Diversity in culture can inspire people to express and reinforce their own identities whether or not they are in the dominant group. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the wildly popular Broadway musical and film, Hamilton: An American Musical, talks about his love of theater as an adolescent, but the limited view he had of his own expressive abilities until he saw Rent, the 1996 rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson. Hamilton premiered in 2015 and has won both critical and popular acclaim, including multiple Drama Desk and Tony awards, selling out performances on Broadway, and after three national tours, was ended only by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air in June 2020 (Miranda, 2020), Miranda said:

Really, the only thing I saw that really gave me permission to write musicals was Rent, which was an incredibly diverse cast. And I went from being a fan of musicals to writing musicals when I saw that show because it was the thing that gave me permission…it was contemporary, and it had Latino actors and Black actors. And it told me you’re allowed to write what you know into a show. No other musical had told me that.…

…So it was truly the first contemporary musical I’d seen and, I think, got me from being a kid who was in school musicals and loved them but just thought they were written by other people, like, by, like, old White people on the Upper East Side, to giving me permission. And it’s been gratifying to see how these shows, Heights and Hamilton in particular, like, not only provide employment but also provide, like, permission and amplification of a lot of other voices.

Miranda’s statement demonstrates explicitly the importance of diverse voices being created, produced, and publicized. Identity and art are intertwined and influence individuals and families in their development, structure, and daily lives.

Licenses and Attributions for Looking Ahead: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Open Content, Original

“Looking Ahead” by Elizabeth B. Pearce. License: CC BY 4.0.

References

Miranda, L-M. (2020, June 29). Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. (T. Gross, Interviewer) [podcast]. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/884691708/hamilton-creator-lin-manuel-miranda