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On Saturday, Lin-Manuel Miranda is leaving Hamilton (sob). So…does this mean it will be easier to win the lottery? The show’s core trio will all have their final performance on July 9, and once you meet their replacements, it’ll seem like the opposite is true. There’s some serious new talent on the way, so say your goodbyes and immediately start saving up for those $849 tickets.
What comes next? Miranda says he'll be “jumping into a hammock,” followed by starring in the new Mary Poppins movie alongside Emily Blunt. Taking over the title role is his alternate and right-hand man, Javier Muñoz, whom Miranda credits as the co-creator of the ten-dollar founding father role. And he’s a pro: Muñoz was actually the one starring in the show the times President Obama and Beyoncé were in the audience in the past year. His new alternate will be Michael Luwoye, making his Broadway debut.
Also leaving is Phillipa Soo, who plays Hamilton’s wife, Eliza. She’s off to take the title role in Broadway’s new Amélie, coming in spring 2017. Her replacement is Lexi Lawson, the star of Miranda’s previous hit In the Heights.
The third star leaving the room where it happens is Leslie Odom Jr. He’s the one who beat Miranda at the Tonys, winning the award for best actor in a musical. That’s a big deal, you guys. His replacement hails from the soon-to-be-shuttered Shuffle Along—Hamilton snapped up Brandon Victor Dixon just 13 days after it was announced that he’d be out of a job.
Odom, genius that he is, amazingly predicted his own replacement:
And there’s one last bit of replacement news—getting his shot at hosting the live Ham4Ham mini-show and lottery held outside the theater every Wednesday is the new King George III, Rory O'Malley. Below, watch Miranda’s final farewell (until he comes back to visit, which he promises to do often):
