singing) I see you every time, and when my time is up, have I done enough?
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTISTS #2: (As characters, singing) Will they tell our story?
LUNDEN: For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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