How Disney+'s Hamilton Was Made (& Will There Be A Proper Movie?)
Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has explained how Disney+'s recorded version of Hamilton was made - but will the Broadway sensation ever get a proper movie musical adaptation? The show, a re-telling of the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton through the language of hip-hop, R&B, and other musical styles, has achieved staggering levels of critical and commercial success in the five years since its debut. It's also become incredibly popular outside of the usual musical theater circles thanks to the sheer catchiness and quotability of Miranda's songs and lyrics. Even those who've never listened to the Hamilton soundtrack will quickly recognize references to "The Room Where It Happened" thanks to the stage show's cultural osmosis.
With that kind of impact, it's no wonder Disney spent a reported $75 million on securing the rights to the live-recorded version of Hamilton that Miranda, director Thomas Kali, and the rest of the show's original cast made back in 2016. The Mouse House had initially planned to give the movie (playfully referred to as Hamilfilm) a theatrical release in the fall of 2021, but abandoned those plans in the wake of the coronavirus lockdowns. Instead, the film is releasing straight to Disney+ over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, giving viewers a way to enjoy the musical spectacle from the comfort (and safety) of their homes.
Since the film was recorded at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York City in June 2016, it was finished and ready to go well before the COVID-19 production shutdown took place earlier this year. Still, it's impressive the Hamilton cast and crew were able to shoot it at a time when they were already-busy performing the show for sold-out audiences on a nearly-daily basis. So, how exactly did they pull it off?
Speaking to GMA ahead of Hamilton's release on Disney+, Miranda revealed the shoot took place over the course of three days. It began with a Sunday matinee performance of the show, with cameras placed in the audience to capture the action in wide shots. After the theater emptied out, Miranda said they continued to film "closeups and dolly shots and crane shots" all the way through to the night. The shoot carried on the following Monday (which would've normally been the cast's day off), with Kali and his crew filming "closeups and steadicam and all the coverage you would want to get in a movie." Finally, additional photography took place the following Tuesday morning and night, with cameras once again being placed among the members of the audience during the show's performance that evening.
The reasoning behind filming Hamilton this way was to ensure the resulting movie would be unusually immersive for a live-captured version of a Broadway musical. Most of the time, these types of stage musical recordings are more focused on coverage and less on emulating the form and style of cinema (with regard to shot selections and editing). By comparison, Hamilton was shot in a fashion that, per Disney, combines "the best elements of live theater and film [to produce] a cinematic stage performance that is a wholly new way to experience Hamilton." Early reviews for the movie have been universally positive, with critics noting it's not the same as watching Hamilton live (where actors can feed off the energy of the crowd, and vice versa), but offers a very good approximation, allowing the original stage show's story, actors, technical aspects and, of course, songs to take the spotlight.
While a proper Hamilton film adaptation might seem like a no-brainer, it's a pretty tall order. The recorded version clocks in at a hefty 160 minutes and the actual show is almost non-stop singing, save for a handful of spoken lines. It's also a rapidly-paced musical that's inherently theatrical in its design, with actors playing multiple roles and frequently appearing onstage to respond to the main action between their own musical numbers. At the same time, Miranda's show incorporates a number of elements that lend themselves to a cinematic interpretation, like when the song "Helpless" shows Hamilton's courtship of his wife, Eliza Schuyler, only for the sequence to play in reverse and unfold once more, this time from the perspective of Eliza's sister, Angelica, as she performs the tune "Satisfied". A full-blown film could also bring the musical's story to life in ways the theater simply cannot, most notably during the scenes set in the American Revolutionary War.
If a Hamilton movie ever does happen, though, it won't be for a while. Broadway musicals traditionally aren't adapted for the big screen until well after they've either closed or peaked in popularity, lest their ticket sales be reduced by providing audiences with another way of experiencing it. Miranda's all too familiar with that process himself. His other hit musical, In the Heights (which he co-wrote with Quiara Alegría Hudes), opened on Broadway in 2008, but it be would be another eleven years before production began on the film adaptation now-scheduled to open in 2021 (after being delayed by the ongoing pandemic). Not to mention, In the Heights was far less successful than Hamilton and the latter is unlikely to see a drop-off in popularity anytime soon after Broadway reopens in 2021.
Fortunately, Hamilton (with its rich themes about legacy and inclusive casting, both in terms of race and gender) is the type of show that readily stands the test of time five years after its release, and should only continue to do so in the decades to come. Miranda has half-joked about a proper film adaptation taking twenty or more years to happen, but it's honestly not an unrealistic possibility. Even mega-musicals like Phantom of the Opera and Rent took more than 15 years to make the jump to the big screen (a quick turnaround by Broadway standards), and Wicked fans are still waiting for the movie to happen, 17 years later. Thankfully, it sounds like Hamilton on Disney+ will more than suffice in the meantime.