15 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Hamilton: An American Musical

The cast of Hamilton is the show's greatest weapon. The singing is phenomenal, and the general acting talent of each of them is astounding. We all know who the main players are now, from Miranda as Alexander Hamilton to Phillipa Soo as Eliza to Jonathan Groff as the hilarious King George, but things could have been different.

Early in the writing process, Miranda knew he wanted to star in the show, but couldn't decide if he wanted to play Hamilton or Aaron Burr. As he saw it, he related to them both; he loved Alexander's willingness to "charge forward" but also respected Burr's choice to "hang back". He felt as though he had been both of them in his life at one point or another.

Eventually, he chose to play Alexander and the role of Burr went to Leslie Odom Jr. Miranda once joked that he regretted this decision because Odom got all of his favourite songs. "Wait for It" and "The Room where it Happened", he's said, are the best things he's ever written.

Also early in the process of writing, Miranda was inclined to cast a white actor in the lead, but once more his mind changed and most of the cast (save Groff) are non-white performers. This was done purposefully, as Miranda wanted to tell the story of the past in modern-day America, and casting minority actors removed distance from where the story was set, making it more connected to what America is now.