IMPORTANT UPDATE: DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has resigned.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of Hamilton, was dissed for ‘being a baby’ by Democratic National Committee Finance Director Jordan Kaplan in the run-up to a DNC fundraiser last November for the show attended by President Obama, according to hacked emails published on Wikileaks.
The Democrats arranged a special show of Hamilton three months after the Broadway phenomenon opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre for over 1,300 supporters with donors paying as much as $10,000 for two seats and a photo with President Obama.
But the Wikileaks email exchanges between DNC Finance Director Kaplan and Bobby Schmuck, Special Assistant to the President, reveal DNC-Hamilton tensions two months prior to the event over the fact that Miranda initially did not want to perform on the scheduled fundraiser date of Monday, November 2. As is Broadway convention, Monday is the show’s day off.
“They want us to come on 11/1,” Kaplan wrote to Schmuck, seemingly a reference to the Hamilton creative team’s preference to hold the fundraiser on a Sunday. “They called Simas [David Simas, White House Political Director].”
After Schmuck had replied, “That’s not going to happen”, Kaplan disparagingly wrote: “Yeah, I think they know its ridiculous – Lin Manuel Miranda isn’t playing on Monday and he is being a baby.”
The Hamilton supremo – who recently relinquished duties playing the ten dollar Founding Father and who is currently on vacation- is unlikely to be enamored that the DNC National Finance Chair dubbed him a ‘baby’ for wanting to retain his day off.
Ultimately the Hamilton cast acquiesced and performed the DNC fundraiser on their day off. President Obama did not attend the performance, which was bought out entirely for the night by the Democratic Hope Fund, but addressed donors afterwards for half an hour.
Although the tensions between the DNC and Lin-Manuel Miranda had not previously come to light, the star cited his additional performance schedule when the fundraiser was announced last October in a humorous tweet that, in hindsight, no longer seems such a joke:
President got us workin on a Monday, yo. ???????? ????????
https://t.co/kJVr8ckHhB— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) October 2, 2015
Miranda has been a frequent supporter of the Democrats and a fortnight ago joined Clinton for another special Hamilton DNC fundraiser.
That performance raised an estimated $3.5 million for the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee’s campaign. Comparing Clinton with Donald Trump, Miranda said at the fundraiser: “Are you going to vote for the guy who wants to build walls or the person who wants to build bridges?”
Hillary Clinton has seen the show three times while the Obamas have also seen it more than once and hosted numerous Hamilton events in the White House. Michelle Obama said Hamilton was “the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life”.
From the stage of “Hamilton” on Broadway, Pres Obama waves to 1300 DNC donors who paid $500 to $10,000 to attend. pic.twitter.com/Hy7J7yZfpr
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) November 3, 2015
It is not the only embarrassing disclosure for Kaplan contained in the Wikileaks emails. He jokes about sweatpants, sets up times to view an apartment and imploring a colleague, “Don’t be a dick.”
The Wikileaks emails also reveal that DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz pleaded with an aide to try and obtain seven tickets to Hamilton for a college reunion she was attending in New York last December.
As for Lin-Manuel Miranda being a “baby”, how many infants do you know out there who can take a whole year to write the iconic Hamilton song My Shot?
Include women in the sequel. #WORK @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/mRcX5GPGzs
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) July 12, 2016
