A Guide to the Care and Maintenance of Lin-Manuel Miranda, by Tommy Kail

stickmarionette:

Director Tommy Kail let us in on his secret: At a party after a small performance of some early Hamilton material in June of 2011, “Lin was eating cheese and crackers, and people were saying nice things to him — which is usually when I realize I should make my move, because he’s not hungry, and he’s just been satiated in his applause quotient. ‘Lin, did you hear how hard they were clapping? We should do more.’” 

“There was a moment when Alex [Lacamoire] and I arrived together and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has a proclivity for finding a way to do bodily harm to himself, was already bandaged up with his skateboard like a sad scared child who can’t believe that his parents finally found out that he rode it down the stairs. That was day one.“ - Tommy on his memories of the now-famous Vassar workshop of Hamilton in 2013

“Tommy brings deadlines to the table.”

“The one thing I find really useful with this particular group is just planting some flags on the horizon so we can march toward them. And Lin responds very well to that, and once the flow state begins with him, it’s really just about maintaining it. Once it really opens up, as it started to do in 2012 and 2013, it was such a constant production from him. It was about harnessing it then, as well as focusing on targets for us to hit.” - Tommy on the creation of Hamilton

Charlie Rose: You hit it off right away?

Tommy: Yes. Well, we like to say this. I met Lin in May of 2002.

Lin: I graduated the week before.

Tommy: And we basically never stopped talking. It’s just been a 13-year conversation that has led us to this table which is slightly mind- blowing. 

Charlie Rose: And how do you complement each other?

Lin: I say “Tommy, your hair looks great - ”

Tommy: And I say “Lin - “ [laughter]

Charlie Rose: No, no, no. You know what I mean. How do your skills mesh with his skills?

Lin: Well, one of the things that I credit Tommy enormously with all the time is, you know, both in the creation of Heights and in the creation of Hamilton, Tommy is someone who likes to come in and work no matter what the outside world wants of us. So when In the Heights happened and we were both broke and had day jobs, he would say, well, bring in a song on Friday. Bring in a song on Friday and we’ll talk about it. And he kind of created deadlines for me even when we had no apparatus or way of knowing whether the show was going to be anything and it created somewhere for me to go and something for me to do and something for me to work towards. And, you know, we’ve kind of continued that with every project we’ve worked on.