1789: Alexander Hamilton is first U.S. secretary of the treasury, serving until 1795.
2008: “In the Heights” opens on Broadway, a musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and directed by Thomas Kail, with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and music direction by Alex Lacamoire. It wins the Tony Award for best musical and makes a name for Miranda. Later the same year during a vacation, Miranda begins reading historian Ron Chernow’s biography “Alexander Hamilton” (Penguin, 2004) and has the idea that the story could be a hip hop concept album. He mentions the idea to friend and Chicago author Jeremy McCarter, who first assumes he’s joking, according to their cowritten book “Hamilton: The Revolution” (2016, Grand Central) about the musical’s gestation.
2009: Miranda is invited to perform “The Hamilton Mixtape” for the Obama first family at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word in May, accompanied by Lacamoire on piano. Standing ovation. The song is adapted into the opening number of the musical.
2013: An early draft of the musical, still titled “The Hamilton Mixtape,” is workshopped in July at the Vassar Reading Festival in Poughkeepsie, New York.
2015: “Hamilton” debuts off-Broadway at the Public Theater in New York, with much the same creative team as “In the Heights,” including Lacamoire, Kail and Blankenbuehler. Set design is by David Korins.
2015: Opening night on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, starring Miranda as Alexander and produced by Jeffrey Seller. “Hamilton” goes on to win 11 Tony Awards, including for best musical.
2016: The first post-Broadway production opens in Chicago at the then-Private Bank Theatre (now CIBC Theatre) on Monroe Street on Oct. 19, with Miguel Cervantes as Alexander. In November, vice president-elect Mike Pence attends a Broadway performance and is addressed by the cast during the curtain call.
2017: First national tour launches in San Francisco in March. “Hamilton” opens in London’s West End in December. The acclaimed Joshua Henry leaves the role of Aaron Burr in the Chicago production in January, briefly replaced by actor and comedian Wayne Brady.
2018: “Hamilton: The Exhibition” is announced for Chicago’s Northerly Island, a history museum dedicated to the founding father, with plans to tour it nationally after Chicago. A second national tour launches in Seattle and over the holidays, “Hamilton’s” Broadway production grosses more than $4 million in a single week, a new box office record.
2019: In January, “Hamilton” plays a celebrated three-week run in Puerto Rico, at the Centro de Bellas Artes in San Juan, with Miranda briefly returning to his lead role as Alexander. The Puerto Rico production then becomes a third U.S. touring company. “Hamilton: The Exhibition” opens on Northerly Island in late April but fails to draw crowds and closes earlier than expected in late August.
2020: The long-running Chicago production of “Hamilton” closes on Jan. 5 at the CIBC Theatre, just two months before the pandemic shuts down theater across the country. The show had box office sales of some $400 million over three and a half years. In July, director Thomas Kail’s filmed version of the musical streams on Disney+. Later that month, Miranda responds to criticisms that the show failed to fully acknowledge slavery, tweeting that the criticisms are “fair game.”
2022: The first non-English “Hamilton” production opens in Hamburg, translated into German.
2023: A first Chicago return engagement for the musical. The national tour of “Hamilton” plays Sept. 13 to Dec. 30 at the Nederlander Theatre on Randolph Street, starring Pierre Jean Gonzalez as Hamilton and Deon’te Goodman as Aaron Burr.
2025: A planned production at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C, is canceled in response to President Donald Trump’s takeover of the arts center, with the musical instead announcing a return to Chicago. Producer Jeffrey Seller later says that Chicago had the best theater availability, as well as close ties to the show.
2026: “Hamilton” opens in Chicago’s Loop for a third time on March 5, back at the CIBC Theatre, running through April 26. Along with the national tour, “Hamilton” continues to play on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York, and in London’s West End.
dgeorge@chicagotribune.com
