It’s like John Laurens said: We’ll never be truly free until there’s a Hamilton documentary on public TV. To that end, then, PBS is making a Hamilton episode of its Great Performances series. It’s being called Hamilton’s America (and we just live in it), and it’s debuting October 17. (You’re just going to have to wait for it.)
Hamilton’s America has been filming in all the rooms where Hamilton has happened since 2013, and will chart the evolution of the smash musical. Alex Horwitz is directing the 90-minute film, and he just so happens to be one of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “best friends from college,” so he didn’t have any trouble gaining access to his notoriously close-lipped subject. Says Miranda, “He’s got this insane footage because he was like, ‘Can I throw a camera on you since you’re writing this thing?’” In addition to a heavy dose of the man behind the man on the front of the ten, Hamilton’s America will apparently feature interviews with the likes of George W. Bush, the Obamas, Jimmy Fallon, and Questlove, as well as sit-downs between Miranda and Stephen Sondheim, John Weidman, and Nas. And despite the flood of Hamilton content already out there, Miranda promises Hamilton’s America won’t be your average founding-of movie: “It’s not the road to Broadway. We lived that movie already … This is sort of where Hamilton intersects with history.” Sure, sir!
