The cast of Broadway's HAMILTON visited the White House yesterday to host a student workshop, Q&A, and present a performance of musical selections from the smash hit show.
Earlier in the day, First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed the talented cast and the students to a workshop held in the State Dining Room. "I have been waiting for this day for a long, long time. This day, right here, when we're in the White House with this amazing cast," the First Lady said in her opening remarks. "We host a lot of special events here, we do a lot of really cool things, but this, for me personally, is the coolest."
Just prior to the 5:30 pm/ET cast performance, President Obama delivered his own remarks, joking "this is definitely THE ROOM where it happened, right here," a nod to the musical's show-stopping number "The Room Where It Happens."
Below. watch the cast performing the show's opening number "Alexander Hamilton" as well as opening remarks from President and Mrs. Obama.
In the afternoon, HAMILTON star and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda showed off his freestyling skills in the White House Rose Garden, with the POTUS himself challenging him to incorporate such words as The Federalist Papers, NASA, the Supreme Court, and the Oval Office into his rap. Check it out at left!
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, Philip Hamilton) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).