LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

A look at the life and career of the stage musical phenomenon.

Even if you think “Rodgers and Hammerstein” is the name of a law firm, you likely have heard of Lin-Manuel Miranda. The composer, singer, and rapper became something of a household name a decade ago, when his hip-hop musical Hamilton, about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, opened on Broadway, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. In his first book, Pollack-Pelzner explains how a kid from Inwood, at the northern tip of Manhattan, wrote and sang his way into the hearts of millions. Miranda’s “origin story,” Pollack-Pelzner writes, began at a piano recital, when he first discovered he would get applause for his performances, leading him to play as many songs as he could. An anxious child by nature, Miranda bloomed in high school, where he made movies with a camcorder and took advantage of the school’s drama program, staging ambitious plays. In his sophomore year at Wesleyan University, Miranda wrote a musical set in Washington Heights; it would become the first draft of In the Heights, his first Broadway musical. Most of Pollack-Pelzner’s book is dedicated to the creative process behind In the Heights, which won four Tony Awards, and Hamilton, the idea for which came when Miranda took a copy of Ron Chernow’s biography on vacation. Miranda talked to Pollack-Pelzner for the book, and his remarkable candor is part of why it succeeds. The author’s chronicle of the musicals’ development is equally thrilling. Pollack-Pelzner, who writes about theater and culture for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the New York Times, understands the technical and creative aspects of the stage, and he proves himself to also be an astute observer of the more human side of creating art.

An enthralling portrait of an artist whose genius has captivated the world.