Lin-Manuel Miranda will soon be taking his final curtain call for Hamilton.
The creator and star of the smash Broadway musical will depart the show on July 9, he told reporters on Thursday. The news was later confirmed via press release, where it was also announced that Javier Muñoz, Miranda’s alternate as Alexander Hamilton in the show, will take over in the role beginning on July 11.
Miranda’s July 9 exit has been rumored for weeks, and its confirmation comes just days after the Hamilton creator won two Tony Awards for his ground-breaking musical. Overall, Hamilton won 11 total Tonys out of a record 16 nominations.
Asked after Sunday’s Tonys about his plans to depart the show, Miranda said, “The answer to that is, flash forward to a few years when you are going to be so sick of me playing Hamilton.” He added, “Because I have written this character that I cannot age out of. I intend to drop in on this thing over and over again. I want to cut to 20 years from now, when you’re like ‘Lin, when will you stop playing Hamilton.’”
Like that founding father he plays on stage, Miranda is seemingly non-stop: in addition to his Hamilton performance duties, he is composing music for Disney’s upcoming animated film Moana and will star opposite Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns, which is set for a Christmas 2018 release. It was also announced this month that a film version of Miranda’s earlier Broadway hit, In the Heights, is in development at The Weinstein Company.
Miranda, 36, originated the role of Hamilton when it first arrived Off Broadway at the Public Theater and continued in the role when the show moved to Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre in the summer of 2015.
Miranda scored a trio of Tony nominations for Hamilton: Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. He won two of the awards, losing Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical to his Hamilton costar Leslie Odom, Jr.
Muñoz has been Miranda’s alternate since early days on the musical, and also served as Miranda’s replacement on In the Heights.
