Art@Work
Since it first appeared on Broadway in the summer of 2015, Hamilton has been a smash hit. It’s beloved by both audiences and theater critics, and has won a slew of awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Hamilton is a historical story, but the show looks and sounds like the United States today. Rap, hip-hop, rhythm and blues, and even classic pop-rock music help tell the story of Alexander Hamilton, the “Ten-Dollar Founding Father.” And while he and George Washington and other American figures at the time were white men, most of the show’s performers are of Latino, African American, or other non-European descent and include several women.
By 2016, Miguel Cervantes was teaching and landed a part in the Broadway production. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created and originally starred in it on Broadway, soon chose Cervantes to star as Hamilton in the Chicago production. The reviews were stellar. Acritic wrote that Cervantes “gives Hamilton a coiled intensity” and “the musicality of the actor’s voice is exceptional.”
