Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton arrives on Disney Plus on July 3rd, as a performance recorded live 2016 at New York’s Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Shot over three days, the film is culled from two live performances and extra footage without an audience for increased coverage. “The cameras were positioned in the audience, the audience sat around them,” the director told Cinemablend. “All the cameras were in the house or off stage. And we just ran the show as we always did.”
By 2016 the cast had been performing the show for a year, enabling a non-interventionist approach to directing the movie.
Although audiences won’t be able to see it in cinemas as was originally intended, Miranda remains optimistic. “The timeline we live in, there’s no live theater anywhere. I’m just thrilled that we have this giant joyous reminder of how special live theater is in the form of this Hamilton movie.”
This story originally appeared on Creative Planet Network.