Miranda Lands His Shot

Photo by Nancy L. Ford

Luis Miranda Jr. wanted his son to be a lawyer.

To the 5,000 people in the Hamilton College field house the evening of Monday, Sept. 29 - which included Miranda Jr.—it was clear that Lin-Manuel Miranda did just fine choosing his own career.

Miranda, the creator of Broadway’s award-winning musicals Hamilton and In the Heights, was the latest speaker in the college’s Sacerdote Great Names Series.

The almost 90-minute conversation between Miranda and Hamilton College alumnus, Eric Kuhn, himself a Broadway producer and Tony award-winner, rolled through Miranda’s early years, his pull to focus on the arts over law and how he came to ...