The Awards Continue! HAMILTON Receives Kennedy Prize for Historical Drama

Fresh off the Grammy win for Best Musical Theater album, the awards continue for Broadway's smash hit HAMILTON. It was announced this morning that the hip hop musical is the winner of the Kennedy Prize for Historical Drama. The news was announced by Columbia University and Jean Kennedy Smith. Named in honor of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who passed away in 2009, the award honors "a new play or musical that enlists theater's power to explore the past of the United States."

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of "Hamilton," will receive a $100,000 award. The honor marks the fourth time the award has been given out. Previous winners include "Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3" by Suzan-Lori Parks (2015); "Detroit '67" by Dominique Morisseau (2014), "All the Way," by Robert Schenkkan, and "The Body of an American," by Dan O'Brien (tie 2013)

Plays and musicals which were first professionally produced in 2014 or 2015 were eligible for this year's award. The other finalists, announced on January 27, were: An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, produced by Soho Rep; Indecent by Paula Vogel, produced by Yale Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse; Sweat by Lynn Nottage, produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Vietgone by Qui Nguyen, produced by South Coast Repertory.

The voting jury for the 2016 Kennedy Prize included Kristoffer Diaz, Playwright, Educator; Farah Jasmine Griffin, William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African American Studies, Columbia University; Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies; Mona Mansour, Playwright; Dominique Morisseau, Playwright; James Shapiro, Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; Jeanine Tesori, Composer, Musical Arranger; Anne Washburn, Playwright; John Weidman, Librettist.

According to the jury: "Out of an extraordinary group of plays that brilliantly illuminate aspects of American history, the committee voted unanimously to award the Edward M. Kennedy prize to Hamilton. The committee felt that the spirit of the award is exemplified in this play. It enlists theater's power to explore the past of the United States, participating meaningfully in the great issues of our day and grounded in the historical understanding that is essential to the functioning of a democracy. Technically so proficient, historically so sound, artistically so groundbreaking, Hamilton is both inspired by and celebrates the evolving history of the United States, of hip-hop, and of the musical theater."

In the coming months, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical will be announced. Will history continue to have its eyes on HAMILTON? Stay tuned!

To learn more, visit http://kennedyprize.columbia.edu/

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an award-winning composer, lyricist, and performer, as well as a 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award recipient. His current musical, Hamilton - with book, music and lyrics by Mr. Miranda, in addition to him playing the title role - opened on Broadway in 2015 following a sold-out run at New York's Public Theater. Off-Broadway,Hamilton received a record-breaking 10 Lortel Awards, as well as 3 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 8 Drama Desk Awards, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Musical, and an OBIE for Best New American Play. Mr. Miranda's first Broadway musical, In the Heights, received four 2008 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, with Mr. Miranda receiving a Tony Award for Best Score as well as an nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. In the Heights also received a Grammy Award for its Original Broadway Cast Album and was a 2009 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama. Mr. Miranda is the co-composer and co-lyricist of the Tony-nominated Bring it On: The Musical. He contributed Spanish translations for the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story. Mr. Miranda is a co-founder/member of the hip-hop improv group Freestyle Love Supreme. In 2014, Mr. Miranda received an Emmy Award with Tom Kitt for their song, "Bigger" from the 67th Annual Tony Awards telecast. Additional television and film appearances include "House," "Modern Family," "Sesame Street," The Odd Life of Timothy Green and 200 Cartas. Mr. Miranda is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation's Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award and the National Arts Club Medal of Honor. He serves as a Council Member of The Dramatists Guild, Board Member of Young Playwrights Inc., and as an appointee to New York City's Theater Subdistrict Council. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he currently lives in New York City with his wife, son and dog.

The new musical Hamilton has book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composerLin-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."

The cast of Hamilton is comprised of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), Daveed Diggs(Marquis De Lafayette,Thomas Jefferson), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler),Christopher Jackson (George Washington),Jonathan Groff (King George), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy Schuyler, Maria Reynolds), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton alternate), Okieriete Onaodowan(Hercules Mulligan, James Madison), Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr),Anthony Ramos(John Laurens, PhilipHamilton) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).

HAMILTON is the acclaimed new musical about the scrappy young immigrant Alexander Hamilton, the $10 Founding Father who forever changed America with his revolutionary ideas and actions. During his life cut too short, he served as George Washington's chief aide, was the first Treasury Secretary, a loving husband and father, despised by his fellow Founding Fathers and shot to death by Aaron Burr in their legendary duel.

Photo credit: Joan Marcus