Broadway's hottest musical, "Hamilton," has been gracing the stage of Richard Rodgers Theatre for almost a year. Combining themes of life, death, love, time, hip-hop, and the fascinating stories of some America's founding fathers, "Hamilton" brings to life the pages of our history books that we skimmed over and pushed aside. The musical's world-changing cast won a collective 11 Tony Awards, and rightfully so.
"Hamilton" composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has quickly earned the hearts of people throughout the country. He has transformed people's perspective of American history through the musical's incredible storyline and soundtrack, as well as his captivating performances while playing the role of Alexander Hamilton. In addition to his wild success with "Hamilton," Miranda has served as a catalyst for social change, standing up for worthy causes such as the Somos Orlando Fund; his newly released track with J-Lo, "Love Make The World Go Round," pays tribute to those who lost their lives in the Orlando shooting.
Miranda, along with other members of the "Hamilton" cast, have been active on social media throughout the musical's run on Broadway, making fans feel that regardless of whether they can get tickets for the highly in-demand (and wildly expensive) show, they can still experience "Hamilton," in some ways. Daveed Diggs, who plays the roles of Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, has created a "Snapchat Series" of sorts, where members of the cast take shots of Patron out of their Grammy award. Lin-Manuel Miranda taking #shotsoutthegrammy is possibly on of the best things that has ever taken place on Snapchat.
Miranda's final show as Hamilton was Saturday, and we're all still in recovery. Philippa Soo and Leslie Odom Jr. have stunned crowds while playing Eliza Schuyler and Aaron Burr, and they took the stage one last time as well. Tweets from members of the cast tugged on our heartstrings as we, the fans, mentally prepared for the final curtain call of A. Ham, Eliza and Burr.
Each Wednesday, Miranda hosts the #Ham4Ham live lottery, where fans can enter for a chance to pay just one "Hamilton," ($10) for a ticket to the show. Lin-Manuel's final #Ham4Ham featured a reading of a letter from Alexander Hamilton to Eliza Schuyler before they were married. "It kind of captures everything I love about Hamilton. He's kind of arrogant, he's kind of insecure, he's unbelievably romantic... it's funny, it's sad and it's basically him saying to Eliza, 'Don't marry me if you think you can't be happy broke.'" Philippa Soo and Leslie Odom Jr. then joined Miranda as the crowd of thousands sang "Happy Trails" to bid farewell to the iconic cast members.
With tickets for Miranda's last performance running for up to $20,000, the chances of any mere mortals getting to witness his final performance were slim. But the world stood on standby Saturday night, glued to Twitter and Facebook, watching members of the "Hamilton" ensemble live-tweeting the show as we awaited the Facebook broadcast of Miranda, Soo and Odom's final curtain call.
The show ran much longer than normal, reportedly due to excessive applause of the crowd (typical). But fans across the globe got to witness Miranda, Soo, and Odom take their final bows, in real time, through Facebook live video. (I may or may not have teared up while sitting on the literal edge of my best friend's bed. It was fine.) Miranda took some extra time for his bow, during which "The West Wing" theme song played.
