Filmed over three nights during the show’s Broadway run, the recording stars the original cast members including Lin-Manuel Miranda (who also wrote the show) in the role of Alexander Hamilton himself. The hiphop musical originally opened on Broadway in 2015 and had audiences in raptures from the offset, going on to be nominated for a record-breaking 16 Tony Awards and taking home 11 of them, including the prestigious award for Best Musical. In 2016 the show also received a Pulitzer Prize. 

The plot of Hamilton centres around the life of Alexander Hamilton, a poor but brilliantly talented immigrant who arrives in America in 1776, just as the country is on the cusp of revolution. Hamilton’s rise is meteoric, but of course not without challenges - he becomes one of the founding fathers of the new US constitution. 

The story of Hamilton is obviously a biographical history, but more than that, the show is about how history is remembered and forged by those in power. The lyric ‘history has its eyes on you’ is a refrain throughout the show, and in our current social climate with the Black Lives Matter movement in firm focus, it feels as if history is indeed watching - will you remember what you did during this time? In an introductory video message, Lin-Manuel Miranda echoed this sentiment: ‘So much of what Hamilton is about is how history remembers, and how that changes over time. ‘It takes on a different meaning when you see Black and brown performers telling the origin story of our country.’ Hamilton is famously cast colour-blind, with white historical figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson portrayed by actors of colour. When interviewed on the subject, Lin-Manuel Miranda explained how he wanted a cast that ‘looks like America looks now’, so the story of the founding fathers could be accessible to a new wider audience.

Stream Hamilton: An American Musical on Disney+ now.