Lin-Manuel Miranda admits it was a rush editing ‘Hamilton’ so it would be ready on time for Disney+.
The acclaimed Broadway musical launched on the streaming service last week, but Lin-Manuel admitted that he had only submitted the final cut for the live recording a few weeks ago.
In an interview with GQ Hype, the 40-year-old composer said: "We didn’t have a final edit. We didn’t have a sound mix, which in a musical is pretty important. So we got to editing and then it just became like racing. We turned in the cut, like, two weeks ago."
Lin-Manuel – who wrote the award-winning musical inspired by the 2004 biography ‘Alexander Hamilton’ by Ron Chernow – explained how he and the cast and crew were determined to release the film version as it became clear that theatres would remain closed for months due to the coronavirus crisis.
He said: "Once it became clear there was not going to be any theatre for the foreseeable future, we all kind of pivoted and said, ‘Oh, this is actually an opportunity to remind people of the power of theatre when there is none.’"
Lin-Manuel, who also plays the titular American statesman Alexander Hamilton in the show, also revealed that he has started work on a new theatre project and is "writing the first three or four songs".
The ‘In the Heights’ creator said: "I’m writing the first three or four songs, which I’ll rewrite once I find out what it’s really about.
"You know, because you start thinking you know what it’s about and then if you get lucky in a place, it starts to tell you what it’s about. And you go, ‘Oh s***, I thought I was writing it for this reason, but I’m really writing it for this reason."
Read the full feature online at GQ Hype https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/lin-manuel-miranda-hamilton-sequel