Smash-hit musical Hamilton set for nine-week run in Edinburgh

Broadway hit musical Hamilton will see the story of a key figure in the American revolution told in Edinburgh.

The award-winning production will start its first UK tour this winter, and the show will have its Scottish premiere at the capital’s Festival Theatre in February 2024.

Producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh said he was “thrilled” to bring the musical, which tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the United States and right-hand man of George Washington, to cities around the country.

“Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is indisputably the most brilliant, ground-breaking, contemporary musical of modern times,” Sir Cameron said.

Performances at the theatre will run for nine weeks between February 28 to April 27.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for the musical’s lead character, a man of Scots decent.

His father, James Alexander Hamilton, was born in Ayrshire, 1718, but left Scotland to become a merchant in Nevis, in the West Indies, where Alexander Hamilton was born.

Hamilton then migrated to the United States, where he became a key figure in the revolution.

The show, with music and lyrics by Mr Miranda, is based on a biography of the statesman released in 2004 written by Ron Chernow.

The hip-hop musical tells the story of Hamilton’s life, which was cut short during a duel with long-time political rival, Aaron Burr in July 1804, along with how various historical figures influenced him.

Fiona Gibson, chief executive of Capital Theatres which runs the Festival Theatre, said: “To have this iconic show, which has delighted audiences round the world, here at the Festival Theatre, and in Edinburgh where Lin-Manuel Miranda once busked at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is really special.”

Casting for the production is expected to begin this week, and the UK tour will begin at Manchester’s Palace Theatre on November 11.

Premiering off Broadway in February 2017, the show has since drawn near universal praise, and has won 11 Tony Awards, seven Olivier Awards, and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

In 2017, it opened at London’s Victoria Palace theatre, where it continues to play.