Hamilton mania is coming to Cleveland for six weeks July 17-Aug. 26, 2018.
“Thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the world now knows his name,’’ said Gina Vernaci, executive producer at Playhouse Square. “He was bold, he was brash, he was self-destructive and at the same time he was a patriot.”
The long-awaited announcement of Hamilton’s national tour dates for Cleveland was made Tuesday night at Playhouse Square’s 2017 Broadway season launch party at the State Theatre.
Hamilton, winner of 11 Tony Awards in 2016, is the story of America’s founding father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new nation’s first Treasury secretary.
Based on Ron Chernow’s biography, it features book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and musical direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. The musical’s score blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and Broadway-style music.
Hamilton has become an international phenomenon on a scale unheard of for a Broadway musical. It won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The musical’s national tour will begin March 10 in San Francisco.
The best way to secure Hamilton tickets at Playhouse Square is to subscribe or renew current subscriptions (see www.playhousesquare.org). Single tickets won’t go on sale until after Jan. 1, 2018, Vernaci said.
The audience also got a big slice of sweetness Tuesday night when composer Sara Bareilles made a surprise appearance to celebrate the launching of the Waitress tour from Cleveland, opening the KeyBank Broadway Series Oct. 17 to Nov. 5. She treated the crowd to her singing and piano playing to She Used to Be Mine, a heartbreaking tune sung by Jenna, the title character.
Based on Adrienne Shelly’s film of the same name, Waitress tells the story of Jenna, a waitress and expert pie maker. Jenna dreams of a way out of her small town and loveless marriage. A baking contest in a nearby county and the town’s new doctor may offer her a chance at a fresh start, while her fellow waitresses offer their own recipes for happiness.
“These are complicated, messy human beings,’’ said Bareilles, who will join the Broadway cast March 31 as lead Jenna. “These are good people who make some mistakes.”
Here’s the rest of the 2017-18 season:
• On Your Feet! Dec. 5-23. The 2015 jukebox musical is based on the lives of husband-and-wife team Emilio and Gloria Estefan, musicians who came to Miami from Cuba with a Latin beat and the desire to cross over into rock ’n’ roll. Producer Randy Buck, a guest Tuesday night, said this autobiographical story of immigration and the American dream follows the Estefans after they fled Cuba during the Cuban Revolution.
• Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies Jan. 9-28, a project Webber has been working on since The Phantom of the Opera that is coming from Hamburg, Germany. This sequel occurs a decade after the events at the Paris Opera House. The Phantom is transported to Coney Island, where he feels “comfortable among snake charmers and freaks,” according to Vernaci. Christine, Raoul, Meg, Madame Giry and others from the original Phantom story also come to America.
• The 20th anniversary tour of Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by the late Jonathan Larson, March 6-25, 2018.
• The play The Humans, April 10-28, 2018. The one-act play written by Stephen Karam was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2016 Tony Award for best play. A family gathering for Thanksgiving deals with issues of aging, illness and a changing economy.
• The Disney musical Aladdin will take audiences on a magic carpet ride for four weeks May 2-27, 2018.
The musical composed by Alan Menken is based on the 1992 Disney animated film.
Read more about the season in the Beacon Journal’s Sunday Life section.
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her at @KerryClawsonABJ or www.facebook.com/kclawsonabj.