“Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s landmark musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, had its coronation Sunday at the 70th Tony Awards. As expected, the show won for best musical, capping a triumphant season that seized the attention not just of Broadway but of the entire nation.
The ceremony, which was held at New York’s Beacon Theatre, was muted by the devastating attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Host James Corden prefaced the evening with an expression of sympathy for all “affected by this atrocity.”
He went on to affirm the theater as “a place where every race, creed, sexuality and gender is equal, is embraced and is loved.” References to the tragedy were contained, but Miranda, in accepting the award for best original score, addressed the heart of the matter in a sonnet he wrote for his wife that reminded everyone that “love is love is love is love” and “cannot be killed or swept aside.”
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A beacon of diversity, “Hamilton” was the right recipient of adulation on this somber night. The musical deploys the language of hip-hop to interpret America’s founding as an immigrant tale. The historical roles — all those illustrious freedom fighters we first encountered in our social studies textbooks — are performed by actors of color.
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Danai Gurira, Julian Fellowes and Andrea Martins attend the 70th Tony Awards at The Beacon Theatre in New York.
(Charles Sykes/Invision/AP (right and left); Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions (center))
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Vanessa Nadal and Lin-Manuel Miranda arrive at the Tony Awards.
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
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Lupita Nyong’o
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
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Host James Corden and his wife, Julia Carey, at the Tony Awards.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Neil Patrick Harris, left, and husband David Burtka wear silver ribbons at the Tony Awards to honor the victims of the Orlando, Fla., shooting.
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
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Cate Blanchett
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Heather Headley, from left, Allison Williams and Danielle Brooks.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions (from left); Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; Charles Sykes/Invision/Associated Press)
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Common, from left, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Zainab Jah.
(Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for FIJI Water (left and center); Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Nicolette Robinson and Leslie Odom Jr.
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
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Saoirse Ronan
(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions )
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Actor Zachary Levi takes a selfie with fans before the start of the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
(Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Tony Awards)
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Jane Krakowski and Krysta Rodriguez.
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
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Sophie Okonedo, from left, Michelle Williams and Sara Bareilles.
(Charles Sykes/Invision/AP (from left); Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Lighting designer Justin Townsend and Elena Araoz.
(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Busy Philipps, Questlove and Beth Behrs
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Carole King and Lucy Liu.
(Left - Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; right - Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy
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Chita Rivera, from left, Laura Benanti and Judith Light.
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
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Christopher Jackson
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Bebe Neuwirth, Daniel Dae Kim and Uzo Aduba
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions (from left); Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; Charles Sykes/Invision/Associated Press)
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Actress Ali Stroker attends the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Actress Nikki M. James attends the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Actress Laura Michelle Kelly attends the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
( Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Jessica Lange
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David Zinn attends the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
(Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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David Rockwell attends the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
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Megan Hilty, left, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
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Detroit drama teacher Marilyn McCormick attends the 70th Tony Awards at The Beacon Theatre in New York City. McCormick is the recipient of the Tonys’ Excellence in Theatre Education Award.
Excellence in Theatre Education Award,
Excellence in Theatre Education Award,
(Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
This has made “Hamilton” unique among Broadway blockbusters in its potential to move beyond theater’s traditional white, older and well-heeled demographic. By contrast, “The Book of Mormon” and “The Producers,” to cite two other runaway successes of the new millennium, helped make popular musicals a luxury goods item for the expense account set.
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“Hamilton” picked up 11 awards, falling just short of the record for a musical of 12 Tonys held by “The Producers.” History was nonetheless made this Broadway season by a show that broke out of the theater bubble to become a cross-discipline sensation.
Since “Hamilton” opened in August at the Richard Rodgers Theatre to hosannas from all quarters, the cultural world has been divided into two camps: Those who through connections or credit card munificence or quick action were able to score a ticket and those who are still waiting to get their shot.
This was by any reckoning an extraordinary year for Broadway. Its cultural visibility, thanks in no small measure to the cool cred of “Hamilton,” is greater than ever. New York’s theater district has become a magnet not just for crowds but for big money. According to the Broadway League, this was the best attended and highest grossing season in Broadway history.
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But like the economic picture of the country in general, Broadway reflects a growing divide. There are the megahits (the one-percent, if you will) and then there’s the long list of shows struggling for solvency. The old saying that you can make a killing but not a living in the theater has never seemed more apt.
Visionary producers like Scott Rudin (who shepherded Stephen Karam’s “The Humans,” two Arthur Miller revivals by the envelope-pushing European auteur Ivo van Hove and the unnerving drama “Blackbird,” among other productions, to Broadway this season) and Oskar Eustis (the artistic director of the Public Theater, which helped launch to Broadway last year’s Tony winner “Fun Home” as well as this season’s “Hamilton” and the Tony-nominated drama “Eclipsed”) are not only fighting the good fight, but they’re scoring impressive victories.
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It was a banner night for “Hamilton” (yeah, we saw it coming, but still), and they performed here at the end of the night. But “The Humans,” “The Color Purple” and more enjoyed accolades amid an air of sadness for the events in Orlando.
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Producer Jeffrey Seller, center, accepts the Tony Award for best musical for “Hamilton.”
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Producer Scott Rudin, foreground, and the cast and crew of “A View From the Bridge” accept the award for best revival of a play.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Presenter Audra McDonald speaks.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Cynthia Erivo accepts the award for lead actress in a musical in “The Color Purple.”
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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The cast of “Hamilton” performs during the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Andrew Rannells performs onstage during the 70th Tony Awards.
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Glenn Close performs onstage during the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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A quartet plays along as the ‘In Memoriam’ section of 70th Tony Awards at The Beacon Theatre plays on behind them.
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Frank Langella accepts the award for leading actor in a play for “The Father.”
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Leslie Odom Jr. accepts the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical in “Hamilton.”
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Playwright Stephen Karam accepts the Tony Award for best play for “The Humans.”
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Jessica Lange accepts the award for lead actress in a play for “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Jessie Mueller and the cast of “Waitress” perform onstage during the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Steve Martin and musician Edie Brickell speak onstage during the 70th Tony Awards.
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Bebe Neuwirth and the cast of “Chicago” perform onstage during the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Sheldon Harnick accepts the special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre at the Tony Awards.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Gloria Estefan performs with the “On Your Feet!” cast onstage during the Tonys.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Reed Birney accepts the award for featured actor in a play for “The Humans.”
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Andrew Rannells, Zachary Levi and James Corden speak onstage.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Composer Alex Lacamoire accepts the award for best orchestrations for his work in “Hamilton.”
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Diane Lane speaks onstage with a backdrop of “Arthur Miller’s the Crucible.”
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Oprah Winfrey introduces a performance by the cast of “The Color Purple.”
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Heather Headley, standing, and the cast of “The Color Purple” perform at the Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Cynthia Erivo and the cast of “The Color Purple” perform at the Tony Awards.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Meg Ryan speaks onstage during the 70th Tony Awards.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Laura Benanti of “She Loves Me” performs onstage during the 70th Tony Awards.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Lucy Liu present the award for best direction of a musical.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Steve Martin and the cast of “Bright Star” perform at the Tony Awards.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Carmen Cusack and the cast of “Bright Star” perform during the Tonys.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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The cast of “Spring Awakening” performs at the Tony Awards.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Nathan Lane presents the award for lead actress in a play.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of “Hamilton” perform onstage during the Tonys.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Host James Corden performs during the opening number for the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Tony Awards host James Corden gets into his act during the opening number.
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“Hamilton’s” Leslie Odom Jr. performs onstage during the 70th Tony Awards.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Actor Brian Stokes Mitchell accepts the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Josh Groban wears a silver ribbon at the Tony Awards in tribute to the victims of the Orlando, Fla., shooting.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Jonathan Groff, from left, Laura Benanti, host James Corden, Jane Krakowski, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Zachary Levi and Danielle Brooks perform onstage at the Tony Awards.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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David Zinn accepts the award for best scenic design of a play.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Andrew Lloyd Webber
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Alex Brightman and the cast of “School of Rock” perform during the 70th Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Renee Elise Goldsberry accepts the award for featured actress in a musical for “Hamilton.”
(Evan Agostini / Invision / AP)
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“Hamilton” director Thomas Kail accepts the award for direction of a musical during the 70th Tony Awards.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Jake Gyllenhaal presents an award onstage at the Tony Awards.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Lin-Manuel Miranda accepts the award for best original score for “Hamilton.”
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Daveed Diggs accepts the award for featured actor in a musical for “Hamilton.”
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
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Jane Krakowski and Gavin Creel of “She Loves Me” perform onstage.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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The cast of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ performs onstage.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Musicals with marketing hooks and plays with big-name stars are still the safest bets. Yet this season was unique in that four of the dramas in contention for best play were by writers younger than 40, none of whom was particularly well known.
The winner, Karam’s “The Humans,” dramatizes the emotional fallout of growing middle-class insecurity on family members fumbling to make sense of their lives after the American dream has faded. Broadway itself, however, is still caught in the cliffhanger of another economic story line — that of an art form trying to move into the future without being neutralized by commercial interests.
This is why the excitement over “Hamilton” is so vital. The show has the potential to be a game-changer, lighting a path that leads from diversity on the stage to diversity in the audience.
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Sure, the news that the price of premium tickets was being jacked up to $849 as a way of dealing with the skyrocketing scalper market only solidified the sense that Broadway is the plaything of the ultra-rich. But “Hamilton” makes available $10 tickets for each performance through a lottery. And underway is a program, financed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the show’s producers, to bring 20,000 New York City high school students to matinees.
This is a money-printing juggernaut with a conscience — one that recognizes that the cultivation of a new generation of theatergoers must be part of the producing vision if Broadway is to survive as something more than a fat-cat commodity.
“Hamilton” has received an avalanche of press and I’ll admit that I’m nearly tapped out of praise. But it’s inspiring to see artistic innovation not only validated by the Tonys but embraced on such a popular scale.
Broadway has become reliant on tourism, but tourists don’t flock to New York for generic glitz and empty spectacle. They want what the theater can uniquely provide — a public confrontation with the cultural pulse, the gathering of marginal voices into a mainstream choir, virtuosity marshaled for a greater purpose.
Old hat is a losing business model, the mercenary pursuit of a dwindling tribe. Yes, even the classics need to be served with fresh inspiration, as the innovative productions of Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” and “The Crucible” attest. Not only did van Hove win for his direction of “A View From the Bridge” but this daring production — a rejuvenating feat of deconstruction — won for best revival.
A healthy art form shouldn’t have to rely on blockbusters. The movie business’ tent-pole strategy might work for studio shareholders, but it has driven serious adult drama to the small screen. Similarly, the zombie march of jukebox musicals and star vehicles threatened to banish more ambitious theatrical pursuits from Broadway.
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Grand successes like “Hamilton” prove that art and commerce can join hands for their mutual benefit. More important, this once-in-a-generation hit reminds us that Broadway thrives when its soul is attended to.
Next year’s Tonys will not likely include anything of the magnitude of “Hamilton,” but Broadway’s future is brighter for its path-breaking example. And on a night when the country was reeling from the shock of what happened in Orlando, the values embodied by this musical were especially worthy of salute.
Charles McNulty is the theater critic of the Los Angeles Times. He received his doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama.
