It is the hottest show in New York, with eager fans queuing for hours on Broadway each night in the hope of standby tickets – and now the US hit musical Hamilton is transferring to the West End.
The Pulitzer prize-winning show will open at the Victoria Palace theatre in October 2017. Producer Sir Cameron Macintosh is spending £30m readying the venue for the show, and thewebsite for the UK production launches on Monday, according to the theatre columnist Baz Bamigboye.
#Hamilton musical by @Lin_Manuel opens #VictoriaPalace Oct 2017. https://t.co/TsZBFPresg site goes live Monday noon pic.twitter.com/oxnPzQFSi3
— Baz Bamigboye (@BazBam) June 9, 2016
#CameronMackintosh @DMTWestEnd spending £30m refurbishing #VictoriaPalace for #Hamilton by @Lin_Manuel.Opens Oct2017 pic.twitter.com/DPZo9AjxmJ
— Baz Bamigboye (@BazBam) June 9, 2016
Created by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, and directed by Thomas Kail, the hip-hop musical tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers and a crucial figure in the drafting of the US constitution.
It received rave reviews in the press – the Wall Street Journal called it “the best and most important Broadway musical of the past decade” – and it has been praised by the Obamas. It has also won a Grammy for best musical theatre album.
The musical, which is raking in $500,000 (£450,000) a week in profit from its Broadway production, is nominated for 16 Tonys this Sunday night.
Another of Miranda’s musicals, In the Heights, is already in London, at King’s Cross theatre, and has won multiple Tonys and Olivier awards.
Miranda recently told the London Theatre website he was excited to bring Hamilton to a British audience, adding: “We’ll get the same questions: ‘It’s so American. Will it play?’ But hopefully if we’ve done our jobs well like we did on [In the] Heights, this story of revolution and telling your own story will also play well over there as well.
“And also, we really take the piss out of King George, so I can’t wait to see how that plays.”
In April a New York Times profile revealed that producer Jeffrey Seller was working with Mackintosh on a production of the musical to open in London, which Seller claimed would be followed by companies in continental Europe and Australia.
Mackintosh’s hit shows include three of the longest-running musicals of all time: Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. In 2014 he became the first British producer to be inducted into Broadway’s theatre hall of fame.
The Guardian has contacted his office for comment.
