Hamilton isn’t omnipresent anymore the way it was throughout 2016, when the musical appeared on seemingly every year-end list. (Best Movie of the Year: Hamilton; Best Restaurant of the Year: Hamilton; Best Broadway Production About One of America’s Founding Fathers: weirdly, that went to Shrek: The Musical.) But it will still cost you an arm, a leg, a torso, your feet, and an eyeball (dealer’s choice) to buy tickets. If you enjoy your body parts and can’t afford a ticket, but want to see Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda is here to help you out.
For Ellen DeGeneres’ “Show Me More Show” YouTube series, the “Heynong Man” himself performed Hamilton in under three minutes with help from the host’s “presidential expert,” Macey Hensley. (The seven-year-old has an “encyclopedic knowledge of presidents, vice presidents, and first ladies.”) The video is like a SparkNotes summary of the musical, which is helpful for convincing your friends, “I know everything about Hercules Mulligan.”
Miranda gave his last performance in Hamilton in July 2016, but he’s reprising his role as Alexander Hamilton for a special three-week engagement in Puerto Rico next year. “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,” he said. “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.”