Summary

Introduction - The introduction, written by theatre artist (and former drama critic) Jeremy McCarter, discusses several elements that drew him into the creation of the show, including his belief that rap and hip-hop, in the rhythms of their language and music, had a great deal of potential as a vocabulary for theatrical storytelling. He also describes how he came to believe that the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, was the best person to capitalize on that potential, and how, as they started working on the project, they came to realize the many parallels between the revolution in theatrical storytelling Lin proposed and developed, and the American Revolution in which the show’s title character, Alexander Hamilton, played a key role. McCarter then discusses the process of putting the book together, commenting on the fact that while the show was essentially the vision of one...