History Has Its Eyes On Us: Celebrating Hamilton’s 10th Anniversary

Hamilton is celebrating 10 years on Broadway. Photo by Ken Lund via Flickr

For Hamilton’s 10th Anniversary, Leslie Odom Jr. is back in the room where it happens, reprising his iconic role as Aaron Burr in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s widely recognized musical. 

Hamilton’s revolutionary style — pun absolutely intended — has significantly changed the musical theatre landscape in several areas, including its approach to style, casting and visually detailed performances.

When thinking of Broadway, most tend to jump to the classic Liza Minnelli or Patti LuPone theatrical singing. The heavy-vibrato, extremely enunciated and theatrically trained tone of these actresses has defined the industry for decades. 

But Hamilton, with its focus on incorporating hip-hop, rap and R&B influence, disrupted the scene, making the beauty of musical theatre more accessible and interesting to a wider audience. 

Hamilton’s soundtrack is bolstered by unconventional beats and melodies, while still including some classical musical theatre numbers, which has made the soundtrack more attractive to a larger audience. 

Additionally, the choreography and music style are heavily inspired by the cultural movement of hip hop and R&B, aiding in its visual appeal and artistic storytelling. This hip hop inspiration allows for strong representation of often forgotten and rewritten cultures, like hip hop, which originated in ethnic minority neighborhoods in New York City. 

The Hamilton original cast was also incredibly diverse, including numerous ethnic backgrounds like Puerto Rican actors, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Ramos, Asian-American actress, Phillipa Soo, among various African-American actors, like Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs and many others. 

The focus on diverse casting is immensely important, as it provides representation for groups who do not see themselves in the media, especially in musical theatre, an industry historically dominated by white people. 

More often than not, leading roles are given to white people. By having the majority of the cast representing different cultures, Hamilton has completely flipped the script.

Recently, in Hamilton news, the 2025 Tony Awards showcased the original cast of Hamilton performing a medley of eight songs from the show’s soundtrack. But there was a notable aspect of their performance: their choice of costumes. 

The entire cast was dressed in varying black ensembles, notably featuring Diggs, who played Marquis de Lafayette, in a black beret and one black leather glove on his right hand. 

“They all wore black because they are mourning the loss of the ideal democracy from 2015, when Hamilton first came out,” said Irving Torres in a video via Instagram. The only cast member not wearing black was King George III, who was adorned in a red ensemble, similar to the character’s signature red coat.

The inspiration for Diggs’ costume choices was the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary Black nationalist and socialist group with the aim of achieving self-determination for Black Americans. 

Diggs is a human rights activist, writing and starring in the 2018 movie “Blindspotting,” a story amplifying the racism and injustice in the judicial system. He has also visited colleges, like Lafayette College, to share his experiences and educate students on his numerous works, all focused on social change. 

In an interview with The Guardian, Diggs said, “Two days before I left LA to move to New York to work on Hamilton, I got pulled off of my bike and thrown up against a fence by police officers who thought I fitted a description. These events keep happening. It doesn’t change. And so you live with it.” 

Media like Hamilton and “Blindspotting” are incredibly important, possibly even more so today, where our political climate is dangerously aggressive and divided. It is exceptionally important to highlight oppressed voices and stories, and hold space for conversations about the effects of systemic racism, capitalism and police brutality, among other injustices. 

Hamilton has had a significant cultural impact, which is notable given that musical theatre does not often extend beyond its typical audience to influence broader communities. It has made its mark on society’s arts and culture, and continues to do so as more people listen to its music and learn of the story’s impact.