After paying a reported $75 million for worldwide broadcast rights to the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” and creating its own theatrical recording of it set to appear on big movie screens in the fall, Disney has decided to debut it on its streaming service Disney+ on July 3.
The original plan was for it to reach theaters in October 2021. But the uncertainty of how movie theaters will be able to operate in a coronavirus pandemic world, and with people staying home in droves by choice or government mandate creating a huge demand for streamed content … the plan changed.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator, and Bob Iger, executive chairman of The Walt Disney Company, made the announcement Tuesday morning on “Good Morning America.”
“I can’t think of another work of art in the last decade that’s had the cultural impact of ‘Hamilton,'” Iger told the ABC morning show. “I just think it’s brilliant and in these times to tell the story of people uniting together against forces of diversity I think is quite relevant and actually quite important.”
The “Hamilton” performance that will air on Disney+ was filmed over three days in July 2016 with the original cast.
The original Broadway cast appearing in the film include Miranda as Alexander Hamilton as well as fellow “Hamilton” Tony winners Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, and Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr.
The cast also included Tony nominees Christopher Jackson as George Washington; Jonathan Groff as King George, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds.
“Just imagine having the best seat in the house,” Miranda said of watching the original cast perform in the filmed version. “You’re getting it from the director of the actual show and he knows exactly where to put the camera.”
“Hamilton” received a record 16 nominations at the 2016 Tony awards and won 11, including best musical.
