Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Directive He Received From Sondheim: “Get Back to the Piano and Get Back to Writing”
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After the death of Stephen Sondheim in November 2021, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda refocused his energy on writing musicals.
Speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday, in conversation with Rosie Perez, Miranda said he was greatly affected by the death of the legendary composer, who was a friend and a mentor. His passing inspired Miranda, whose career has included acting, directing movies and composing, to return to songwriting.
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“I think two things happened when he passed. One was this loud and clear directive from either God or Sondheim, of ‘Get back to the piano and get back to writing,’” Miranda said. “So that’s a lot of what I’m doing now.”
The goal, Miranda says, is to “get as much of that stuff that’s in me, out of me, as possible,” which also means not writing another Hamilton or In the Heights.
“I think the other lesson was in never repeating yourself,” he continued. “I’m not doing another historical show. I’m not doing another neighborhood show.”
And Miranda, who also starred in Hamilton and In the Heights and appeared in onscreen acting roles such as Mary Poppins Returns, says he is generally not acting anymore.
He still has film aspirations, but Miranda, who directed the film adaptation of Tick, Tick … Boom!, says they are more modest than his stage goals.
“I want to direct funky little musicals that no one else would think is a movie,” he said.
While Miranda says his first love was film, he studied theater at Wesleyan University because he did not have the money to make his own films in college, whereas theatrical productions were supported by the school. That’s where he started writing In the Heights, which later won the 2008 Tony Award for best musical and launched Miranda’s theatrical career.
After writing Hamilton, Miranda took on more film and TV work in order to “get to do the film school I didn’t get to do.” That included his role in Mary Poppins Returns, which he said he took to watch Rob Marshall direct a movie musical, producing the TV series Fosse/Verdon and watching director Jon Chu adapt In the Heights for the screen. The composer has also written music for Disney’s Moana, Encanto and the new live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid.
Miranda says he loves writing songs because of the ”pure and frictionless” process of being able to sit down at a piano and produce something that night. He grew up loving theater and musicals and turned to creating them because he didn’t see existing opportunities for himself on the stage.
“It began out of fear. It was, ‘I want a life in this business, and I don’t think anybody is going to give it to me,’” he said.
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