Lin-Manuel Miranda has declared his independence from “Hamilton”, the creator-star’s Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning musical of the Revolutionary War and its aftermath.
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Miranda got a one-minute standing ovation on his first entrance in the opening number, “Alexander Hamilton, ” followed by many more ovations throughout the night, including his emotional curtain call. He posted a photo of his newly shorn locks on Twitter soon after taking his final bow, captioned with a lyric from the “Hamilton” song “One Last Time”.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of “Hamilton” perform onstage during the 70th Annual Tony Awards at The Beacon Theatre on June 12, 2016 in New York City.
Humbly bowing out with fellow exiting cast members, Leslie Odom Jr and Phillipa Soo, the popular actor was then pushed to the front of the stage to take a final, solo bow as the theme song to The West Wing played.
“I’m leaving because I have other opportunities that are going to need my mental real estate”, Miranda explained last month, according to The New York Times. After his final performance was over, he concluded, “It’s been a bit of a day”. “I have a lot of friends who were never into Broadway and now they love it”.
He appeared at the cast party with his new look.
The composer and star’s longtime onstage alternate Munoz will take over the titular role next week, alongside Lexi Lawson as Eliza Schuyler Hamilton.
Lin-Manuel has said he plans to occasionally return to “Hamilton” in the future – so it seems like he too will don a wig when that happens.
He recently collaborated on a charity track with Jennifer Lopez, while production bosses at The Weinstein Co. also picked up the movie rights for his previous Broadway success In The Heights, which featured a semi-autobiographical story penned by Miranda himself.
A Chicago production of “Hamilton” will open this fall and a touring production begins a 21-week run in San Francisco in 2017 before moving to Los Angeles.
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Miranda will next be seen opposite Emily Blunt in Disney’s “Mary Poppins” sequel, while he also wrote music for Disney’s upcoming animation “Moana”.
