Luis Miranda Jr.
Appearances
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
Of Hamilton, correct. He's telling the story to my wife and I. I see hip-hop singers jumping off the pages in my head. I'm like...
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
I tell my wife, you got to read this book because you understand that this is a journey. We're all going to be in for a long time. And in my family, it doesn't matter if you disagree.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
I do all of the philanthropy for the Miranda family. I oversee all of Lin-Manuel's companies.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
The theater of politics and the theater on a stage are very, very similar. Lin-Manuel says all the time that I go through the world collecting money for candidates, and probably half of them never have a chance. But there are fights that you must fight. Theater is a bit the same way you go and collect lots of money.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
And most of the shows don't make it the same way that many candidates won't make it. But there is art that needs to be made. Some shows, I always wonder, why did they do that? But hey, someone had a dream. Luis Miranda himself had a dream for his son. I wanted him to be president of the United States, the first Puerto Rican president of the United States of America.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
And I know he could have done it. He is so good at it. I see him meeting with elected officials. He's so charming, but faithful to his beliefs. You're not going to convince him to say something he doesn't believe in.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
Lin-Manuel and his friends, all very arrogant young people. They needed money to hire the actors and really further develop. I ask, how much do you need? And they say, $40,000. I'm like, no, they're going to give you $40,000. This is 2005, 2006. I said, but I know what I'll do. I'll ask my friend, who's the artistic director of Repertorio Español, Spanish Repertoire, to lend me the theater.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
You guys do a reading. We'll invite people and we'll ask them a thousand bucks a pop. A backers audition, this is. Correct. Friends coming together because you're telling them that your kid is good.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
I believe that producing more art makes a society healthier. Do you have evidence? Yes. I'm a poor kid from a small town in Puerto Rico that somehow felt that musicals were fantastic. I didn't know what they were singing. Do you understand that I'm listening to shit? And I have no clue what they are singing. But there was something attractive, magnetic, magical about the form.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
Arts can create wealth, but it speaks to a different part of who we are as humans and as a society.
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
Someone took a chance, only Manuel. And for me, you never finish paying for that. Who was it that took a chance on him?
Freakonomics Radio
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
I'll start from a personal note. My son had been on vacation and he came back And we're 15 blocks apart. So usually he comes for breakfast and says, well, my next show, it's Hamilton. And I'm like, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America? He's like, yes, I just read this amazing... And as I'm reading it... This is the Ron Chernow biography of Hamilton, correct?