Lin-Manuel Miranda wants Hamilton fans to know he hears their concerns.
The hit Broadway musical premiered on Disney+ this week and has largely renewed applause for the actor’s writing, but with the praise comes some criticism.
A chief concern among the critics is that Miranda made Alexander Hamilton and other Founding Fathers out to be all-around honorable figures, while glossing over the fact that many of the men who signed the Constitution contributed to the United States’ troubling history of slavery.
As influential scholar Roxane Gay explained on Twitter, “I have a lot of thoughts about Hamilton and the way it idealizes the founders, and how such a brilliant musical dangerously elides they realities of slavery but Leslie Odom Jr. put his FOOT in that performance. So talented.”
Gay wasn’t alone in sharing an opinion that was both parts complimentary and critical, as many others shared on social media that they were conflicted on the subject.