Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda has confirmed that he is leaving the blockbuster Broadway musical later this summer to focus on other endeavors, including finishing the score for forthcoming Disney film Moana, rehearsing for a role in a live-action sequel to Mary Poppins and helping to spearhead a Latino voter registration effort aimed at preventing presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump from winning the White House in November.
“Our issues are on the table, from Puerto Rico to a wall to keep half of us out being a party platform,” Miranda told reporters Thursday in reference to Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the Mexico border.
“It’s important that we get out and vote,” he said, according to the New York Times.
The 36-year-old creator of the 11-time Tony Award-winning hip-hop musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton has already began urging Latino voters to head to the polls in November.
Miranda filmed a video for the influential Hispanic Federation two weeks ago encouraging voter registration and participation.
Register to Vote Today from Hispanic Federation on Vimeo.
“Those still waiting to become citizens depend on us to vote for leaders who support diversity and inclusion,” Miranda says in the 30-second spot.
The Hispanic Federation has spent months criticizing Trump and his policy agenda.
“Hispanic Federation continues to be deeply troubled by Mr. Trump’s vitriolic attacks on immigrants and his punitive and unrealistic proposals to address our nation’s broken immigration system,” the organization said last month in a statement.
The group went on to call Trump’s plan to build a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico and his pledge to revoke President Obama’s executive orders regarding DACA and DAPA “not only unworkable and costly,” but “also profoundly inconsistent with American values.”
The Hispanic Federation was founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s father, Luis A. Miranda, Jr. According to a profile on the website of Mansa Capital, a healthcare investment firm for which he serves as an advisor, the elder Miranda was a lead consultant for both Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer’s successful New York senatorial campaigns.
Current Hispanic Federation President José Calderón told CBC News last February that his organization is “educating our community around the dangers of” Donald Trump.
“He’s given license to express anti-Latino sentiment in this country,” Calderon added. “It’s dangerous.”
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the Broadway star called Trump’s border wall policy an “old … malignant form of a very common American electoral disease, which is, ‘Point at the newest people here and say they’re the reason you’re broke.'”
Miranda told reporters Thursday that he will be replaced by his longtime alternate, Javier Muñoz, beginning July 11. Miranda’s final Hamilton performance is set for July 9.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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