MULTI-AWARD-WINNING musical Hamilton is heading for Scotland with a nine-week run planned in Edinburgh next spring.
The Lin-Manuel Miranda production that tells the tale of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton – who was the son of Ayrshire-born James A Hamilton - will hit the Festival Theatre stage from February 28 to April 27 next year.
The hip-hop sensation has received huge acclaim since its off-Broadway premiere in 2015 and the Edinburgh run will form part of its first-ever UK tour which will begin at the Palace Theatre in Manchester in November.
A new company will be put together for the show with Scottish actor Reuben Joseph set to play the leading role of Hamilton.
Tickets are due to go on sale on March 13 for the shows at the 1915-capacity venue.
It comes 19 years after Miranda appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his hip-hop comedy musical group Freestyle Love Supreme.
The show – which is based on the 2004 book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow - is being brought to Edinburgh by Cameron Mackintosh, the British producer of Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera, and the show’s original producer American Jeffrey Seller.
Mackintosh said: “Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is indisputably the most brilliant, ground-breaking, contemporary musical of modern times.
✨Coming to the greatest city in the world✨#HamiltonUKTour arrives at the Festival Theatre. 📆Wed 28 February to Sat 27 April 2024 Friends on sale 6 March General sale 13 March 🎟️To secure tickets and discounts, join as a friend now! More info👉 https://t.co/ZHkunhzEYl pic.twitter.com/SmcrsdCePg
— Capital Theatres, Edinburgh (@captheatres) February 21, 2023
“I feel extraordinarily fortunate that Lin and my friend Jeffrey Seller, the show’s original producer, have entrusted me with their wonderful musical in the UK and Ireland.
"The London production opened in 2017 at the Victoria Palace, a theatre I completely rebuilt to house Hamilton, where it continues to play and has proved to be as big a success as the Broadway original.
“So, I’m thrilled that it’s time to put together a second British national touring company to bring this great show to our leading cities, opening first in Manchester, followed by Edinburgh – not far from where the real story of Alexander Hamilton began in Ayrshire, where his father was born in the 1700s, before he moved to Nevis in the West Indies.”
Hamilton has won multiple awards including Tony, Olivier and Pulitzer Prize awards, and has toured in North America, Canada, Germany and Australia.
Fiona Gibson, chief executive of Capital Theatres, which runs the Festival Theatre, said: “We’re utterly thrilled to be hosting the Scottish premiere of Hamilton at the Festival Theatre.
“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.”
