Lin-Manuel Miranda Speaks Out Amid ‘Cancel Hamilton’ Uproar: ‘All the Criticisms Are Valid,’ ‘It’s All Fair Game’

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
David Ng

Lin-Manuel Miranda has shifted into damage control mode following mounting social media pressure to “cancel” his musical Hamilton, saying that “all criticisms are valid” and that “it’s all fair game.”

The Tony Award-winning star locked his Twitter account this week after demands to cancel his hit Broadway musical gained steam among Black Lives Matter supporters, who are arguing that the show celebrates the country’s founding fathers, some of whom were slave owners.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has since unlocked his Twitter account, now appears to be trying to appease the cancel mob, saying that all of their criticisms are valid and fair.

“All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game,” he tweeted on Monday.

The attempts to cancel Hamilton come after the recent release of a recorded version of the musical on the Disney+ streaming service. The musical features founding fathers Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, but it mostly skirts the issue of slavery. Both Washington and Jefferson were slave owners, while Hamilton married into a family of slave traders.

Former Green Party vice presidential candidate and activist Rosa Clemente tweeted that the musical “glorifies Alexander Hamilton who trafficked in the buying and selling of Africans. As Puerto Ricans and very specifically as Black Puerto Ricans we have a duty to tell this truth and no longer glorify the play nor the person, Lin-Manuel Miranda who wrote it.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda has publicly supported the Black Lives Matter movement, which has advocated for the destruction and removal of historic statues and monuments around the country.  In May, Miranda apologized for the musical’s belated show of support, calling it a “moral failure on our part.”

Watch below:

Miranda and his fellow cast members berated Vice President Mike Pence from the stage when he attended a performance of the Broadway production in late 2016.

“We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir,” actor Brandon Victor Dixon, who played Aaron Burr, told the then-vice president elect.  “But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us.”

Hamilton has grossed more than $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide, including the Broadway production and touring versions. The movie version of the musical reportedly led to a 74 percent spike in Disney+ app downloads during the July 4 holiday weekend.

Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com

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