The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda

Reed wrote a critique of the musical Hamilton shortly after its debut for the August 2015 edition of the magazine CounterPunch, titled "Hamilton: the Musical: Black Actors Dress Up like Slave Traders... and It's Not Halloween". In it he accused Lin-Manuel Miranda of whitewashing Alexander Hamilton's role as a slave owner and his involvement in the genocide of Native Americans. The Haunting expands on Reed's critiques of Hamilton, which include "turning a blind eye to the Schuyler family's ownership of slaves and soft-pedaling Alexander Hamilton's elitist politics and his attitude toward slavery." Journalist Emil Guillermo observed: "So people dance and rhyme to a hip hop beat, does that forgive Hamilton's family, kneed-deep in slavery as slave holders in upstate New York? The musical glorifies Hamilton and his connections. [...] Sure, putting blacks and people of color is a great diversity trick. But the truth still has to count for something." == Reviews ==

Reviewers noted that Reed's perspectives are shared by many historians who levied critiques about the historical accuracy of Hamilton after its release. == Plot summary ==

After taking Ambien given to him by his agent, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is visited by the spirits of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, as well as those left out of his musical, including enslaved Africans, Native Americans, a white indentured servant, and Harriet Tubman. In a dream, Washington and Hamilton reveal their contempt for Africans and Native Americans. After Miranda wakes up, the other spirits try to inform Miranda about their lives, while he appears confused. Miranda continuously defers to Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton to justify the content of the musical. After Miranda becomes convinced by the spirits' accounts of their lives and the consequences of the actions of Washington and Hamilton, he goes to confront Chernow, who is unapologetic. At the conclusion, Miranda's agent tells him he has been commissioned to write a play about Christopher Columbus. Throughout, the play also critiques Hamilton high ticket prices and "corny" songs. == Cast ==

• Jesse Bueno as Lin-Manuel Miranda • Robert Turner as the spirit of George Washington • Erika Pizarro as Venus, the spirit of a person enslaved by George Washington's sister-in-law Hannah Washington, whose son, West Ford, is believed to have been fathered by George Washington • Zachary Clarence as the spirit of Alexander Hamilton • N. Allam Forster as Miranda's agent • Tommie J. Moore as Ben, the spirit of a person enslaved by the Schuyler family • Pepsi Robinson as the spirit of a Native American man living at the time of Washington and Hamilton • Vanessa Lovestone as the spirit of a Native American woman living at the time of Washington and Hamilton • Malika Iman as Negro Woman, the spirit of a historical figure known as "Negro woman with child" according to Hamilton's expense accounts who, with her child, was sold by Hamilton • Roz Fox as the spirit of Harriet Tubman • Lisa Pakulski as the spirit of a female indentured servant who worked for the Schuyler family at their mansion in Albany, New York • Monisha Shiva as the spirit of Diana, an enslaved person owned and sold by the Schuyler family who is known to have died running away from her second master • Tom Angelo as Ron Chernow == Productions ==

Reed hosted a debut reading of the two-act play at Nuyorican Poets Café in January 2019. Reed stated at the initial reading that the play is meant to critique Miranda for his "shoddy research" rather than portray him as a villain. with Robert Mailer Anderson playing the role of Ron Chernow for the first four staged readings in January 2019. The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda premiered a full staging at the Nuyorican Poets Café on May 23, 2019, and ran through June 16, 2019. It ran a second time, from October 4 to October 27, 2019, in the same location. The play was directed by Rome Neal. Similar to Hamilton, several of the characters are played by actors of different races, such as Robert Turner, a black actor who portrays George Washington. == Critical reception ==

In a New Yorker profile, Julian Lucas observed: "News that someone hated [Hamilton] enough to stage a play about it caused a minor sensation. For those familiar with Reed's work, the drama was even more irresistible: a founding father of American multiculturalism was calling bullshit on its Broadway apotheosis." The play received mixed critical reception. Critics spoke positively of the acting, the wittiness of the script, == Book ==

The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda was published in book form by Archway Editions (distributed by Simon & Schuster) on October 20, 2020. == References ==