Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is one of the hottest Broadway tickets out there. The Obama’s loved the show and after winning a Grammy it’s been on everyone’s radar. Now, he’s won the Edward M. Kennedy prize for best Drama Inspired by American History, which honors a play or musical that explores a moment in history and deals with “great issues of our day.” Columbia University gives the prize, which honors the late U.S. senator from Massachusetts and the recipient of the award receives a $100,000 grant. Plus, the Broadway hit has inspired a New York teacher to create a class that will make history fun and get students hyped about learning about one of the great founding fathers.
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Alexander Hamilton was a founding father and the nation’s first treasury secretary. The thing that makes this show so unique is that that cast is both African-American and Latino with amazing music that ranges from musical theater to rap and pop.
The Puerto Rican Broadway genius was been given one of the highest honors for dramatic writing, having received a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, which officially makes him one of the greats. The Broadway production has been taking numerous awards, such as the Outer Critics Circle, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle and the Drama Desk and there are even rumors on how it might even take a Tony this summer.
One of the greatest honors Miranda can feel proud of is how the Broadway musical is making people feel. “I think the music that you listen to between the ages of 13 and 20 is the music that means to the most to you for the rest of your life,” Miranda told Entertainment Weekly. The musical is influenced by the music he listened in the 90’s, such as Biggie and DMX.
This is what makes the musical so unique, as well as how well the story is told. Jim Cullen, a teacher from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx is adding “Hamilton” to his 11th grader’s U.S. history syllabus. Cullen designed an entire course centered on Hamilton. He saw the excitement of students when they went to see the musical, so this fall he will be teaching Hamilton: A Musical Inquiry. It’s always great to see young people feel excited about learning in such a unique way.
“There’s going to be kids who see this show, [and] this will be their first Broadway show. That’s just what musicals are going to look like for them. Of course it’s a cast full of actors of color. Of course it’s music that uses hip-hop and contemporary music but also tells a story. That’s just going to be their default experience of what a musical is. That just blows my mind,” says Miranda to Newsweek.