Disney bringing Broadway hit Hamilton to big screen is a game-changer for musical theatre

Studio said to have paid US$75 million for live stage footage of 11-time Tony Award-winning musical with the original cast, with film to be released in 2021

Lin-Manuel Miranda says Hamilton film will bring his creation to ‘the largest audience possible’; it could see film rights clause added to musical contracts

Reading Time:3 minutes

Lin-Manuel Miranda in his final performance as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton on Broadway at the Richard Rogers Theatre, New York. Disney is set to bring the musical to the big screen. Photo: Bruce Glikas

Published: 7:15am, 7 Feb 2020Updated: 7:23am, 7 Feb 2020

Disney is bringing film-goers to the room where it happened. Specifically, to the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York for a performance of Hamilton with the original Broadway cast.

The show’s producers have announced that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical juggernaut will be released in cinemas worldwide by Disney. Directed by Thomas Kail, it will hit the United States and Canada on October 15, 2021.

A filmed version of the 11-time Tony Award-winning production has been in the works since it opened on Broadway in 2015, with Miranda promising fans that the show would be captured before the original Broadway cast – which includes Miranda, Daveed Diggs, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Leslie Odom Jnr, Christopher Jackson, Jonathan Groff, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Okieriete Onaodowan, Anthony Ramos and Ariana DeBose – moved on to new projects.

Though producers Miranda, Jeffrey Seller and Thomas Kail may not have been sure at the time what they’d do with the footage, two performances were filmed in 2016.

The original cast of Hamilton take their curtain call after the production’s final performance on Broadway in 2016. Photo: WireImage

A few of the musical numbers appeared in the PBS documentary Hamilton's America, which went behind the scenes of the creation of the production. But fans have since clamoured for the release of the full version, especially since tickets to the runaway hit set records for average prices. Bots and scalpers targeted the show; some seats at the final performances with the original Broadway cast came to cost nearly US$10,000.