It is not lost on many of us, in this year of a seeming lack of diversity in the Oscar nominations, that there is a phenomenon on Broadway that utilizes a very diverse cast to tell history in a very unusual way. The phenomenon is called "Hamilton" and it has taken Broadway by storm.
Being currently immersed in the 1930s, the Hamilton story harkened back to a time some 80 years ago, when a young phenom director put on a new version of Shakespeare's Macbeth. As Wikipedia describes it, the young phenom
"adapted and directed the production, moved the play's setting from Scotland to a fictional Caribbean island, recruited an entirely African American cast, and earned the nickname for his production from the Haitian vodou that fulfilled the rôle of Scottish witchcraft. A box office sensation, the production is regarded as a landmark theatrical event for several reasons: its innovative interpretation of the play, its success in promoting African-American theatre, and its role in securing the reputation of its 20-year-old director."
I do not know what will become of Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator of the hip-hop Hamilton, but it is notable that the 20 year old director the "Voodoo" Macbeth went on, five years later, to direct what most critics consider to be the greatest movie of all time. May the Theater Gods shine on Lin Manuel Miranda so that he too may one day similarly enrich us all.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
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