This Week’s Production of Hamilton to Support the Arts in Puerto Rico

Hamilton, San Juan, Puerto Rico - 11 Jan 2019
Photo Credit by Carlos Giusti/AP/REX/Shutterstock

This week, Hamilton hits the stage in Puerto Rico for a limited run of two dozen shows, with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda reprising his role as the lead. The show is scheduled to open on January 11th.

The production was first announced shortly after Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017. ‘Bringing [Hamilton] to Puerto Rico is a dream that I’ve had since we first opened at The Public Theater in 2015,” he shared in his initial announcement, explaining that the Puerto Rican production would ultimately send a message of strength and resilience following the storm.

Proceeds from VIP ticket sales and any profits from the show will go to the Flamboyan Arts Fund, a not-for-profit grant program that sponsors the arts community in Puerto Rico. The fund supports the arts community on the island to ensure that its residents have a forum in which they can express their identity, creativity, and connections with one another. In 2018, Flamboyan offered grants that supported dance, theaters, art museums, literature, film, music, and folklore. Their 2019 open grants process begins next month.

The fund also strongly believes that investing in the arts will help to lift and support the economy of Puerto Rico. The economy is currently in the doldrums, having been exacerbated by the storm. As it stands, a majority of Puerto Ricans are concerned that they won’t have enough money or be able to find and keep a good job, while income inequality on the island is extremely high.

While mainland Americans have expected to shell out hundreds of dollars for Hamilton tickets, general admission tickets in Puerto Rico are available for purchase at $10 a seat via lottery, ensuring that all of his fans in Puerto Rico have affordable access to the award-winning show.

Philanthropy for the Arts and Beyond

It’s no surprise that the Puerto Rico run of Hamilton will support philanthropic causes. The Miranda family has given $4.6 million to non-profit organizations over the past two years and have deftly helped to raise nearly double that through popular campaigns, according to a recent piece published in the New York Times. Following Maria, they even helped to raise $43 million for hurricane relief.

Miranda has expressed that he is especially passionate about paying it forward to Puerto Rico, where the Manhattan-born New Yorker spent months of his youth. “It needs help, and it needs attention,” he told the Times, “and one of the weird side effects of ‘Hamilton’ is this megaphone that I didn’t really know what to do with in the beginning.”

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