Homecoming for hit musical Hamilton as it visits Scottish roots
- Published
The hit musical Hamilton is heading to Scotland - the home of the main character's forefathers.
The multi award-winning show will tour the UK for the first time in 2024 with a Scottish premiere at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.
Created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who starred in its first productions on Broadway, the musical has been a massive success.
Performances will take place from 28 February - 27 April next year.
Hamilton is the story of Alexander Hamilton, a man of Scots descent who became an American founding father.
Hamilton's grandfather was Laird of Kerelaw Castle in Stevenston, North Ayrshire.
His father, James Alexander Hamilton, was born in Scotland in 1718 and left to become a merchant in the West Indies where Alexander Hamilton was born.
Hamilton tells the story of how he went on to become a founding father of America, the right-hand man of George Washington.
It is based on Ron Chernow's acclaimed biography and its music blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B and Broadway styles.
The show has won Olivier, Tony, Grammy and Pulitzer Prizes and has been enjoying a run at Victoria Palace Theatre in London since December 2017.
It will end its run there in March 2024 and the touring production will go around the UK from February.
Producer Cameron Mackintosh said: "Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton is indisputably the most brilliant, ground-breaking, contemporary musical of modern times. I feel extraordinarily fortunate that Lin and my friend Jeffrey Seller, the show's original producer, have entrusted me with their wonderful musical in the UK and Ireland.
"The London production opened in 2017 at the Victoria Palace, a theatre I completely rebuilt to house Hamilton, where it continues to play and has proved to be as big a success as the Broadway original."
The Hamilton cast with Lin-Manuel Miranda in 2015
He said he was "thrilled" to put together a British national touring company to bring the show to more cities.
"Opening first in Manchester, followed by Edinburgh - not far from where the real story of Alexander Hamilton began in Ayrshire, where his father was born in the 1700's, before he moved to Nevis in the West Indies," he said.
Casting for the production is due to begin this week.
Fiona Gibson from Capital Theatres who run the Festival Theatre, added: "We're utterly thrilled to be hosting the Scottish premiere of Hamilton at the Festival Theatre.
"It's even more significant that Alexander Hamilton was of Scottish descent, so in many ways the story is coming home. To have this iconic show which has delighted audiences round the world here at the Festival Theatre and in Edinburgh where Lin-Manuel Miranda once busked at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is really special."
"Let me tell you what I wish I'd known when I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control, who lives, who dies, who tells your story."
Lin-Manuel Miranda couldn't believe Alexander Hamilton's story hadn't been told on stage before he created his musical in 2015.
Hamilton was to him the ultimate immigrant who arrived in America, aged 17, and became the youngest of the country's founding fathers.
The story is one of revolution, but Lin-Manuel Miranda's telling of the story was equally revolutionary, using hip hop and rap as well as contemporary Broadway. He appeared in the first version of the show, alongside a multi-racial cast.
The result was a refreshing and energetic new show, whose songs spread worldwide via TikTok to a young enthusiastic audience who wanted to hear more.
But with its historical storyline and conventional musical format, it also appealed across age groups. Critics loved it - it won 11 Tony awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Hamilton has been a hit all over the world since it started on Broadway
It had clever and witty lyrics and packed in enough detail to ensure people would want to see it more than once.
In December 2017, it opened in London but has never gone elsewhere in the UK.
Since July last year, it's a Scot, Reuben Joseph from Helensburgh who has been playing the central role. Apt, given Hamilton's own Scottish ancestry.
Although born in the Caribbean, out of wedlock to a Scottish father, he was apparently proud of his Scottish roots. His grandfather was a laird in Ayrshire. The ruins of the family home are still there.
So this is something of a homecoming. Why now? Presumably the pandemic has delayed any previous plans, but it couldn't have come at a better time for the Edinburgh Festival Theatre or for those who've had Hamilton on their bucket list for many years.
Tickets go on sale for the Festival Theatre production on 13 March 2023.