The smash musical Hamilton is coming to Scotland, the birthplace of the protagonist’s ancestors. The multiple award-winning productions will tour the United Kingdom for the first time in 2024, beginning with a Scottish premiere at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre.
The musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who appeared in its first Broadway runs, has been a tremendous success.
Next year, performances will take place from February 28 to April 27.
Alexander Hamilton, a man of Scottish heritage who became an American founding father, is the subject of the musical Hamilton.
The grandfather of Hamilton was the lord of Kerelaw Castle in Stevenston, North Ayrshire.
His father, James Alexander Hamilton, was born in Scotland in 1718 and moved to the West Indies, where Alexander Hamilton was born, to become a trader.
Hamilton describes how he went on to become a founding father of the United States and George Washington’s right-hand man.
Based on the popular memoir by Ron Chernow, the musical fuses hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway traditions.
Since December 2017, the production, which has earned Olivier, Tony, Grammy, and Pulitzer Awards, has been running at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre.
It will conclude its run there in March 2024, and the touring production will tour the United Kingdom beginning in February.
Cameron Mackintosh, a producer, said:
“Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda is unquestionably the most creative, innovative, and contemporary music of our time”
Lin and my friend Jeffrey Seller, the show’s original producer, have entrusted me with the UK and Ireland production of this magnificent musical.
“The London production of Hamilton launched in 2017 at the Victoria Palace, a theater I completely redesigned for the show, where it continues to run and has proven to be as popular as the original Broadway production.”
He was “thrilled” to form a British national touring company to deliver the performance to further cities.
“Opening first in Manchester, then in Edinburgh – not far from Ayrshire, where Alexander Hamilton’s father was born in the 1700s before moving to Nevis in the West Indies,” he explained.
This week, casting for the production will begin.
Capital Theatres’ Fiona Gibson, who oversees the Festival Theatre, added: “The Festival Theatre is ecstatic to be staging the Scottish premiere of Hamilton.
“Significantly, Alexander Hamilton was of Scottish heritage, thus in many senses the story is returning to its roots. Lin-Manuel Miranda once performed as a street performer during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, making its presence at the Festival Theatre and in Edinburgh all the more remarkable.”
“Let me tell you what I wished I had known when I was young and aspiring to greatness.
You have no influence over who lives, dies, or tells your story.”
Before creating his musical in 2015, Lin-Manuel Miranda could not believe Alexander Hamilton’s story had not been told on stage.
Hamilton, who arrived in America at the age of 17 and became the youngest of the country’s founding fathers, was to him the quintessential immigrant.
The story is about revolution, but Lin-Manuel Miranda’s presentation of it was equally revolutionary, incorporating hip-hop, rap, and contemporary Broadway. In the original version of the show, he appeared alongside a cast of many races.
The outcome was a revitalizing and energizing new program, whose songs went globally via TikTok to a young, eager audience that demanded more.
But, with its historical narrative and conventional musical structure, it also appealed to audiences of all ages. It earned 11 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama due to the acclaim of the critics.
It featured creative and hilarious lyrics and enough information to assure that people would want to watch it multiple times.
It debuted in London in December 2017 but has never traveled beyond the United Kingdom.
Since July of last year, the lead part has been played by Reuben Joseph from Helensburgh, Scotland. Appropriate, considering Hamilton’s Scottish background.
Despite being born in the Caribbean to an unwed Scottish father, he was supposedly proud of his Scottish heritage. His grandpa was an Ayrshire laird. There remain still the ruins of the family home.
So this is somewhat of a return home. Why now? It could not have come at a better time for the Edinburgh Festival Theatre or for those who have had Hamilton on their bucket list for decades.
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