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Obama attends matinee performance of Broadway’s ‘Hamilton’
When is it easy to get the hottest ticket in town? When you're the country's commander-in-chief.
Members of the Secret Service counter sniper team watch over the Richard Rodgers Theatre while US President Barack Obama attends a showing of "Hamilton" with his daughter Sasha Obama and Malia Obama on July 18, 2015 in N.Y.AFP/Getty Images
By
Nick Ramsey
Here’s another perk of being the president: easy access to the hottest show in town.
President Obama attended Saturday’s matinee performance of Broadway’s “Hamilton.” The hit musical is currently in previews and officially opens on August 6.
Ahead of the show, crowds gathered behind barricades along sidewalks in New York’s Theater District to catch a glimpse of the president’s motorcade. During the show, Secret Service agents could be seen atop the Richard Rodgers Theatre marquee keeping watch.
“Hamilton,” which injects hip-hop into the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, is already a bona fide hit. The show sold out every performance during its 15-week off-Broadway run earlier this year, and has already sold over 200,000 tickets for its Broadway run, according to NBC New York. That’s a total of $27.6 million in Broadway sales to date.
The show’s writer and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, attended the same performance. The “Hamilton” creator has turned things over to his understudy, Javier Muñoz, for three performances ahead of the official opening in order to evaluate the show, The New York Times reports.
Muñoz, who also served as Miranda’s understudy during the play’s off-Broadway run, will continue to play the show’s title role for one performance each week throughout “Hamilton’s” time on Broadway, according to Playbill.
Miranda even posted some snarky tweets on Saturday morning joking about meeting the president and his wife’s high school boyfriend at the same show.
From the Stay Humble Dept:
Vanessa's high school boyfriend has tickets for today's matinee too.
Everything happens at once.
Good morning.
First daughters Sasha and Malia Obama joined the president. The three spent Saturday morning visiting New York’s Central Park with the president’s sister and brother-in-law, Maya Soetoro-Ng and Konrad Ng, along with some friends, the Associated Press reports. Friday night, the president took his daughters to an Italian dinner in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and an after-hours tour of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
First Lady Michelle Obama did not join her husband and daughters for the Broadway show. She caught “Hamilton” in April during its previous run at New York’s Public Theatre.
President Obama arrived in New York City on Friday evening for a DNC fundraiser at a private residence. That event was closed to the press according to the president’s public schedule.
Saturday’s show wasn’t the first time President Obama’s saw some of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work involving “Hamilton.” The actor and writer performed a selection from what he was then calling “The Hamilton Mixtape” at a White House event for poetry and music in 2009.
Nick Ramsey
Nick Ramsey is a senior producer with MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) July 18, 2015
