40 Celebrities We Need To Keep Safe From 2016

NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 15: Event moderator Lin-Manuel Miranda attends the ‘Grease: Live’ Panel

18. Lin-Manuel Miranda

If I had to pick one song from Hamilton as my defense for why 2016 should spare Lin-Manuel Miranda, I don’t think I’d pick “Alexander Hamilton” or even “My Shot,” which may seem like sacrilege. Don’t get me wrong. They are both great. Pretty much all of Hamilton is great. That’s all thanks to the brilliance of Lin-Manuel’s magnificent brain; he famously got the idea after reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton on vacation.

No, if I had to pick one song, I’d say “Wait For It” without a second thought.

It works on so many levels — not for nothing is it noted in Hamilton: The Revolution that
the song makes you wait for the words “wait for it” — but it’s also a soliloquy delivered through music. Sure, the language is different, but it flows like the best from Shakespeare. I get chills every time I work through those lyrics.

People forget that Shakespeare was wildly popular in his own day, too. Not to say that Lin-Manuel is the new Shakespeare, but the comparisons are worth thinking about.

And though he’s no longer performing as Alexander Hamilton, the man has some serious projects ahead of him: starring in Mary Poppins Returns, working with Alan Menken on the music for live-action The Little Mermaid, and having already written songs for the upcoming Moana.

We’ll just have to wait for it, and waiting means 2016 can’t take him away.

-Cheryl

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