OnMary Poppins Returns,Hamiltonin Puerto Rico, and What Hell Do Next.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda slumps into a chair, exhausted.
Its too early to know what form they will take stage, film, or TV.
Tomorrow he flies to Mexico City, followed by Paris, then London, then Miami.
Oh no, youre sick.My kids have been croupy for weeks now and it finally hit me.
Have you seen Mike Birbiglias new show [The New One]?I love that show.
I saw it Off Broadway before it transferred.
He talks about how children ruin your life.Yeah.
But they make up for it in other ways!
We have a 10-month-old and hes still not sleeping through the night.
Sometimes hessoawake and hes just like, Whats up!
Its 2 in the morning!
But you know, they depend on us.
You left the cast ofHamiltonin July 2016.
The context for the show has changed a whole lot since then.
Take me to November 8, 2016, Election Day.
Where were you?I was on a plane to Mexico to do press forMoana.
I had voted absentee.
I woke up in Mexico and Trump is president.
Which is a helluva way to wake up.
And I had to face down a day of press.
It had been very late at night when the election was called.
So I watchedFootball Morning in Americabecause it was the only thing on TV not talking about the election.
I had obviously worked very hard for the other team.
So it was a bit well, I was really surprised by the results.
And thats a pretty good place to be on a day like today.
Hamiltonwas written, and it debuted, in the Obama era.
Was that reaction misguided?I dont know.
Who is an American?
When do we fight in the affairs of other countries?
Those are the Cabinet Battles.
And those are the fights that are still in the paper.
Im Latino, so Ive only always seen that as a good thing.
I never saw that as a threat to anyone else.
I find that heartbreaking, but thats a reality.
We were at a theater function and I made the mistake of wearing a tux while Puerto Rican.
Here in the city.
If I told you the name of the theater company theyd die a thousand deaths of embarrassment.
But a lady called me over, like this, very friendly, waving.
And I thought,Oh, its someone who recognizes me fromIn the Heights.
And she goes, My friend didnt get her salad.
Racism is alive and well in this country.
Ever been hassled by the cops?I have not.
Ive been lucky, but I also think thats because I grew up with: Put your hands out.
Giuliani is what he is now to the country.
It was that Hes no angel thing, times infinity, with Giuliani.
So I was always very scared and shy around cops as a teenager in the subway.
And telling Puerto Ricans they are not working hard enough to repair the damage.
We were trying to raise money for Puerto Rico at the time.
So wed gotten these commitments from artists.
And thats finally when I snapped.
I didnt really snap, because those were not impulsive tweets.
They were just the only sane response.
Id never seen a president do that before.
Straight to hell is pretty blunt.It was the only language I had left.
Subsequently, Trump has separated thousands of Latino immigrant kids from their parents.
Hes tear-gassed women and children at the border.
We are bearing witness to some truly trying times in our country.
Whats gone is the shock.
And its upsetting that the shock is gone.
The show is big business.
There are a lot of peoples livelihoods involved inHamilton.
Does that sometimes constrain you from saying what you believe?I dont think so.
I think that were aware of that.
I mean, I dont think youre going to get any late-night benders from me on Twitter.
Because I am very aware that we employ a lot of people.
So there is a responsibility that comes with that.
Thats what makes it pernicious.
We had conversations in the wake of that, when weve suddenly found the spotlight on our Broadway show.
Yes, you take what you say seriously.
But you try not to ever filter yourself, because then who wins?
Is that fair?Not entirely.
Im singing lullabies at marches.
My father had a march on Mar-a-Lago last month!
But youre not just No.
I understand that my voice carries.
And when I tweet Im fully aware of the reach of it.
But at the same time I also want to get kindness back from the world.
If I tweet anger at the world Ill get anger back.
Twitter is the proof of it.
I dont want to live in that space.
Are you in therapy, currently?No.
Ill probably go back, because you should probably tune up your brain.
Ive done it at pivotal points in my life where I go,You know what?
Theres no one in my life I can talk to about this shit.
Time to go back and get a tune-up and work this shit out.
I have no stigma with that because my parents are psychologists.
She and I go to the same party for two hours.
She will have three conversations, each one about 40 to 45 minutes.
I like to be able to go around the room.
I cant do that anymore.
And thats how I was feeling about New York toward the end of theHamiltonrun.
I couldnt sit on the train with my headphones and watch this couple fight.
I can more now.
It needed to cool for a minute.
I also take a stab at reclaim it in a way.
I make very clear that I take the subway.
I dont travel with security.
You used to do some of your best writing walking around Fort Tryon Park.
Can you do that now?I hope so.
I dont know the honest answer to that.
And the people who travel around with a lot of stuff, theyattractattention.
David Bowie walked around here with a scarf.
Thats the goal to me you put a scarf on and you keep it moving.
Did you go to the Bowie exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum?I did.
I geeked out to ride the new Second Avenue lines!
I was in London shootingMary Poppins Returnswhen they were installed.
You never like to say where the next idea will come from.
You dont want to rule anything out.
Im not reading Aaron Burrs biography and being like,Part two?Theres nowhere to go but down.
But how conscious are your post-Hamiltonchoices?
Do you say, I should sit down and write another musical!
So youre not entering into it easily.
And you know that one in five shows makes its money back.Hamiltonis the super super-duper exception to most musicals.
Listen, Im married, so everythings a negotiation.
I went home and checked with my wife.
Because this is gonna be our lives.
You dont have to tread water.
Because you cant lie to yourself and say, Im doing this to pay the rent.Hamiltonis paying the rent.
So is that freeing or paralyzing?Its freeing.
Its really freeing because you cant think about the legacy part of it at all.
Thats what happened to Hamilton he was outlived by all his enemies.
My guideposts are, Will I learn from it for the next thing?
And that goes back toIn the Heights.
AfterIn the Heights, I really thought about, What can I learn from?
Because I had success really early, but I still want to get better.
So,Bring It Onwas great because Im working with other composers.
Were all writing it together.
So I go by that more than, I want to be a movie star!
Thats never the conversation.
Thats where I give a shot to let my decisions be guided.
So what do you want to get better at now?I want to get better at making movies.
Im prepping to directTick, Tick … Boom!at the end of next year.
So, everything Im doing is in service of that.
I had such a joyous time on [Mary Poppins Returns].
I felt like this was year one of my musical film school.
Year two will be watching Jon Chu direct the movie adaptation ofIn the Heights.
You wont be in that at all?Nope.
Im a producer on that.
Ill probably play dominoes in the background of a scene or something.
You auditioned and you didnt get hired?Yeah, I just didnt have what it took.
I didnt have a feel for the language.
Im sure its very different from Rob, so I will have been on set of two big musicals.
Im watching Tommy [Kail] makeFosse/Verdonright now.
Which happened because I went to college with Sam Wasson, who wrote that great biography.
I put that book in Tommys hand and it was like, This is an incredible story.
Its not a musical, because how could it be?
It encompasses all of the musicals we love.
So Tommys idea was to make it a mini-series.
Im just sort of helping him shepherd that to fruition.
The other joy aboutFosse/Verdonis that everyone has a Bob Fosse or a Gwen Verdon story.
And it was the craziest, most incredible story.
Are you learning that Fosse was even more twisted than generally known?Its dark in there, dude!
And thats also one of the reasons this is not a Fosse biopic.
He already did it withAll That Jazz.
So by examining it through the lens of that relationship, I think we can learn some new things.
Speaking of darkness, do you want to play a villain?
Do you want to play a truly bad guy?Id love to.
Ive played sort of asshole versions of myself on TV.
He knows how to fight.
He doesnt know how to be tolerated.
I want to do all the things.I have a lot of help, and I cluster things by months.
I went and filmed thisHis Dark Materialspart.
That was Wales, for two months, and I didnt do anything but that.
One of the crew members said, Oh, you going to go on a nice holiday after this?
No, no, no thiswasmy holiday, getting to be a cowboy on a fantasy series.
Now Im in Poppinsland until this movie comes out.
Will you get to playDungeons & Dragonswith Patrick Rothfuss?Thats really the goal.
Thats why I took the gig.
Again, talk about your passions: I love that book.
So were just still kicking around the story and making sure it has that essence.
It has things other fantasy books dont have.
It has economic stakes.
You never think about the currency of a world.
I understand that in a very real way, and thats never a thing in the fantasy genre.
So what will you be writing this spring?I have three big ideas.
Be it stage, film, TV.
Im waiting to see which one raises its hand for me to write.
In the Heightswas an award-winning success.
But youre now at a level of fame where everybody loves you, afterHamilton.Yeah, but thatll go.
But this kind of fame can be tricky in a relationship.
Vanessa, I assume, still sees the fallible, flawed guy she fell in love with.
Michelle Obama, for instance, wasnt wild about what happened with Barack when he became publicly adored.
What has fame done to your relationship?Oh, thats an interesting question.
I think that well the demands on time are always the hardest in the relationship.
Time management is always the hardest thing in any relationship.
Its just the things were juggling that have changed.
This week is a great example.
We had a lot of crazy shit lined up this week.
We had the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Kennedy Center.
They all kind of landed on the same week.
And Vanessa said, What do you need me at?
Because the limelight is just not interesting to her.
I think its interesting to her as far as advancing things shes passionate about.
Shell get on Twitter and talk about some cool discovery in science.
Shes fully the other hemisphere of the brain.
Thats all part of the career.
I dont have one hero who doesnt have flops in their career.Bring It Oncame and went in six months.
No, the strain is time.
The priority is to just kind of keep checking in and being like, Are you okay?
Do you feel like youre taking on too much?
Am I taking on too much?But Vanessa is not crazy about your Twitter feed.No.
I took weekends off because that was too much.
The Gmorning and Gnight thing started because I knew it was too much.
I would wake up at 2 a.m. and see what was going on.
Its a terrible dopamine addiction.
Im a positive person on Twitter, but Im also addicted to it.
Im well aware of that.
Weekends off has been great because I literally delete it off my phone and Im not thinking about it.
If I ever feel like its too much Ill just quit.
And heres the creative runoff that I cant put in this show about founding fathers from the 19th century.
I thought of this thing, it doesnt fit in Jeffersons mouth; Ill put it out on Twitter.
It feels like an opposing muscle group.
But if youre using it to avoid work, then youre in trouble.
People keep writing, Mary Poppins is Lin-Manuel in his first starring role sinceHamilton.
Do you think of it that way?Its weird.
The chronology is all messed up for me.
Certainly its the thing I did first afterHamilton.
We left to film that movie in October.
But weve been sitting on this movie for a year and a half.
So Ive done a cameo onCurb Your Enthusiasm.
Ive done lots of other random little things, and I like that.
So that no one can pin expectations on your next thing because youre scrambling.
Theres been this small, silly controversy about yourapping inMary Poppins.Its so funny.
I remember when Run-D.M.C.
came to seeIn the Heights.
It was a big moment for me.
And Reverend Run said, This just reminds me that we are part of this very old legacy.
Theater was in verse for way longer than it wasnt.
Pinter and Tennessee Williams is the innovation.
Theater in verse is the way things have been done for thousands and thousands of years.
They are cousins, to be sure.
And it couldnt be more different from whats on display in the movie.
I thought it was a nice little wink toHamilton.
But Burrs costume is amazing!
Where do you come down in the current Broadway debate about reviving classical musicals with problematic material?
Shows likeCarouselorKiss Me, Kate.
Do you retool them for the 21st century?
Do you play them as they were written?Its a fine line.
But you saw the black soldiers singing separately from the white soldiers.
They didnt discount that reality.
It was so smartly done.
Its not that hes a monster for writing that in the first place.
I was about to graduate college with a degree in theater.
It was two months after September 11 when I saw it.
And then heres this musical saying, Hey, it was super hard.
And these friends who say theyre all moving to New York with you?
Theyre not moving to New York with you.
Theyre going to get other jobs.
Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie is a perfect rock song.
I dont know how it sneaks up on me every time.
Every time the David Bowie section happens, I get teary-eyed.
And it shouldnt add up!
It doesnt make any fucking sense!
Some of it is, Dibba idda dap!
But its the, People on the streets, thats what it is.
And by the time it adds up to David Bowie, [sings] Cause loves such …
It gets me every time.
That song is a miracle.
Whats a third thing?
Well, my favorite movie isSeven Samuraiby Akira Kurosawa.
Its three hours long.
But Im telling you, its great.
And it totally blew their minds.
When I made them put their phones away they were really suspicious of me.
And they could not wait to find out how it happened.
Its just incredible storytelling and I see new shit in it every time.
And I feel a little bad about that because I went for the film major.
I fell into the theater major.
I felt like I had a broad base of knowledge.
But I know they drop our names on the Wesleyan tour, which is …
I mean, when we were there, they were dropping Michael Bays name.
Michael Bay and Joss Whedon were the gods when we were students there.
In January you are returning toHamiltonfor three weeks of shows in San Juan.
Talking with some Puerto Rican friends, they love that youre coming.
They think its important.
Theyre hugely grateful for the millions of dollars youve raised to rebuild the island.
I believe hes complicated.
I think thats absolutely valid, about the banks.
I believe Im trying to paint someone who is not a statue.
The show is not an ode to debt and trading.
That system has so many faults.
Im just trying to paint as much of this guy as I can, good and bad.
Im fine with that as Im very proud of it.
So now, what else do I do with my time here other than to continue to write?
Youve got about eight projects going already.
Are you mainlining Red Bull?No!
[laughs] Im only here because I sleep.
