“Hamilton” creator-star Lin-Manuel Miranda is bringing his Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical to ancestral Puerto Rico, with himself reprising the role of founding father Alexander Hamilton.
“When I last visited the island, a few weeks before Hurricane Maria, I had made a commitment to not only bring the show to Puerto Rico, but also return again to the title role,” Miranda, 37, said in a statement Wednesday announcing the three-week run from Jan. 8-27, 2019, at the Teatro UPR in San Juan. “In the aftermath of Maria we decided to expedite the announcement of the project to send a bold message that Puerto Rico will recover and be back in business, stronger than ever.”
Miranda was born in Manhattan and raised in that borough’s Inwood neighborhood, the son of Puerto Rico-born parents. During childhood, he spent summers with his paternal grandparents in the Puerto Rican town of Vega Alta.
The Teatro UPR suffered damage during Hurricane Maria’s landfall on Sept. 20, and will undergo repairs before the musical’s opening, including roofing and ventilation systems damaged by the Category 4 storm, producers said.
Miranda, who played the Tony-nominated title role from the musical’s first preview on July 13, 2015, through July 9, 2016, had brought his 2008 Tony-winning Best Musical “In the Heights” to Puerto Rico in 2010.
Additional casting and box office information for the engagement will be announced later.
