Lin-Manuel Miranda on Crazy ‘Hamilton’ Fan Tattoos & Theatrical Release (Exclusive)

Lin-Manuel Miranda spoke to “Extra” at the special NYC screening of “Hamilton” at the Public Theater’s Delacorte Theater. 

He spoke about how thrilled he is for it to finally be in theaters for the show’s 10th anniversary. 

“I think back so much about when we were just starting out at the Public and I remember thinking, ‘Well, okay, people like it, but then life will go back to normal’ and it just never did. I just kind of got to a weird new normal because this show had that thing that happens once every 20 years or so on Broadway where everyone who left the show told everyone they knew about the show and commercials can't buy that and hype can't buy that.”

Lin-Manuel also reflected on how “Hamilton” is about how we spend this one life, noting that not a day goes by that something from the show doesn’t come back at him. 

“Somehow the show forces people to reckon with what they're doing with their life because so much of it is how do we spend this one life? Are you relentless? Are you cautious? Are you a Hamilton? Are you a Burr? And so… not a day that goes by that something from ‘Hamilton’ doesn't sort of come back at me.”

As for the show being in theaters, Miranda said, “I'm thrilled it's in theaters because I'm thrilled for our director, Tommy Kail. He designed this to be in theaters. We were hoping for a theatrical release in 2021. Then the pandemic hit and we went, ‘People need something to watch. and we pivoted to releasing it on July 4th, 2000 in the height of the pandemic and the lockdowns. So I'm glad Tommy's dream gets to come true.”

Plus, he talked about some crazy fan tattoos! 

“Literally on the walk to the red carpet, someone showed me a tattoo of ‘That Would Be Enough’ written in my handwriting in like musical notation on their arm. The tattoos are wild. A lot of ‘Wait for It’ tattoos, a lot of ‘That Would Be Enough’ tattoos, a lot of ‘Quiet Uptown.’ Lyrics forever in people's skin is a mark of how much it means to people.”

As for his next project, Lin-Manuel shared, “My next show is called ‘Warriors,’ which I co-wrote with Issa Davis and we're just getting started on figuring out how to bring that to the stage. So, we're just like beginning on that and that'll be my next musical. I'm really excited.”