Musical phenomenon Hamilton has landed 11 Tonys but Broadway’s equivalent of the Oscars was inevitably overshadowed by the Orlando shootings.
The show’s creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda making reference to the shootings in a sonnet accepting a Tony Award for his writing of the show’s music and book.
Miranda later said: “You have tragic acts like today when you realize tomorrow is not promised and yet you endeavor to write things that you know are going to take years. That paradox and that schism has been all of it.”
Perfect @Lin_Manuel LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) June 13, 2016
But Christopher Jackson, who plays George Washington in the show, played down comparisons with the Orlando tragedy, telling Heat Street: “There’s really not an honest parallel between the act that happened in Florida and what these families are now dealing with and what we’re doing which is celebrating a year’s worth of a community of people trying to do something well and put something in the world that means something.”
Lead Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller said: “It has reminded me yet again of how all of our lives are intersections of joy, and tragedy. The tragedy has dampened it [the Tonys] a little bit, made it tougher.”
The cast of Hamilton will perform without muskets tonight on the Tonys as a statement for harsher gun control. pic.twitter.com/Cn7Ak0zUPK
— Shady Music Facts (@TheShadyFacts) June 13, 2016
Ali Stroker, who appeared in Tony-nominated Spring Awakening, said: “I am horrified, it is tragic, I don’t know what it’s going to take but I do know that we never solve any problems with fear. We need to embrace our community and support and love them right now. It is unbelievable that something like that could happen.”
But the tragedy failed to take the gloss of Hamilton‘s night. Three of the show’s performers won Tonys- Leslie Odom Jr. (Best Actor in a Musical as Aaron Burr), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Best Featured Actress playing Angelica Schuyler Church and Daveed Diggs (Best Featured Actor for the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson.)
Odom. Jr told Heat Street: “A secret to doing what we do is trying to keep a purity as the noise and excitement swirls around us. There’s a humility that has to stay at the core. To me it’s related to ministry – it’s providing a lot of hope to a lot of people.”
As well as Best New Musical, the show won for Tommy Kail’s direction, Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography, Alex Lacamoire’s orchestrations, Paul Tazewell’s costumes and Howell Binkley’s lighting design but it fell one short of the record 12 Tony Awards won by The Producers in 2001.
James Corden, who hosted the Tony Awards, later told Heat Street Hamilton’s success was “amazing”.
Charlotte St Martin, President of the Broadway League, a consortium of Broadway producers and theatre owners, said: “People who don’t necessarily do Broadway come and see Hamilton and half of that audience then goes sees something else.”
She added: “We’ll all be dead before it closes!”
An unforgettable night at @TavernGreenNYC with @questlove spinning until dawn! https://t.co/gIS2Um6bN2
— Hamilton (@HamiltonMusical) June 13, 2016
