Lin-Manuel Miranda shares behind-the-scenes videos of "Hamilton" rehearsals in Puerto Rico
"Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda gave Twitter followers a behind-the-scenes look on Friday at rehearsals for the show in Puerto Rico. Sharing videos of a sitzprobe – a rehearsal with the cast and orchestra of a show – Miranda showed people what happens before Hamilton performances.
"This is my favorite thing we do at every Hamilton sitz: watch @LacketyLac & the band break down the Yorktown dance break!" Miranda tweeted. He tagged the show's music director, Alex Lacamoire, who arranged the music for the hit musical.
Sitzprobe!
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 4, 2019
This is my favorite thing we do at every Hamilton sitz: watch @LacketyLac& the band break down the Yorktown dance break!
Pt. 1: pic.twitter.com/5AXPjsZ50I
Miranda also shared videos of the rest of the song being rehearsed in three parts.
One video shows him listening to the cast and the orchestra rehearse, then singing into a microphone. It is the first time people have seen him in the role of Hamilton since he left the Broadway version in July 2016.
#Sitzprobe #HamiltonPR #JustYouWait pic.twitter.com/dqZ4g7r2YP
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 4, 2019
Miranda is bringing his Broadway smash to Puerto Rico to raise money. For three weeks in January, the cast of Miranda's revolutionary creation will perform the show as part of a $15 million fundraising effort that Miranda is leading.
Proceeds from the show will go to supporting the arts, an initiative Miranda announced after visiting Puerto Rico about 15 months ago. After Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, Miranda returned to the island, where his parents were born.
It was then that he announced he will focus on rebuilding Puerto Rico, and in the process return to the role that made him a star: Alexander Hamilton.
The first full rehearsal for the show took place on January 2, said Rick Negron, a Puerto Rico-born actor playing King George III.
Speaking to CBS News this week from Puerto Rico, Negron said the theater where the show will be performed is an opera house built in the 1980s, and it's the same stage on which he and Miranda performed in 2010 when Miranda brought "In the Heights" to Puerto Rico. Negron and Miranda had a nice moment reminiscing about the last time they were on that stage together, the actor said.
On January 11, CBS News correspondent David Begnaud will conduct the first live interview in Puerto Rico with Miranda as "Hamilton" prepares to open for its three-week run. The interview will air on "CBS This Morning" and additional coverage will be broadcast on the "CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor," "CBS This Morning: Saturday," and on CBSN, CBS News' 24/7 streaming news service.
"CBS This Morning" will also be the first to have behind-the-scenes access to the production as it prepares to open, including a backstage tour with Negron.