Following the announcement of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s most recent charitable collaboration with the Flamboyan Foundation to establish the Flamboyan Arts Fund, the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and composer sat down with Today Show’s Savannah Guthrie for an extended interview on the seemingly endless projects in the works for the creator.
Established to promote the rejuvenation of the arts in Puerto Rico, the Flamboyan Arts Fund will receive proceeds from the upcoming 2019 production of Hamilton in Puerto Rico, in which Miranda is set to return to the titular role.
“The most peaceful three hours of my day was when I was onstage, because your only job is to be Hamilton,” said Miranda. “I’m also looking forward to—this sounds crazy—the zen of getting to just be Alexander Hamilton for 2 hours and 45 minutes every day. To ride that ride is to live a whole life in miniature.” Miranda spoke of the importance of bringing the show to Puerto Rico, casting local actors, and launching the new tour.
Just as exciting as his return to the Revolutionary War is his film directorial debut: a screen of Tick, Tick...BOOM!. “If they only ever let me make [film], I want it to be Tick, Tick...BOOM!,” Miranda declared. “I saw that show my senior year in college when I was a theatre major about to enter the real world, and it was like a sneak preview of what my 20s were going to look like. ‘Here’s how hard it is; here’s how joyous it is; here’s what you’re in for kid,’ said Jonathan Larson to me.”
On the writing front, Miranda has a book coming out. “This is entirely at the request of Twitter,” admitted Miranda, who wasn’t looking to become a traditional published author. “I’ve been finding increasingly elaborate and empathetic ways to say [good morning and good night] because I feel like I need positive voices on social media these days.”
Staying grounded throughout all of the creativity, the interviews, the work, may be Miranda’s greatest triumph. “I have really great friends. I have an incredible wife who is a superhero. The things I needed not to change didn’t change,” Miranda confided. “I’m going to live here [in the Heights] until they cart me out of here. I wrote a whole show about how I don’t want to leave this neighborhood.
“I’m trying to take the right lessons from the success of Hamilton, which is not the trappings of success but ‘Hey, the best idea I ever had came on vacation. So maybe calm down and take a breath, Lin.’” In fact, resting and taking time off is the most important thing Miranda says he does to live his creative life.
He and his wife, Vanessa Nadal, recently welcomed their second son, Francisco, and he is loving the role of father to (now) two boys.
Watch the full interview above.
