The hit musical “Hamilton” has excited critics and audiences with its hip-hop exploration of America’s revolutionary era. Now educators and philanthropists are hoping it will excite high school students as well.

The Rockefeller Foundation and the producers have agreed to finance a program to bring 20,000 New York City 11th graders, all from schools with high percentages of students from low-income families, to see “Hamilton” at a series of matinees beginning next spring and running through 2017. The lead producer, Jeffrey Seller, said he was planning to continue the program after that time in New York City and then on the road once the show — a bio-musical about Alexander Hamilton with Hispanic and black actors playing the founding fathers — begins its expected touring life.

The Rockefeller Foundation president, Judith Rodin, said that her organization had committed $1.5 million to subsidize student tickets and to develop educational materials that will help students contextualize the show.

“Here’s a story that talks about American history and the ideals of American democracy, and it features an immigrant who is impoverished initially and shows through perseverance and grit what he can achieve, in a vernacular that speaks to young people, written by a product of New York public education,” Ms. Rodin said. “Could there possibly be a better combination in terms of speaking to students?”