Hamilton Will Be Filmed; Mixtape and Documentary Released This Fall

At today’s press conference led by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony-winning author revealed details on all of his upcoming projects.

“There’s a cover of ‘Satisfied’ that is going to blow your f*cking minds—you can put asterisks through that!” Lin-Manuel Miranda said enthusiastically at the June 16 press conference announcing his departure from his megahit Tony Award-winning musical and revealing details on his Hamilton Mixtape. He could not reveal which artist is covering “Satisfied”; however, in response to a reporter’s question, he admitted that her name did not rhyme with Shmayoncé.

Unlike In the Heights, which had multiple songs land on the cutting room floor, “it’s more like a satchel [of songs cut from Hamilton],” he said. And, audiences will get to hear them when The Hamilton Mixtape drops in October.

“Hamilton’s story was pretty clear,” he said. “There’s probably 10-15 songs [that were cut], which is really good batting average for me, and we’re releasing some of those on the Hamilton Mixtape that will come out in the fall. That is still deciding what it wants to be. I’m letting the artists who are [involved] take the lead on that. It’s right now a mix of covers and ‘inspired-bys.’ So there will be a cover of ‘My Shot.’ The chorus is our chorus, but the verses are incredible rappers doing what they do and writing incredible verses that I didn’t write.

“In addition to [covers],” he explained, there will be multiple demos of songs that didn’t make the final cut. “So I’m going to put that cut slavery rap battle that was in the book… We’re putting my demo of that on [the album]. I have a song called ‘Valley Forge’ that I cut that we actually performed in the Lincoln Center concert. I sort of took the best lines from it and put it in ‘Stay Alive,’ but the ‘Valley Forge’ demo will be on the recording. There’s a number of other demos… ‘Congratulations’ was a song that Angelica had. I think we’re putting that on the Mixtape. So there’s going to be like six or seven of the cut tunes on that as interludes between these amazing artists. A lot of my favorite rap albums have skits, so those are our skits, like me singing hoarsely at four in the morning with these tunes.”

One song he did not confirm would make the Mixtape was a cut song entitled “Let It Go,” Alexander Hamilton getting angry when Aaron Burr decides to run for the Senate and Hamilton’s wife Eliza tells him, “You can’t get mad anytime any one else has success.”

“There was another ‘Let It Go’ that was doing very well, thank you very much,” he joked, referring to the smash success by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez from the Disney film Frozen.

In addition to The Hamilton Mixtape, Miranda revealed that a 90-minute Hamilton documentary film will be released October 17 on PBS’ Great Performances.

“It’s also by RadicalMedia. It’s going to have footage from the show that no one has seen yet,” he said. “I want to preface this. It’s not like the Heights doc. It’s not the road to Broadway. We lived that movie already. It’s a great little Great Performances movie; this is very different. This is sort of where Hamilton intersects with history.

“Alex Horwitz, who is directing the doc, is one of my best friends from college in addition to being a very talented filmmaker. He just started filming me when I was writing it very early [on]. He’s got footage of me writing ‘My Shot’ in the Morris-Jumel Mansion, working out Burr’s ‘Gentleman, lower your voices…’ He’s got this insane footage because he was like, ‘Can I throw a camera on you since you’re writing this thing?’ And, he’s gone on to get interviews with—my God—George W. Bush, the Obamas, Jimmy Fallon, Questlove.”

In addition, Miranda said that he also did sit-down interviews for the documentary, which is titled Hamilton’s America.

“I did sit-down interviews with [Stephen] Sondheim and John Weidman,” he said. “I did a sit-down interview with [rapper] Nas to talk about writing lyrics for the theatre and writing lyrics for hip-hop and where they [intersect]. [The film is] more of a ‘How this thing came together.’”

In addition to the PBS documentary, RadicalMedia will be filming Hamilton, led by Miranda, at the Richard Rodgers Theatre over the course of two performances later this month. Miranda’s representative confirmed that performances will be filmed in front of a live audience; however, use of the footage in its entirety or otherwise has yet to be determined.