'Hamilton' on Disney+: Alicia Vitarelli chats with the cast in the 'Zoom' where it happened
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The blockbuster Broadway hit "Hamilton" comes to Disney+ on Friday. It's been one of the hottest tickets on stages across the globe since 2015.
Fans who couldn't see it, and those who can't wait to see it again, can watch the award-winning musical from their front-row seat at home.
Alicia Vitarelli had a chance to chat with the star-studded cast and crew - including the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
With theaters dark right now, Miranda says this feels like the perfect time to share the show with people at home. He also says revisiting this moment in history also feels right for the moment we are in.
"No one could have anticipated the reaction the world had to the show," said Miranda, who created the show and its lyrics, and also plays the title role of Alexander Hamilton.
"Now that we are having conversations about systemic racism, it feels like there is this reckoning and revolution about what kind of country we want to be going forward. The language of revolution in the show is what I see in those signs out there, lyrics like 'history has its eyes on you,' and 'past patiently waiting' and 'this is not a moment, it's a movement," he said.
With the fight for racial equality at the forefront, the entertainment industry is reacting. While some pieces are getting pulled, the cast says "Hamilton" is meeting the moment.
"I think it is instructive that the one that gets, in fact push forward is one that is a nuanced discussion of American politics featuring a cast of folks who are brown skinned," said Daveed Diggs, who play Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson.
It's a show that has broken barriers and made people feel seen.
"I remember a little girl coming up to me after doing the show and saying, 'You look like me,' just stating that there is some representation of her on on the stage," said Jasmine Cephas Jones, who plays Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds. "An older lady from Arizona said she's never in her life listened to hip hop, but now she's opening the door."
"I believe the piece is worthy and that it has so much to say, but the audience will complete that conversation," said Leslie Odom, Jr., who plays Aaron Burr. "They'll tell me what it means."
Miranda says this is not a film version of the Broadway smash hit, but an actual performance of the show from the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York City taped just before his departure from the show. He says they taped it for prosperity.
"We tried to capture the film in a way that embraced what it felt like to be in the theater on those days in June, in 2016, with this marvelous company, and we wanted to give you not just the best seat but the same seat."
The Broadway show has won 11 Tony Awards, a Grammy Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
"Hamilton" debuts on Disney+ on Friday July 3rd.
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