When Greer was a senior at West Aurora high school, she performed in, In The Heights, a musical written and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It was extraordinarily moving, and exceptionally prescient, prophetic – exposing the insidious cycle of poverty that is easily detected in all major cities, and not-so-major towns. When I read up on the play and Miranda, I found that he had written another musical to great acclaim, called Hamilton, that highlights the life of Alexander Hamilton, his contributions to the establishment of our nation, and tells the story in a way that also calls out injustices that occurred then and pervade our country now. And I just had to see it when it came out that spring.
But at $100-200 per ticket? Wasn’t going to happen. Still, Lin-Manuel Miranda wanted everyone to have a shot at seeing it so he (someone) created an app that a person can download and daily enter a lottery for 2 $10 tickets. 4 ½ years later, Howie, after conscripting my phone and – every day – entering the lottery with both, won 2 tickets for last Friday night’s performance!
Lin-Manuel Miranda is a modern-day prophet. He knows this country’s history and the constitution that supports it, and recognizes the beauty and potential the documents hold. He can also see the abuses carried out in its name. And he tells it with culture-centric music styles, diverse casting for leading roles, humor and heartbreaking narrative, and excellence.
The prophet Hosea knows God and Israel’s history, and sees the abuses carried out in the name of religion, and tells the story through his own marriage – not much humor, probably no music, but definitely a lot of heartbreak – as uncomfortable as the entire narrative understandably makes us.
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