title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491; the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550; and the opera "Don Giovanni". Charles Rosen makes the point forcefully:


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, Schumann's superficial characterization of the G minor Symphony can help us to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: During his last decade, Mozart frequently exploited chromatic harmony. A notable instance is his "String Quartet in C major", K. 465 (1785), whose introduction abounds in chromatic suspensions, giving rise to the work's nickname, the "Dissonance" quartet.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: Mozart had a gift for absorbing and adapting the valuable features of others' music. His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language. In London as a child, he met J. C. Bach and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the Mannheim orchestra. In Italy, he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa, both of which deeply affected the evolution of his practice. In London and Italy, the galant style was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for cadencing; an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies; symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of movements. Some of Mozart's early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many are homotonal (all three movements having the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the relative minor). Others mimic the works of J. C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary forms turned out by Viennese composers.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201 has a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had included three such finales in his recently published Opus 20 set. The influence of the "Sturm und Drang" ("Storm and Stress") period in music, with its brief foreshadowing of the Romantic era, is evident in the music of both composers at that time. Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor K. 183 is another excellent example.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: opera buffa, such as "The Marriage of Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "Così fan tutte"; opera seria, such as "Idomeneo"; and Singspiel, of which "Die Zauberflöte" is the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas, he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and tone colour, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: For unambiguous identification of works by Mozart, a "Köchel catalogue number" is used. This is a unique number assigned, in regular chronological order, to every one of his known works. A work is referenced by the abbreviation "K." or "KV" followed by this number. The first edition of the catalogue was completed in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel. It has since been repeatedly updated, as scholarly research improves knowledge of the dates and authenticity of individual works.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: Although some of Mozart's early pieces were written for harpsichord, he also became acquainted in his early years with pianos made by Regensburg builder . Later when Mozart was visiting Augsburg, he was impressed by Stein pianos and shared this in a letter to his father. On 22 October 1777, Mozart had premiered his triple-piano concerto, K. 242, on instruments provided by Stein. The Augsburg Cathedral organist Demmler was playing the first, Mozart the second and Stein the third part. In 1783 when living in Vienna he purchased an instrument by Walter. Leopold Mozart confirmed the attachment which Mozart had with his Walter fortepiano: "It is impossible to describe the hustle and bustle. Your brother's pianoforte has been moved at least twelve times from his house to the theatre or to someone else's house."


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: His most famous pupil, whom the Mozarts took into their Vienna home for two years as a child, was probably Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras. More important is the influence Mozart had on composers of later generations. Ever since the surge in his reputation after his death, studying his scores has been a standard part of classical musicians' training.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart's junior by fifteen years, was deeply influenced by his work, with which he was acquainted as a teenager. He is thought to have performed Mozart's operas while playing in the court orchestra at Bonn and travelled to Vienna in 1787 hoping to study with the older composer. Some of have direct models in comparable works by Mozart, and he wrote cadenzas (WoO 58) to Mozart's D minor piano concerto K. 466.


title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

text: Composers have paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of variations on his themes. Beethoven wrote four such sets (Op. 66, WoO 28, WoO 40, WoO 46). Others include Fernando Sor's Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart (1821), Mikhail Glinka's Variations on a Theme from Mozart's Opera "The Magic Flute" (1822), Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from "Don Giovanni" (1827), and Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart (1914), based on the variation theme in the piano sonata K. 331. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who revered Mozart, wrote his Orchestral Suite No. 4 in G, "Mozartiana" (1887), as a tribute to him.


title: David Attenborough

text: Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history documentary series forming the "Life" collection, a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough was a senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. First becoming prominent as host of "Zoo Quest" in 1954, his filmography as writer, presenter and narrator has spanned eight decades; it includes "Natural World", "Wildlife on One", the "Planet Earth" franchise, "The Blue Planet" and its sequel. He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black and white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolutions. Over his life he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including 3 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Narration.


title: David Attenborough

text: While Attenborough's earlier work focused more on the wonders of the natural world, his later work has been more vocal in support of environmental causes. He has advocated for restoring planetary biodiversity, limiting population growth, switching to renewable energy, mitigating climate change, reducing meat consumption, and setting aside more areas for natural preservation.


title: David Attenborough

text: On his broadcasting and passion for nature, NPR stated he "roamed the globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating". He is widely considered a national treasure in the UK, although he himself does not like the term. He is the younger brother of the late director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough, and older brother of the late motor executive John Attenborough.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough was born on 8 May 1926 in Isleworth, Middlesex, and grew up in College House on the campus of the University of Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal. He is the middle of three sons; his elder brother, Richard (died in 2014), became an actor and director, and his younger brother, John (died in 2012), was an executive at Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo. During the Second World War, through a British volunteer network known as the Refugee Children's Movement, his parents also fostered two Jewish refugee girls from Germany.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones, and natural specimens. He received encouragement when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his collection. He spent much time in the grounds of the university. Aged around 11, he heard that the zoology department needed a large supply of newts, which he offered through his father to supply for 3d each. The source, which he did not reveal at the time, was a pond right next to the department. A year later, his adoptive sister Marianne gave him a piece of amber containing prehistoric creatures; some sixty years later, it would be the focus of his programme "The Amber Time Machine."


title: David Attenborough

text: In 1936, Attenborough and his brother Richard attended a lecture by Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney) at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, and were influenced by his advocacy of conservation. According to Richard, David was "bowled over by the man's determination to save the beaver, by his profound knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of ecological disaster should the delicate balance between them be destroyed. The idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling and plundering its riches was unheard of at the time, but it is one that has remained part of Dave's own credo to this day." In 1999, Richard directed a biopic of Belaney entitled "Grey Owl".


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester. He won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge in 1945 to study geology and zoology and obtained a degree in natural sciences. In 1947, he was called up for national service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth. In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel. The couple had two children, Robert and Susan. Jane died in 1997. Robert is a senior lecturer in bioanthropology for the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra. Susan is a former primary school headmistress.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough had a pacemaker fitted in June 2013 as well as a double knee replacement in 2015. In September 2013, he commented: "If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I'm not. I'm swanning round the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune."


title: David Attenborough

text: After leaving the Navy, Attenborough took a position editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company. He soon became disillusioned with the work and in 1950 applied for a job as a radio talk producer with the BBC. Although he was rejected for this job, his CV later attracted the interest of Mary Adams, head of the Talks (factual broadcasting) department of the BBC's fledgling television service. Attenborough, like most Britons at that time, did not own a television, and he had seen only one programme in his life. However, he accepted Adams' offer of a three-month training course, and in 1952 he joined the BBC full-time. Initially discouraged from appearing on camera because Adams thought his teeth were too big, he became a producer for the Talks department, which handled all non-fiction broadcasts. His early projects included the quiz show "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?" and "Song Hunter," a series about folk music presented by Alan Lomax.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough's association with natural history programmes began when he produced and presented the three-part series "Animal Patterns." The studio-bound programme featured animals from London Zoo, with the naturalist Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage, aposematism and courtship displays. Through this programme, Attenborough met Jack Lester, the curator of the zoo's reptile house, and they decided to make a series about an animal-collecting expedition. The result was "Zoo Quest," first broadcast in 1954, where Attenborough became the presenter at short notice due to Lester being taken ill.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 1957, the BBC Natural History Unit was formally established in Bristol. Attenborough was asked to join it, but declined, not wishing to move from London where he and his young family were settled. Instead, he formed his own department, the Travel and Exploration Unit, which allowed him to continue to front "Zoo Quest" as well as produce other documentaries, notably the "Travellers' Tales" and "Adventure" series. In the early 1960s, Attenborough resigned from the permanent staff of the BBC to study for a postgraduate degree in social anthropology at the London School of Economics, interweaving his study with further filming. However, he accepted an invitation to return to the BBC as controller of BBC Two before he could finish the degree.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough became Controller of BBC 2 in March 1965, succeeding Michael Peacock. He had a clause inserted in his contract that would allow him to continue making programmes on an occasional basis. Later the same year he filmed elephants in Tanzania, and in 1969 he made a three-part series on the cultural history of the Indonesian island of Bali. For the 1971 film "A Blank on the Map", he joined the first Western expedition to a remote highland valley in New Guinea to seek out a lost tribe.


title: David Attenborough

text: BBC Two was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public's imagination. When Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. With a mission to make BBC Two's output diverse and different from that offered by other networks, he began to establish a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel's identity for decades to come. Under his tenure, music, the arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Often, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening's viewing. Programmes he commissioned included "Man Alive", "Call My Bluff", "Chronicle", "Match of the Day", "The Old Grey Whistle Test", "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and "The Money Programme". With the addition of colour television, Attenborough brought snooker to the BBC to show the benefits of the format, as the sport uses coloured balls. The show – "Pot Black" – was later credited with the boom of the sport into the 1980s.


title: David Attenborough

text: One of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on the history of Western art, to show off the quality of the new UHF colour television service that BBC Two offered. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, "Civilisation" set the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries, which were informally known as "sledgehammer" projects. Others followed, including Jacob Bronowski's "The Ascent of Man" (also commissioned by Attenborough), and Alistair Cooke's "". Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would be a natural subject for such a series. He shared his idea with Christopher Parsons, a producer at the Natural History Unit, who came up with a title "Life on Earth" and returned to Bristol to start planning the series. Attenborough harboured a strong desire to present the series himself, but this would not be possible so long as he remained in a management post.


title: David Attenborough

text: While in charge of BBC Two, Attenborough turned down Terry Wogan's job application to be a presenter on the channel, stating that there weren't any suitable vacancies. The channel already had an Irish announcer, with Attenborough reflecting in 2016: "To have had two Irishmen presenting on BBC Two would have looked ridiculous. This is no comment whatsoever on Terry Wogan's talents." Attenborough has also acknowledged that he sanctioned the wiping of television output during this period to cut costs, including a series by Alan Bennett, which he later regretted. In 1969, Attenborough was promoted to director of programmes, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels. His tasks, which included agreeing budgets, attending board meetings and firing staff, were now far removed from the business of filming programmes. When Attenborough's name was being suggested as a candidate for the position of Director-General of the BBC in 1972, he phoned his brother Richard to confess that he had no appetite for the job. Early the following year, he left his post to return to full-time programme-making, leaving him free to write and present the planned natural history epic.


title: David Attenborough

text: After his resignation, Attenborough became a freelance broadcaster and started work on his next project, a trip to Indonesia with a crew from the Natural History Unit. It resulted in the 1973 series "Eastwards with Attenborough", which was similar in tone to the earlier "Zoo Quest"; the main difference was the introduction of colour. Attenborough stated that he wanted to work in Asia, because previous nature documentaries had mostly focused on Africa. That year, Attenborough was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on "The Language of Animals". After his work on "Eastwards with Attenborough", he began to work on the scripts for "Life on Earth".


title: David Attenborough

text: Due to the scale of his ambition, the BBC decided to partner with an American network to secure the necessary funding. While the negotiations were proceeding, he worked on a number of other television projects. He presented a series on tribal art ("The Tribal Eye", 1975) and another on the voyages of discovery ("The Explorers", 1975). He presented a BBC children's series about cryptozoology entitled "Fabulous Animals" (1975), which featured mythical creatures such as mermaids and unicorns. Eventually, the BBC signed a co-production deal with Turner Broadcasting and "Life on Earth" moved into production in 1976.


title: David Attenborough

text: Beginning with "Life on Earth" in 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making, and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series established many of the hallmarks of the BBC's natural history output. By treating his subject seriously and researching the latest discoveries, Attenborough and his production team gained the trust of scientists, who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his programmes. Innovation was another factor in "Life on Earth"'s success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Attenborough wanted, with a focus on events and animals that were up till then unfilmed. International air travel enabled the series to be devised so that Attenborough visited several locations around the globe in each episode, sometimes even changing continents in one sequence. Although appearing as the on-screen presenter, he restricted his time on camera to give more time to his subjects.


title: David Attenborough

text: Five years after the success of "Life on Earth", the BBC released "The Living Planet". This time, Attenborough built his series around the theme of ecology, the adaptations of living things to their environment. It was another critical and commercial success, generating huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990, "The Trials of Life" completed the original Life trilogy, looking at animal behaviour through the different stages of life.


title: David Attenborough

text: In the 1990s, Attenborough continued to use the "Life" title for a succession of authored documentaries. In 1993, he presented "Life in the Freezer", the first television series to survey the natural history of Antarctica. Although past normal retirement age, he then embarked on a number of more specialised surveys of the natural world, beginning with plants. They proved a difficult subject for his producers, who had to deliver hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects. The result was "The Private Life of Plants" (1995), which showed plants as dynamic organisms by using time-lapse photography to speed up their growth, and went on to earn a Peabody Award.


title: David Attenborough

text: Prompted by an enthusiastic ornithologist at the BBC Natural History Unit, Attenborough then turned his attention to birds. As he was neither an birdwatcher nor a bird expert, he decided he was better qualified to make "The Life of Birds" (1998) on the theme of behaviour. The documentary series won a second Peabody Award the following year. The order of the remaining "Life" series was dictated by developments in camera technology. For "The Life of Mammals" (2002), low-light and infrared cameras were deployed to reveal the behaviour of nocturnal mammals. The series contains a number of memorable two shots of Attenborough and his subjects, which included chimpanzees, a blue whale and a grizzly bear. Advances in macro photography made it possible to capture the natural behaviour of very small creatures for the first time, and in 2005, "Life in the Undergrowth" introduced audiences to the world of invertebrates.


title: David Attenborough

text: At this point, Attenborough realised that he had spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes on all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants – only reptiles and amphibians were missing. When "Life in Cold Blood" was broadcast in 2008, he had the satisfaction of completing the set, brought together in a DVD encyclopaedia called "Life on Land". He commented: "The evolutionary history is finished. The endeavour is complete. If you'd asked me 20 years ago whether we'd be attempting such a mammoth task, I'd have said 'Don't be ridiculous!' These programmes tell a particular story and I'm sure others will come along and tell it much better than I did, but I do hope that if people watch it in 50 years' time, it will still have something to say about the world we live in."


title: David Attenborough

text: However, in 2010 Attenborough asserted that his "First Life" – dealing with evolutionary history before "Life on Earth" – should be included within the "Life" series. In the documentary "Attenborough's Journey", he stated, "This series, to a degree which I really didn't fully appreciate until I started working on it, really completes the set."


title: David Attenborough

text: Alongside the "Life" series, Attenborough continued to work on other television documentaries, mainly in the natural history genre. He wrote and presented a series on man's influence on the natural history of the Mediterranean Basin, "The First Eden", in 1987. Two years later, he demonstrated his passion for fossils in "Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives". In 1990, he worked on the BBC's "Prisoners of Conscience" series where he highlighted the case of Mahjoub Sharif. Attenborough narrated every episode of "Wildlife on One", a BBC One wildlife series that ran for 253 episodes between 1977 and 2005. At its peak, it drew a weekly audience of eight to ten million, and the 1987 episode "Meerkats United" was voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers. He has narrated over 50 episodes of "Natural World", BBC Two's flagship wildlife series. Its forerunner, "The World About Us", was created by Attenborough in 1969, as a vehicle for colour television. In 1997, he narrated the "BBC Wildlife Specials", each focussing on a charismatic species, and screened to mark the Natural History Unit's 40th anniversary.


title: David Attenborough

text: As a writer and narrator, Attenborough continued to collaborate with the BBC Natural History Unit in the new millennium. Alastair Fothergill, a senior producer with whom Attenborough had worked on "The Trials of Life" and "Life in the Freezer", was making "The Blue Planet" (2001), the Unit's first comprehensive series on marine life. He decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking to a camera through diving apparatus, but asked Attenborough to narrate the films. The same team reunited for "Planet Earth" (2006), the biggest nature documentary ever made for television and the first BBC wildlife series to be shot in high definition. In 2009, he co-wrote and narrated "Life", a ten-part series focussing on extraordinary animal behaviour, and narrated "Nature's Great Events", which showed how seasonal changes trigger major natural spectacles. In January 2009, the BBC commissioned Attenborough to provide a series of 20 ten-minute monologues covering the history of nature. Entitled "David Attenborough's Life Stories", they were broadcast on Radio 4 on Friday nights.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2011, Fothergill gave Attenborough a more prominent role in "Frozen Planet", a major series on the natural history of the polar regions; Attenborough appeared on screen and authored the final episode, in addition to performing voiceover duties. Attenborough introduced and narrated the Unit's first 4K production "Life Story." For "Planet Earth II" (2016), Attenborough returned as narrator and presenter, with the main theme music composed by Hans Zimmer.


title: David Attenborough

text: In October 2014, the corporation announced a trio of new one-off Attenborough documentaries as part of a raft of new natural history programmes. "Attenborough's Paradise Birds" and "Attenborough's Big Birds" was shown on BBC Two and "Waking Giants", which follows the discovery of giant dinosaur bones in South America, aired on BBC One. The BBC also commissioned Atlantic Productions to make a three-part, Attenborough-fronted series "Great Barrier Reef" in 2015. The series marked the 10th project for Attenborough and Atlantic, and saw him returning to a location he first filmed at in 1957.


title: David Attenborough

text: On radio, Attenborough has continued as one of the presenters of BBC Radio 4's "Tweet of the Day", which began a second series in September 2014. Attenborough forged a partnership with Sky, working on documentaries for the broadcaster's new 3D network, Sky 3D. Their first collaboration was "Flying Monsters 3D", a film about pterosaurs which debuted on Christmas Day of 2010. A second film, "The Penguin King 3D", followed a year later. His next 3D project, "Conquest of the Skies", made by the team behind the BAFTA award-winning "David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive", aired on Sky 3D during Christmas 2014.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough has narrated three series of "David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities" for UKTV channel Watch, with the third series showing in 2015. He has also narrated "A majestic celebration: Wild Karnataka", India's first blue-chip natural history film, directed by Kalyan Varma and Amoghavarsha. "Blue Planet II" was broadcast in 2017, with Attenborough returning as presenter. The series was critically acclaimed and gained the highest UK viewing figure for 2017 of 14.1 million. The series is thought to have triggered a long-lasting increase in public, media and political attention to plastic pollution. Attenborough narrated the 2018 five part series "Dynasties", each episode dealing with one species in particular. In 2021 he presented the three part series "Attenborough's Life in Colour", and "The Mating Game", a five part series.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough returned to prehistoric life with "" and "Prehistoric Planet" aired in April and May 2022 respectively.


title: David Attenborough

text: By the turn of the millennium, Attenborough's authored documentaries were adopting a more overtly environmentalist stance. In "State of the Planet" (2000), he used the latest scientific evidence and interviews with leading scientists and conservationists to assess the impact of human activities on the natural world. He later turned to the issues of global warming ("The Truth about Climate Change", 2006) and human population growth ("How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?", 2009). He contributed a programme which highlighted the plight of endangered species to the BBC's "Saving Planet Earth" project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2019, Attenborough narrated "Our Planet", an eight-part documentary series, for Netflix. In contrast to much of his prior work for the BBC, this series emphasised the destructive role of human activities throughout the series. Before, he would often note concerns in a final section of the work. He also narrated "Wild Karnataka", a documentary about the Karnataka forest area. In 2019, Attenborough's one-off film documentary about climate change for BBC One called "Climate Change – The Facts" was aired; the tone of the documentary was significantly graver than previous work for the BBC. This was followed by "", which is partly based on the 2019 IPBES report on the decline of biodiversity.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2020, Attenborough narrated the documentary film "". The film acts as Attenborough's witness statement, reflecting on his career as a naturalist and his hopes for the future. It was released on Netflix on 4 October 2020. Further work for Netflix includes the documentary titled "Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet", released on 4 June 2021. In October 2020, Attenborough began filming in Cambridge for "The Green Planet". In 2021, Attenborough narrated "A Perfect Planet", a five-part earth science series for BBC One.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough was a key figure in the build-up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), and gave a speech at the opening ceremony. In his speech he stated that humans were "the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth" and spoke of his optimism for the future, finishing by saying "In my lifetime I've witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery."


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme recognised Attenborough as a Champion of the Earth "for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration".


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough's programmes have often included references to the impact of human society on the natural world. The last episode of "The Living Planet", for example, focuses almost entirely on humans' destruction of the environment and ways that it could be stopped or reversed. Despite this, he has been criticised for not giving enough prominence to environmental messages. In 2018 while promoting "Dynasties", he said that repeated messages on threats to wildlife in programming could be a "turn-off" to viewers. Some environmentalists feel that programmes like Attenborough's give a false picture of idyllic wilderness and do not do enough to acknowledge that such areas are increasingly encroached upon by humans. However, the increased urgency of environmental messaging in films such as "", which depicts the continuing sixth mass extinction, "Climate Change – The Facts" and from 2019 and 2020 received praise. In "Seven Worlds, One Planet", Attenborough discusses the devastating impact that deforestation is having on the planet and the species.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2005 and 2006, Attenborough backed a BirdLife International project to stop the killing of albatross by longline fishing boats. He gave support to WWF's campaign to have 220,000 square kilometres of Borneo's rainforest designated a protected area. He serves as a vice-president of The Conservation Volunteers, vice-president of Fauna and Flora International, president of Butterfly Conservation and president emeritus of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2003, he launched an appeal on behalf of the World Land Trust to create a rainforest reserve in Ecuador in memory of Christopher Parsons, the producer of "Life on Earth" and a personal friend, who had died the previous year. The same year, he helped to launch ARKive, a global project instigated by Parsons to gather together natural history media into a digital library. ARKive is an initiative of Wildscreen, of which Attenborough is a patron. He later became patron of the World Land Trust. In 2020, he backed a Fauna and Flora International campaign calling for a global moratorium on deep sea mining for its impact on marine life.


title: David Attenborough

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Attenborough advocated on behalf of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and its conservation efforts, which have been impacted by the economic fallout from the pandemic. In 2020, Attenborough was named as a member of the Earthshot prize Council, an initiative of Prince William to find solutions to environmental issues. He is a patron of the Friends of Richmond Park and serves on the advisory board of BBC Wildlife magazine.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough was initially sceptical about the human influence on climate change, and stated that a 2004 lecture finally convinced him humans were responsible. He remained silent on the issue until 2006. Attenborough attended and spoke at COP26 as the "People's Advocate" for the event, and urged world leaders to act to reduce emissions. He supported Glyndebourne in their successful application to obtain planning permission for a wind turbine in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and gave evidence at the planning inquiry arguing in favour of the proposal. In his 2020 documentary film "", Attenborough advocates for people to adopt a vegetarian diet or to reduce meat consumption to save wildlife, noting that "the planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters."


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough has linked anthropogenic effects on the environment with human population growth. He has attracted criticism for his views on human overpopulation and human population control. He is a patron of Population Matters, a UK charity advocating for family planning, sustainable consumption and proposed sustainable human population. In a 2013 interview with the "Radio Times", Attenborough described humans as a "plague on the Earth", and described the act of sending food to famine-stricken countries as "barmy" for population reasons. He called for more debate about human population growth, saying that since he "first started making programmes 60 years ago, the human population has tripled."


title: David Attenborough

text: According to Attenborough, improving women's rights around the world is an effective way "to limit our birth rate." He said that "anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist."


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough considers himself an agnostic. When asked whether his observation of the natural world has given him faith in a creator, he generally responds with some version of this story, making reference to the "Onchocerca volvulus" parasitic worm:


title: David Attenborough

text: My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy'.


title: David Attenborough

text: He has explained that he feels the evidence all over the planet clearly shows evolution to be the best way to explain the diversity of life, and that "as far as [he's] concerned, if there is a supreme being then he chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world". In a BBC Four interview with Mark Lawson, he was asked if he at any time had any religious faith. He replied simply, "no". He said "It never really occurred to me to believe in God".


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2002, Attenborough joined an effort by leading clerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion of creationism in the curriculum of UK state-funded independent schools which receive private sponsorship, such as the Emmanuel Schools Foundation.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2009, he stated that the Book of Genesis, by saying that the world was there for people to control, had taught generations that they can "dominate" the environment, and that this has resulted in the devastation of vast areas of the environment. He further explained to the science journal "Nature", "That's why Darwinism, and the fact of evolution, is of great importance, because it is that attitude which has led to the devastation of so much, and we are in the situation that we are in".


title: David Attenborough

text: Also in early 2009, the BBC broadcast an Attenborough one-hour special, "Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life". In reference to the programme, Attenborough stated that "People write to me that evolution is only a theory. Well, it is not a theory. Evolution is as solid a historical fact as you could conceive. Evidence from every quarter. What is a theory is whether natural selection is the mechanism and the only mechanism. That is a theory. But the historical reality that dinosaurs led to birds and mammals produced whales, that's not theory." He strongly opposes creationism and its offshoot "intelligent design", saying that the results of a survey that found a quarter of science teachers in state schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons was "really terrible".


title: David Attenborough

text: In March 2009, Attenborough appeared on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross". Attenborough stated that he felt evolution did not rule out the existence of a God and accepted the title of agnostic saying, "My view is: I don't know one way or the other but I don't think that evolution is against a belief in God".


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough has joined the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and other top scientists in signing a campaign statement co-ordinated by the British Humanist Association (BHA). The statement calls for "creationism to be banned from the school science curriculum and for evolution to be taught more widely in schools".


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough is a lifelong supporter of the BBC, public service broadcasting and the television licence. He has said that public service broadcasting "is one of the things that distinguishes this country and makes me want to live here", and believes that it is not reducible to individual programmes, but "can only effectively operate as a network [...] that measures its success not only by its audience size but by the range of its schedule".


title: David Attenborough

text: ... the BBC per minute in almost every category is as cheap as you can find anywhere in the world and produces the best quality. [...] The BBC has gone through swingeing staff cuts. It has been cut to the bone, if you divert licence fee money elsewhere, you cut quality and services. [...] There is a lot of people who want to see the BBC weakened. They talk of this terrible tax of the licence fee. Yet it is the best bargain that is going. Four radio channels and god knows how many TV channels. It is piffling.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough expressed the view that there had often been people wanting to remove the BBC, adding "there's always been trouble about the licence and if you dropped your guard you could bet our bottom dollar there'd be plenty of people who'd want to take it away. The licence fee is the basis on which the BBC is based and if you destroy it, broadcasting... becomes a wasteland." He expressed regret at some of the changes made to the BBC in the 1990s by its Director-General, John Birt, who introduced an internal market at the corporation, slimmed and even closed some departments and outsourced much of the corporation's output to private production companies. Although he said Birt's policies had poor results, Attenborough also acknowledged "the BBC had to change." In 2008, he criticised the BBC's television schedules, positing that the two senior networks, BBC One and BBC Two – which Attenborough stated were "first set up as a partnership" – now "schedule simultaneously programmes of identical character, thereby contradicting the very reason that the BBC was given a second network."


title: David Attenborough

text: In 1998, Attenborough described himself as "a standard, boring left-wing liberal" and expressed the view that the market economy was "misery". In 2013, Attenborough joined rock guitarists Brian May and Slash in opposing the government's policy on the cull of badgers in the UK by participating in a song dedicated to badgers. Attenborough was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to "The Guardian" expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in the 2014 referendum on that issue. Prior to the 2015 UK general election, Attenborough was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas.


title: David Attenborough

text: In a 2020 interview, Attenborough criticised excess capitalism as a driver of ecological imbalance, stating "the excesses the capitalist system has brought us, have got to be curbed somehow", and that "greed does not actually lead to joy", although he added "That doesn't mean to say that capitalism is dead". He also lamented the lack of international cooperation on climate change, and said "there should be no dominant nation on this planet." In 2021, Attenborough told the leaders of the 47th G7 summit that "tackling climate change was now as much a political challenge as it was a scientific or technological one" and urged more action. Attenborough also stated that "(we) are on the verge of destabilising the entire planet."


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough's contribution to broadcasting and wildlife film-making has brought him international recognition. He has been called "the great communicator, the peerless educator" and "the greatest broadcaster of our time." His programmes are often cited as an example of what public service broadcasting should be, even by critics of the BBC, and have influenced a generation of wildlife film-makers.


title: David Attenborough

text: By January 2013, Attenborough had collected 32 honorary degrees from British universities, more than any other person. In 1980, he was honoured by the Open University, with which he has had a close association throughout his career. He has honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Durham University (1982) and the University of Cambridge (1984) and honorary Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Oxford (1988) and the University of Ghent (1997).


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2006, the two eldest Attenborough brothers returned to their home city to receive the title of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester, "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University." David Attenborough was previously awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the university in 1970, and was made an honorary Freeman of the City of Leicester in 1990. In 2013, he was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Bristol. In 2010, he was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Nottingham Trent University.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough has received the title Honorary Fellow from Clare College, Cambridge (1980), the Zoological Society of London (1998), the Linnean Society (1999), the Institute of Biology (Now the Royal Society of Biology) (2000), and the Society of Antiquaries (2007). He is Honorary Patron of the North American Native Plant Society and was elected as a Corresponding Member of the Australian Academy of Science.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough has been featured as the subject of a number of BBC television programmes. "Life on Air" (2002) examined the legacy of his work, and "Attenborough the Controller" (2002) focused on his time in charge of BBC Two. He was also featured prominently in "The Way We Went Wild" (2004), a series about natural history television presenters, and "100 Years of Wildlife Films" (2007), a programme marking the centenary of the nature documentary. In 2006, British television viewers were asked to vote for their "Favourite Attenborough Moments" for a UKTV poll to coincide with the broadcaster's 80th birthday. The winning clip showed Attenborough observing the mimicry skills of the superb lyrebird.


title: David Attenborough

text: Attenborough was named the most trusted celebrity in the UK in a 2006 "Reader's Digest" poll, and in 2007 he won "The Culture Show"'s Living Icon Award. He has been named among the 100 Greatest Britons in a 2002 BBC poll and is one of the top ten "Heroes of Our Time" according to "New Statesman" magazine. In September 2009, London's Natural History Museum opened the Attenborough Studio, part of its Darwin Centre development.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2012, Attenborough was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life. The same year, Attenborough featured in the BBC Radio 4 series "The New Elizabethans" to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named him among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands".


title: David Attenborough

text: A British polar research ship was named RRS "Sir David Attenborough" in his honour. While an Internet poll suggesting the name of the ship had the most votes for "Boaty McBoatface", Science Minister Jo Johnson said there were "more suitable names", and the official name was eventually picked up from one of the more favoured choices. However, one of its research sub-sea vehicles was named "Boaty" in recognition of the public vote.


title: David Attenborough

text: At least 20 species and genera, both living and extinct, have been named in Attenborough's honour. Plants named after him include an alpine hawkweed ("Hieracium attenboroughianum") discovered in the Brecon Beacons, a species of Ecuadorian flowering tree ("Blakea attenboroughi"), one of the world's largest-pitchered carnivorous plants ("Nepenthes attenboroughii"), along with a genus of flowering plants ("Sirdavidia").


title: David Attenborough

text: Several Arthropods are named after Attenborough including a butterfly, Attenborough's black-eyed satyr ("Euptychia attenboroughi"), a dragonfly, Attenborough's pintail ("Acisoma attenboroughi"), a millimetre-long goblin spider ("Prethopalpus attenboroughi"), an ornate Caribbean smiley-faced spider ("Spintharus davidattenboroughi"), an Indonesian flightless weevil ("Trigonopterus attenboroughi"), a Madagascan ghost shrimp ("Ctenocheloides attenboroughi"), and a soil snail ("Palaina attenboroughi").


title: David Attenborough

text: The Monogenean "Cichlidogyrus attenboroughi", a parasite from a deep-sea fish in the Lake Tanganyika, is probably the only parasite species named after him. Vertebrates have also been named after Attenborough, including a Namibian lizard ("Platysaurus attenboroughi"), a bird ("Polioptila attenboroughi"), a Peruvian frog ("Pristimantis attenboroughi"), a Madagascan stump-toed frog ("Stumpffia davidattenboroughi"), and one of only four species of long-beaked echidna ("Zaglossus attenboroughi").


title: David Attenborough

text: In 1993, after discovering that the Mesozoic reptile "Plesiosaurus conybeari" did not belong to the genus "Plesiosaurus", the palaeontologist Robert Bakker renamed the species "Attenborosaurus conybeari". A fossilised armoured fish discovered in Western Australia in 2008 was named "Materpiscis attenboroughi", after Attenborough had filmed at the site and highlighted its scientific importance in "Life on Earth". In 2015, a species of tree from Gabon (in the Annonaceae family) "Sirdavidia" was named with his title.


title: David Attenborough

text: The "Materpiscis" fossil is believed to be the earliest organism capable of internal fertilisation. A miniature marsupial lion, "Microleo attenboroughi", was named in his honour in 2016. The fossil grasshopper "Electrotettix attenboroughi" was named after Attenborough. In March 2017, a 430 million year old tiny crustacean was named after him. Called "Cascolus ravitis", the first word is a Latin translation of the root meaning of "Attenborough", and the second is based on a description of him in Latin. In July 2017, the Caribbean bat "Myotis attenboroughi" was named after him. A new species of fan-throated lizard from coastal Kerala in southern India was named "Sitana attenboroughii" in his honour when it was described in 2018.


title: David Attenborough

text: In 2018, a new species of phytoplankton, "Syracosphaera azureaplaneta", was named to honour "The Blue Planet", the TV documentary presented by Attenborough, and to recognise his contribution to promoting understanding of the oceanic environment. The same year, Attenborough was also commemorated in the name of the scarab beetle "Sylvicanthon attenboroughi". In 2021 an extinct species of horseshoe crab was named "Attenborolimulus superspinosus." In July 2022, a fossil of a 560-million-year-old creature named "Auroralumina attenboroughii", which researchers believe to be the first animal predator, was named after Attenborough. Attenborough is also recognised by "Guinness World Records" as having the longest career as a natural historian and presenter in television.


title: David Attenborough

text: In addition, he is the only person to have won BAFTA awards for programmes in black and white, colour, high-definition, 3D, and 4K.


title: David Attenborough

text: David Attenborough's television credits span eight decades and his association with natural history programmes dates back to "The Pattern of Animals" and "Zoo Quest" in the early 1950s. His most influential work, 1979's "Life on Earth", launched a strand of nine authored documentaries with the BBC Natural History Unit which shared the "Life" strand name and spanned 30 years. He narrated every episode of the long-running BBC series "Wildlife on One" and in his later career has voiced several high-profile BBC wildlife documentaries, among them "The Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth". He became a pioneer in the 3D documentary format with "Flying Monsters" in 2010.


title: David Attenborough

text: David Attenborough's work as an author has strong parallels with his broadcasting career. In the 1950s and 1960s, his published work included accounts of his animal collecting expeditions around the world, which became the "Zoo Quest" series. He wrote an accompanying volume to each of his nine "Life" documentaries, along with books on tribal art and birds of paradise. His autobiography, "Life on Air", was published in 2002, revised in 2009 and is one of a number of his works which is available as a self-narrated audiobook. Attenborough has also contributed forewords and introductions to many other works, notably those accompanying "Planet Earth", "Frozen Planet", "Africa" and other BBC series he has narrated.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Hamilton is a biographical sung-and-rapped-through musical by the American composer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda. Composed over a seven-year period from 2008 to 2015, the musical tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Miranda said that he was inspired to write the musical after reading the 2004 biography "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow. Miranda says "Hamilton" was originally a hip hop album in his head. The show draws heavily from hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. It casts non-white actors as the Founding Fathers of the United States and other historical figures. Miranda described "Hamilton" as about "America then, as told by America now."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: From its opening, "Hamilton" received near-universal acclaim. It premiered Off-Broadway on February 17, 2015, at the Public Theater in Lower Manhattan, with Miranda playing the role of Alexander Hamilton, where its several-month engagement was sold out. The musical won eight Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical. It then transferred to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, opening on August 6, 2015, where it received uniformly positive reviews and high box office sales. At the 70th Tony Awards, "Hamilton" received a record-breaking 16 nominations and won 11 awards, including Best Musical. It received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A filmed version of the Broadway production was released in 2020 on Disney+.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The Chicago production of "Hamilton" began preview performances at the CIBC Theatre in September 2017 and opened the following month. The West End production opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London on December 21, 2017, following previews from December 6 and winning seven Olivier Awards in 2018, including Best New Musical. The first U.S. national tour began in March 2017. A second U.S. tour opened in February 2018. "Hamilton"s third U.S. tour began January 11, 2019, with a three-week engagement in Puerto Rico in which Miranda returned to the role of Hamilton. The first non-English production opened in Hamburg in October 2022 for which it had been translated into German. No amateur or professional licenses have been granted for "Hamilton".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton" details Alexander Hamilton's life in two acts, along with how various historical figures influenced his life, including the Marquis de Lafayette, Aaron Burr, John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, Angelica Schuyler Church, Peggy Schuyler, Philip Hamilton, Maria Reynolds, George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The orphan Alexander Hamilton experiences a hard early life, and through his smarts and the charitability of the townsfolks leaves his home, the island of Nevis ("Alexander Hamilton"). As a student at King's College in New York in 1776, Hamilton meets Aaron Burr, John Laurens, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Hercules Mulligan ("Aaron Burr, Sir"), and impresses them with his rhetorical skills ("My Shot"). The latter three and Hamilton affirm their revolutionary goals to each other, while Burr remains apprehensive ("The Story of Tonight"). Later, the daughters of the wealthy Philip Schuyler—Peggy, Angelica, and Eliza—go into town and share their opinion on the upcoming revolution ("The Schuyler Sisters"); it is at this time that Samuel Seabury warns everyone about the dangers of Congress while Hamilton disagrees and counters Seabury ("Farmer Refuted"), until King George III insists on his authority ("You'll Be Back"). During the New York and New Jersey campaign, Hamilton accepts a position as George Washington's aide-de-camp despite longing for field command ("Right Hand Man").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: At a ball hosted by Philip Schuyler ("A Winter's Ball"), Eliza falls helplessly in love with Hamilton, who reciprocates her feelings to the point of marriage ("Helpless"), as Angelica suppresses her own feelings for the sake of their happiness ("Satisfied"). After the wedding, Burr and Hamilton congratulate each other's successes ("The Story of Tonight (Reprise)") while Burr reflects on Hamilton's swift rise while considering his own more cautious career as well as his affair with Theodosia, the wife of a British officer ("Wait For It").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: As conditions worsen for the Continental Army ("Stay Alive"), Hamilton aids Laurens in a duel against Charles Lee, who had insulted Washington ("Ten Duel Commandments"). Laurens injures Lee, who yields, while Hamilton is temporarily suspended by Washington over the duel and is sent home ("Meet Me Inside"). There, Eliza reveals that she is pregnant with her first child, Philip, and asks Hamilton to slow down to take in what has happened in their lives ("That Would Be Enough"). After Lafayette persuades France to get involved on the colonists' side, he urges Washington to call Hamilton back to help plan the final Battle of Yorktown. Washington agrees ("Guns and Ships"), but explains to Hamilton, who is convinced that he should die a martyr and a hero in war, that he should be wary of what he does next because whatever he does will be known for all time ("History Has Its Eyes on You"). At the Battle of Yorktown, Hamilton meets up with Lafayette to take down the British, revealing that Mulligan was recruited as a spy, helping them figure out how to trap the British and win the war ("Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Soon after the victory of Yorktown, King George asks the newborn America how it will succeed on its own ("What Comes Next?"), while Lafayette returns to France with plans to inspire his people to have their own revolution. Hamilton's son Philip is born, while Burr has a daughter, Theodosia, and the two tell their children how they will do anything to protect them ("Dear Theodosia"). Hamilton receives word that his long-time friend John Laurens has been killed in a seemingly pointless battle after the war was won and throws himself into his work ("The Laurens Interlude/Tomorrow There'll Be More Of Us"). He co-authors "The Federalist Papers" and is selected as Secretary of the Treasury by newly elected President Washington, amidst Eliza begging Hamilton to stay and Angelica moving to London with her new husband ("Non-Stop").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Act II begins when Thomas Jefferson returns to America from being the U.S. ambassador to France, taking up his newfound position as Secretary of State ("What'd I Miss"). In 1789, Jefferson and Madison debate Hamilton's financial proposals at a Cabinet meeting. Washington tells Hamilton to figure out a compromise to win over Congress ("Cabinet Battle #1").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Eliza and her family—along with Angelica, back from London—travel upstate during the summer, while Hamilton stays home to work on the compromise ("Take a Break"). Hamilton begins an affair with Maria Reynolds, making him vulnerable to her husband's blackmail ("Say No To This"). Hamilton, Jefferson, and James Madison create the Compromise of 1790 over a private dinner, exchanging Hamilton's financial plan for placing the country's permanent capital on the Potomac River. Burr is envious of Hamilton's sway in the government and wishes that he had similar power ("The Room Where It Happens"). Burr switches political parties and defeats Philip Schuyler in a race for the Senate, now making Hamilton a rival ("Schuyler Defeated").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In another Cabinet meeting, Jefferson and Hamilton argue over whether the United States should assist France in its conflict with Britain. President Washington ultimately agrees with Hamilton's argument for remaining neutral ("Cabinet Battle #2"). In the wake of this, Jefferson, Madison, and Burr decide to join forces to find a way to discredit Hamilton ("Washington on Your Side"). Washington retires from the presidency after his second term, and Hamilton assists in writing a farewell address ("One Last Time").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: A flabbergasted King George receives word that George Washington has stepped down, and will be replaced by Paris signatory John Adams ("I Know Him"). Adams becomes the second President and fires Hamilton, who, in response, publishes an inflammatory critique of the new president ("The Adams Administration"). Jefferson, Madison, and Burr confront Hamilton about James Reynolds's blackmail, accusing him of "[embezzlement of] government funds" ("We Know"). Desperate to salvage his political career by proving that he was merely lustful and not corrupt, Hamilton prophylactically publicizes his affair ("Hurricane") in the Reynolds Pamphlet, which wrecks his own reputation ("The Reynolds Pamphlet") and damages his relationship with Eliza, who, in a heartbroken retaliation, burns all the letters Hamilton wrote her, trying to erase herself from history ("Burn"). After graduating from college, Philip attempts to defend his father's honor in a duel with George Eacker ("Blow Us All Away") but is fatally shot ("Stay Alive (Reprise)"), eventually leading to reconciliation between Alexander and Eliza ("It's Quiet Uptown").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Hamilton's endorsement of Jefferson in the 1800 United States presidential election ("The Election of 1800") results in further animosity between Hamilton and Burr, who challenges Hamilton to a duel via an exchange of letters ("Your Obedient Servant"). Hamilton writes his last letter in a rush while Eliza tells him to go back to bed ("Best of Wives and Best of Women"). Burr and Hamilton travel to New Jersey for the duel. Burr reflects on the moments leading up to the duel, stating that one of them will have to die. Burr and Hamilton walk the requisite ten paces, then Burr fires first, and time freezes as Hamilton reflects on his legacy, before throwing away his shot. Burr shoots him between the ribs and Hamilton dies, mourned by Eliza, Angelica, and the rest of the cast. Burr laments that though he survived, he is cursed to be remembered as the villain who killed Hamilton ("The World Was Wide Enough").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The musical closes with a reflection on historical memory. Jefferson and Madison reflect on Hamilton's legacy, as Eliza tells how she keeps Hamilton's legacy alive through interviewing war veterans, getting help from Angelica, raising funds for the Washington Monument, speaking out against slavery, and establishing the first private orphanage in New York City ("Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story"). The musical ends with Hamilton shaking Eliza's hand. Eliza then turns towards the audience and lets out a tearful gasp.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The original Broadway cast recording for "Hamilton" was made available to listeners by NPR on September 21, 2015. It was released by Atlantic Records digitally on September 25, 2015, and physical copies were released on October 16, 2015. The cast album has also been released on vinyl. The album debuted at number 12 on the "Billboard" 200 albums chart, the highest entrance for a cast recording since 1963. It went on to reach number 2 on the "Billboard" 200 and number 1 on the "Billboard" Rap albums chart. The original cast recording won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "The Hamilton Mixtape", a collection of remixes, covers, and samples of the musical's songs, was released on December 2, 2016. It debuted at number 1 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "The Hamilton Instrumentals", an instrumental edition of the original Broadway cast recording without the cast's vocals, was released on June 30, 2017.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In conjunction with the release, the producers of "Hamilton" announced that they were officially authorizing free sing-along programs for fans, and offering organizers the "Hamiltunes" name and logo to promote the events. A series of unauthorized "Hamilton" sing-alongs under that name, starting with "Hamiltunes L.A." in early 2016, had already taken place in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C., with spinoff events nationwide.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Miranda announced a new series of 13 "Hamilton"-related recordings called "Hamildrops", releasing once a month from December 2017 to December 2018. The first release, on December 15, 2017, was "Ben Franklin's Song" by The Decemberists, containing lyrics Miranda wrote during the development of "Hamilton" for an unused song that was never set to music. Miranda had long imagined Benjamin Franklin singing in a "Decemberist-y way", and ultimately sent the lyrics to Colin Meloy, who set them to music.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The second release, on January 25, 2018, was "Wrote My Way Out (Remix)", a remixed version of a song on "The Hamilton Mixtape", featuring Royce Da 5'9", Joyner Lucas, Black Thought and Aloe Blacc.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The third release, on March 2, 2018, was "The "Hamilton" Polka" by "Weird Al" Yankovic, a polka medley of some of the songs from the musical. A fan of Yankovic since childhood, Miranda became friends with him after they tried to develop a musical together. About the origin of the song, Yankovic said, "Lin pitched it to me as a polka medley way more hesitantly than [he] should have. He was like, 'Would you want to do a polka medley?' I was like, 'Of course I do! Since Yankovic was busy working on his new tour, he wouldn't be able to release the song in February, so he suggested calling March 2 "February 30th". Miranda said it was "the most perfect 'Weird Al' creative problem solving possible". After "Hamilton" had premiered on Disney+ in July 2020, Yankovic released a video version of "The Hamilton Polka" that synched his song to video clips from the show.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The fourth release, on March 19, 2018, was "Found/Tonight" by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ben Platt. A mash-up of the songs "You Will Be Found" from the 2015 stage musical "Dear Evan Hansen" and "The Story of Tonight", part of the proceeds were destinated to the initiative March for Our Lives, created after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Miranda said the song was his way "of helping to raise funds and awareness for [the efforts of the students in Parkland, Florida], and to say Thank You, and that we are with you so let's keep fighting, together". Platt added that he hoped the song could "play some small part in bringing about real change [in gun control laws]".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The fifth release, on April 30, 2018, was "First Burn", featuring five actresses who played Eliza Hamilton at productions of the musical: Arianna Afsar (original Chicago company), Julia Harriman (first national tour), Shoba Narayan (original second national tour company), Rachelle Ann Go (original West End company) and Lexi Lawson (Broadway). The song is the first draft written by Miranda of "Burn". Miranda described Eliza's portrayal in the first version of the song as "angrier" and "entirely reactive", while in the final version "she has agency", and explained that "it works as a song but not as a scene".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The sixth release, on May 31, 2018, was a cover of "Helpless" by The Regrettes. Miranda credited Mike Elizondo, a producer who worked with the band, as having suggested the idea, which he immediately accepted.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The seventh release, on June 18, 2018, was "Boom Goes the Cannon..." by Mobb Deep. The song, which incorporates a sample of the musical's "Right Hand Man", was one of the last recorded by Havoc and Prodigy, before Prodigy's passing in June 2017. Havoc expressed that the release of the record was "a great way to pay homage to [Prodigy] and continue not only Mobb's legacy, but his as well". Miranda dedicated it to Queensbridge.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The eighth release, "Rise Up, Wise Up, Eyes Up" by French duo Ibeyi, was released on August 31, 2018.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The ninth release, entitled "A Forgotten Spot (Olvidado)", features Puerto Rican singers Zion & Lennox, De La Ghetto, Ivy Queen, PJ Sin Suela and Lucecita Benítez. It was released on September 20, 2018, by Atlantic Records and Warner Music Group. The song was written by Miranda, along with the rest of the collaborators. The song was released on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria which directly struck Puerto Rico in 2017.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The tenth release, a rendition of "Theodosia Reprise" by Sara Bareilles, debuted on the eve of Halloween 2018. It featured show orchestrator Alex Lacamoire on piano and Questlove of The Roots on drums. The song, sharing a moment between Aaron Burr and his daughter, was to appear in Act 2 but was cut from the final production.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The eleventh release was "Cheering For Me Now", an original song with music by John Kander and lyrics by Miranda based on the 1788 Federal Procession in New York City. It was released on November 20, 2018. The release features Miranda performing as Alexander Hamilton and an arrangement by Alex Lacamoire.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: On December 20, 2018, the final song was released. "One Last Time (44 Remix)" features the vocals of original Broadway portrayer of George Washington, Christopher Jackson, gospel and R&B singer BeBe Winans, and former US president Barack Obama, reciting the lines from George Washington's farewell address. It is based on "One Last Time" with a revamped gospel type of music. The 44 in the title stands for Obama being the 44th president of the United States.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: While on vacation from performing in his hit Broadway show "In the Heights", Lin-Manuel Miranda read a copy of the 2004 biography "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow. After finishing the first few chapters, Miranda began to envision the life of Hamilton as a musical, and researched whether a stage musical of Hamilton's life had been created: all he found was that a play of Hamilton's story had been done on Broadway in 1917, starring George Arliss as Alexander Hamilton.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Miranda began a project titled "The Hamilton Mixtape". On May 12, 2009, Miranda was invited to perform music from "In the Heights" at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word. Instead, he performed the first song from "The Hamilton Mixtape", an early version of what would later become "Alexander Hamilton", "Hamilton"'s opening number. He spent a year after that working on "My Shot", another early number from the show.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Although Miranda took some dramatic license in recounting the events of Hamilton's life, both the story and the lyrics in the musical numbers were heavily researched. Many of the songs included in the show contain lines lifted directly from primary source documents including personal letters and other documents such as "The Federalist Papers" and the infamous "Reynolds Pamphlet".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Miranda performed in a workshop production of the show, then titled "The Hamilton Mixtape", at the Vassar College and New York Stage and Film Powerhouse Theater on July 27, 2013. The workshop production was directed by Thomas Kail and musically directed by Alex Lacamoire. The workshop consisted of the entirety of the first act of the show and three songs from the second act. The workshop was accompanied by Lacamoire on the piano.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Of the original workshop cast, only three principal cast members played in the Off-Broadway production: Miranda, Daveed Diggs, and Christopher Jackson. The original Off-Broadway cast moved to Broadway, except for Brian d'Arcy James, who was replaced by Jonathan Groff as King George III.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Directed by Thomas Kail and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, the musical received its world premiere Off-Broadway at The Public Theater, under the supervision of the Public's Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, with previews starting on January 20, 2015, and officially opening on February 17. The production was extended twice, first to April 5 and then to May 3. Chernow served as historical consultant to the production. The show opened to universal acclaim according to review aggregator "Did He Like It".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: According to "New York Post" gossip columnist Michael Riedel, producer Jeffrey Seller wanted to take the show to Broadway before the end of the 2014–2015 season in order to capitalize on public interest in the show and qualify for eligibility for that year's Tony Awards (Seller had made a similar decision as a producer of the musical "Rent", which opened Off-Broadway in January 1996, and quickly moved to Broadway in April); however, he was overruled by Miranda and Kail, as Miranda wanted more time to work on the show. Changes made between Off-Broadway and Broadway included the cutting of several numbers, a rewrite of Hamilton's final moments before his death, and a cutting-down of the song "One Last Ride" (now titled "One Last Time") to focus simply on Washington's decision not to run for a third term as president.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton" premiered on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (also home to Miranda's 2008 Broadway debut "In the Heights") on July 13, 2015, in previews, and opened on August 6, 2015. As in the off-Broadway production, the show is produced by Seller, Jill Furman and Sandy Jacobs with sets by David Korins, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Howell Binkley and sound by Nevin Steinberg.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In April 2016, after the negotiation, the original cast reached with producers an uncommon in the theater industry profit-sharing deal.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: On March 12, 2020, the show suspended production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Performances resumed on September 14, 2021.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton" began previews at the CIBC Theatre in Chicago on September 27, 2016. The Chicago production cast included Miguel Cervantes as Alexander Hamilton, Joshua Henry as Aaron Burr, Karen Olivo as Angelica Schuyler, Arianna Afsar as Eliza Schuyler, Alexander Gemignani as King George III, Jonathan Kirkland as George Washington, and Samantha Marie Ware as Peggy/Maria Reynolds. On its opening in October, attended by author Miranda, the Chicago production received strongly positive reviews. The Chicago run closed on January 5, 2020, after 1,341 shows. The production grossed $400 million, breaking the box office record for theater in Chicago. According to Chris Jones, the success was made possible by the larger number of seats the CIBC Theatre holds and can sell compared with, for example, the show's smaller New York City venue. Overall, "more than 2.6 million people took in Hamilton during its Chicago run." Lightfoot acknowledges the fact that this number includes the "31 thousand public school students who saw it through the Hamilton Education Program."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Plans for a national tour of "Hamilton" emerged near the end of January 2016. The tour was initially announced with over 20 stops, scheduled from 2017 through at least 2020. Tickets to the tour's run in San Francisco—its debut city—sold out within 24 hours of release; the number of people who entered the online waiting room to purchase tickets surpassed 110,000. The first national touring production began preview performances at San Francisco's SHN Orpheum Theatre on March 10, 2017, and officially opened on March 23. The production ran in San Francisco until August 5, when it transferred to Los Angeles's Hollywood Pantages Theatre for a run from August 11 to December 30, 2017.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Just days after the first U.S. tour began performances in San Francisco, news emerged that a second U.S. tour of "Hamilton" would begin in Seattle for a six-week limited engagement before touring North America concurrently with the first tour. To distinguish the first and second touring productions, the production team has labeled them, respectively, the "Angelica Tour" and the "Philip Tour".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The Philip tour began preview performances at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on February 6, 2018, before officially opening on February 15, 2018.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The Angelica tour alone requires 14 truckloads of cargo and a core group of over 60 traveling cast, crew, and musicians. The production team insisted that each tour must be able to duplicate the original Broadway show's choreography, which literally revolves around two concentric turntables on the stage. This led to the construction of four portable sets, two for each tour, so that one set can be assembled well in advance at the next stop while the tour is still playing at the last stop.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton" premiered in Canada when the Philip tour began a planned three-month run at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, Ontario on February 11, 2020. The show was slated to run until May 17, 2020, but was cancelled from March 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Producers announced the formation of a third touring company on November 8, 2017, dubbed the "And Peggy Tour". It was to debut in a January 8–27, 2019 run at the University of Puerto Rico's Teatro UPR in San Juan, with Lin-Manuel Miranda reprising the title role, then to become a San Francisco production with a different lead. The Teatro UPR stage, damaged by 2017's Hurricane Maria, was repaired in a months-long restoration in anticipation of the show.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: On December 21, 2018, less than a month away from opening night, negotiations between the show's production and the local faculty and staff union shifted the three-week engagement to the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center, and shortening it to January 11–27. This followed weeks of warnings from the union of possible protests outside the theater over budget cuts that the University of Puerto Rico administration was considering that would affect university staff and employees. In response to the prospect of union and pro-statehood protestors, a line of police stood outside the theater opening night.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Miranda's performance in the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center marked his return to the venue nine years after he reprised the role of Usnavi for the San Juan stop of the North American touring production of "In the Heights". "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" taped segments in Puerto Rico to help tourism, one of them with the "And Peggy Tour" cast performing a version of "The Story of Tonight", where Jimmy Fallon joined in as a second Alexander Hamilton next to Miranda singing about "The Tonight Show" and ending the performance with a salsa version of Fallon's "Tonight Show" opening song.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In a review of the Puerto Rico production, Chris Jones said Miranda's performance demonstrated "deeper on-stage emotions", as well as improved vocal and dance technique than on his original run on Broadway. Jones praised Miranda's "signature warmth" as well as Donald Webber Jr., calling Webber's performance as Aaron Burr "exceptional". The sold-out three-week engagement raised about $15 million for Miranda's Flamboyán Arts Fund, which benefits arts in Puerto Rico; the first beneficiary having been the restoration of the Teatro UPR, where the three-week engagement would have originally taken place.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: A filmed version of "Alexander Hamilton" was created featuring the Puerto Rico production and was shown as the final part of "Hamilton: The Exhibition" in 2019.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Julius Thomas III took over the role of Alexander Hamilton when the And Peggy tour moved to San Francisco, where it opened on February 21, 2019. Despite billing as a tour (as is the common theatrical convention with West Coast sit-down productions), the And Peggy Tour was fixed in San Francisco for a lengthy residency with no scheduled traveling dates. The San Francisco production was given a separate tab on the show's website from the two traveling North American tours. The production stopped performances on March 11, 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The San Francisco production reopened on August 10, 2021 and closed on September 5, 2021 to resume touring.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: A new production in Los Angeles was to run from March 12 to November 22, 2020, at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, but was suspended on the date of its intended debut in response to the coronavirus pandemic.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Cameron Mackintosh produced a London production that re-opened the Victoria Palace Theatre on December 21, 2017, following previews from December 6. Initial principal casting was announced on January 26, 2017. The London production received strongly positive reviews.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The show was forced to close from March 16, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England. It was announced in June 2020 that it would not reopen until 2021. It reopened on August 19, 2021, and is currently scheduled to run until 3 March 2023.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton" had its Australian premiere at Sydney Lyric, with previews beginning March 17, 2021. The Australian company is led by Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton, Chloé Zuel as Eliza Hamilton, Lyndon Watts as Aaron Burr, Akina Edmonds as Angelica Schuyler, Matu Ngaropo as George Washington, Victory Ndukwe as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Shaka Cook as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, Marty Alix as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton, Elandrah Eramiha as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds and Brent Hill as King George III. The production was forced to suspend performances due to Sydney's Second Wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on June 25, 2021. Performances resumed on October 19, following a significant uptake in COVID-19 vaccines.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The production opened in Melbourne at Her Majesty's Theatre on March 15, 2022, one year following the opening in Sydney. The company performed a Ham4Ham show on March 22, 2022, before the official opening night on the 24th. A mashup of iconic Australian songs mixed with the Hamilton soundtrack was performed by the cast and written by Alex Lacamoire. The Melbourne production received overwhelming positive reviews, with Jason Arrow's performance praised, with The Age saying that Arrow "wipes the floor with Miranda’s performance in the Disney+ version". Standby Tigist Strode performed the role of Eliza on opening night and was also received positively by reviewers. In September 2022, Sami Afuni took over the role of Hercules Mulligan/James Madison whilst Rowan Witt joined the company for the remainder of the Melbourne Season as King George. The Melbourne season will end on January 15, following a nine-month run.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The Australian tour will continue in 2023, playing at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC in Brisbane from January.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: According to a report in "Forbes", Stage Entertainment announced a German production in 2019 to open at the Operettenhaus in Hamburg. Originally scheduled for November 2021, the opening was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually took place on October 6, 2022.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The translation of the lyrics was done by German musical author Kevin Schroeder and German rapper Sera Finale.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton"s off-Broadway engagement at The Public Theater was sold out, and when the musical opened on Broadway, it had a multimillion-dollar advance in ticket sales, reportedly taking in $30 million before its official opening.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: By September 2015, the show was sold out for most of its Broadway engagement. It was the second-highest-grossing show on Broadway for the Labor Day week ending September 6, 2015 (behind only "The Lion King").


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton" set a Broadway box office record for the most money grossed in a single week in New York City in late November 2016, when it grossed $3.3 million for an eight-performance week, the first show to break $3 million in eight performances.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: "Hamilton", like some other Broadway musicals, offers a ticket lottery before every show. Initially, 21 front-row seats (and occasional standing room tickets) were offered in each lottery. "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda began preparing and hosting outdoor mini-performances shortly before each daily drawing, allowing lottery participants to experience a part of the show even when they did not win tickets. These were dubbed the "Ham4Ham" shows, because lottery winners were given the opportunity to purchase two tickets at the reduced price of one Hamilton ($10 bill) each.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The online theatrical journal HowlRound characterized Ham4Ham as an expression of Miranda's cultural background:


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: As a result of the Ham4Ham shows, "Hamilton"s lottery drew unusually large crowds of people who created congestion on West 46th Street. To avoid increasingly dangerous crowding and traffic conditions, an online ticket lottery began operating in early January 2016. On the first day of the online lottery, more than 50,000 people entered, crashing the website.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: After Miranda left the show on July 9, 2016, Rory O'Malley, then playing King George III, took over as the host of Ham4Ham. The Ham4Ham show officially ended on August 31, 2016, after more than a year of performances. The online lottery continued, with an official mobile app released in August 2017 that expanded the lottery by offering tickets for touring productions of "Hamilton" as well as the Broadway show.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Marilyn Stasio, in her review of the Off-Broadway production of the show for "Variety", wrote, "The music is exhilarating, but the lyrics are a big surprise. The sense, as well as the sound of the sung dialogue, has been purposely suited to each character. George Washington, a stately figure in Jackson's dignified performance, sings in polished prose... In the end, Miranda's impassioned narrative of one man's story becomes the collective narrative of a nation, a nation built by immigrants who occasionally need to be reminded where they came from."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In his review of the Off-Broadway production, Jesse Green in "New York" wrote, "The conflict between independence and interdependence is not just the show's subject but also its method: It brings the complexity of forming a union from disparate constituencies right to your ears... Few are the theatergoers who will be familiar with all of Miranda's touchstones. I caught the verbal references to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sondheim, "West Side Story", and "1776", but other people had to point out to me the frequent hat-tips to hip-hop... Whether it's a watershed, a breakthrough, and a game-changer, as some have been saying, is another matter. Miranda is too savvy (and loves his antecedents too much) to try to reinvent all the rules at once... Those duels, by the way—there are three of them—are superbly handled, the highlights of a riveting if at times overbusy staging by the director Thomas Kail and the choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Although giving a positive review, Elisabeth Vincentelli, of the "New York Post" (which was founded by Hamilton himself), wrote that Hamilton and Burr's love/hate relationship "fails to drive the show—partly because Miranda lacks the charisma and intensity of the man he portrays", and that "too many of the numbers are exposition-heavy lessons, as if this were 'Schoolhouse Rap!' The show is burdened with eye-glazingly dull stretches, especially those involving George Washington."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Reviewing the Broadway production in "The New York Times", Ben Brantley wrote, "I am loath to tell people to mortgage their houses and lease their children to acquire tickets to a hit Broadway show. But "Hamilton", directed by Thomas Kail and starring Mr. Miranda, might just about be worth it...Washington, Jefferson, Madison—they're all here, making war and writing constitutions and debating points of economic structure. So are Aaron Burr and the Marquis de Lafayette. They wear the clothes (by Paul Tazewell) you might expect them to wear in a traditional costume drama, and the big stage they inhabit has been done up (by David Korins) to suggest a period-appropriate tavern, where incendiary youth might gather to drink, brawl and plot revolution."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In "Time Out New York", David Cote wrote, "I love "Hamilton". I love it like I love New York, or Broadway when it gets it right. And this is so right. A sublime conjunction of radio-ready hip-hop (as well as R&B, Britpop and trad showstoppers), under-dramatized American history and Miranda's uniquely personal focus as a first-generation Puerto Rican and inexhaustible wordsmith, "Hamilton" hits multilevel culture buttons, hard... The work's human drama and novelistic density remain astonishing." Cote chose "Hamilton" as a Critics' Pick, and gave the production five out of five stars.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In an issue of "Journal of the Early Republic", Andrew Schocket wrote that while "Hamilton" makes bold choices to stray away from what he calls the "American Revolution Rebooted" genre, it remains "forged in the mold of this genre, and despite its casting and hip-hop delivery, is more representative of it than we might think". In the same issue, Marvin McAllister noted that the production's heavy hip-hop influence works so well because "Miranda elevates the form through this marriage with musical theater storytelling, and in the process, ennobles the culture and the creators."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: A review in "The Economist" summed up the response to "Hamilton" as "near-universal critical acclaim". Barack Obama joked that admiration for the musical is "the only thing Dick Cheney and I agree on." In 2019, writers for "The Guardian" ranked "Hamilton" the second-greatest theatrical work since 2000.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: ‡ Blankenbuehler received a Special Drama Desk Award for "his inspired and heart-stopping choreography in "Hamilton", which is to the musical's storytelling. His body of work is versatile, yet a dynamic and fluid style is consistently evident. When it's time to 'take his shot,' Blankenbuehler hits the bulls-eye."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The musical currently holds the record for most Tony Award nominations with 16 nominations (though due to multiple nominations in the two 'actor' categories, it could have only won 13 awards). At 11 wins, the musical fell short of one more win to match the record of 12 held by "The Producers".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: According to an article in "The New Yorker", the show is "an achievement of historical and cultural reimagining". The costumes and set reflect the period, with "velvet frock coats and knee britches. The set... is a wooden scaffold against exposed brick; the warm lighting suggests candlelight". The musical is mostly sung and rapped all the way through, with little dialogue isolated outside of the musical score.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Miranda said that the portrayal of Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other white historical figures by black, Latino and Asian actors should not require any substantial suspension of disbelief by audience members. "Our cast looks like America looks now, and that's certainly intentional", he said. "It's a way of pulling you into the story and allowing you to leave whatever cultural baggage you have about the founding fathers at the door." He noted "We're telling the story of old, dead white men but we're using actors of color, and that makes the story more immediate and more accessible to a contemporary audience."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The pro-immigration message of "Hamilton" is at the forefront, as the show revolves around the life of one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, and how he made his mark in American politics as an immigrant. Instead of being characterized as a white person, Alexander Hamilton's immigrant status is referenced throughout the show, along with the virtue and prowess of Hamilton ("by working a lot harder, by being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter", described in the show's opening, and later stating "immigrants, we get the job done"), in order to foster a positive image of immigrants. Alongside this, the casting of Black, Latino, and Asian American leads allowed audiences to literally view America as a nation of immigrants, and illustrate the "complex racial history and identity of America."


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: ""Hamilton" is a story about America, and the most beautiful thing about it is... it's told by such a diverse cast with such diverse styles of music", according to Renee Elise Goldsberry, who played Angelica Schuyler. "We have the opportunity to reclaim a history that some of us don't necessarily think is our own." Miranda has stated that he is "totally open" to women playing the Founding Fathers. Casting for the British production featured predominantly black British artists.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Although "Hamilton" was based on historical events and people, Miranda did use some dramatic license in retelling the story. Here are the most prominent examples:


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: The show has been critiqued for a simplistic depiction of Hamilton and vilification of Jefferson. Joanne B. Freeman, a history professor at Yale, contrasted the show's Hamilton to the "real Hamilton [who] was a mass of contradictions: an immigrant who sometimes distrusted immigrants, a revolutionary who placed a supreme value on law and order, a man who distrusted the rumblings of the masses yet preached his politics to them more frequently and passionately than many of his more democracy-friendly fellows".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Australian historian Shane White found the framing of the show's story "troubling", stating that he and many historian colleagues "would like to imagine that "Hamilton" is a last convulsion of the founding father mythology". According to White, Miranda's depiction of the founding of the United States "infuses new life into an older view of American history" that centered on the Founding Fathers, instead of joining the many historians who were "attempting to get away from the Great Men story" by incorporating "ordinary people, African-Americans, Native Americans and women" into a "more inclusive and nuanced" historical narrative in which Hamilton has a "cameo rather than leading role".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Rutgers University professor Lyra Monteiro criticized the show's multi-ethnic casting as obscuring a complete lack of identifiable enslaved or free persons of color as characters in the show. Monteiro identified other commentators, such as Ishmael Reed, who criticized the show for making Hamilton and other historical personages appear more progressive on racial injustice than they really were.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In "The Baffler", policy analyst Matt Stoller criticized the musical's portrayal of Hamilton as an idealist committed to democratic principles, in contrast to what he characterized as the historical record of Hamilton's reactionary, anti-democratic politics and legacy. For example, Stoller cited Hamilton as a leader involved in the Newburgh conspiracy (a military coup plot against the Continental Congress in 1783); his development of a national financial system which, in Stoller's view, empowered the plutocratic elite; and his use of military force, indefinite detention, and mass arrests against dissenters during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791. In 2007, history writer William Hogeland criticized Chernow's biography of Hamilton on similar grounds in the "Boston Review".


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: In 2018, "Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America's Past" was published. Fifteen historians of early America authored essays on ways the musical both engages with and sometimes misinterprets history.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Theatre scholars Meredith Conti and Meron Langsner have both published written analyses of the place of firearms and dueling in the musical.


title: Hamilton (musical)

text: Writer and essayist Ishmael Reed wrote and produced the 2019 play "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda", which critiques "Hamilton"'s historical inaccuracies. The play, directed by Rome Neal, had an initial run in May 2019 at Nuyorican Poets Cafe and was produced again in October 2019.