The 2015-16 Broadway season still has roughly four months to go until nominations for all of New York's various theatre awards are announced, but that hasn't stopped the smash hit musical Hamilton from gathering an impressive collection of accolades and honors along the way.
The musical's original Broadway cast recording was selected as the #2 album of the year by Billboard, its author/star Lin-Manuel Miranda has been awarded a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant and now two of the show's younger stars, Okieriete Onaodowan and Anthony Ramos, have been named to Forbes Magazine's prestigious 30 Under 30 List, in the Hollywood and Entertainment Division.
The business magazine's annual collection of lists makes note of rising talents to watch for in fields such as Venture Capital, Media, Manufacturing and Industry, Education, Retail and Commerce and Music.
Onaodowan made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of the 2012 revival of CYRANO DE BERGERAC and followed that up with a stint in the company of ROCKY, understudying Apollo Creed. In Hamilton he doubles up as both patriot spy Hercules Mulligan and our future fourth president, James Madison.
Making his Broadway debut, Ramos splits his Hamilton time between playing American patriot John Laurens, a committed abolitionist who dreamed of recruiting a patriot brigade of freed slaves to fight the British and Philip Hamilton, the headstrong son of the title character and his wife, Eliza.
The new musical Hamilton has book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays the title role. The musical is directed by Thomas Kail, with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and music direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. Hamilton is inspired by Ron Chernow's biography "Alexander Hamilton."