Lin-Manuel Miranda: 'It’s been a fun challenge finding West End Hamilton cast'

Lin-Manuel Miranda has heralded the 'wealth of talent' in the UK’s theatre industry, claiming that his search for the West End cast of his musical Hamilton has been a 'fun challenge'.

The composer, whose hip hop musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton won 11 Tony Awards this year, was talking at an advanced preview of Disney’s new animation feature, Moana, for which he has written some of the songs.

When asked if his next challenge was to replicate his show’s Broadway success around the world, Miranda said: "Our fun challenge is in finding an incredible UK cast. Our early forays into casting so far have been incredible, there’s such an amazing wealth of talent here."

But will British audiences understand a musical about American history? Miranda doesn’t think they need to: "I get a lot of British journalists who say to me: 'We don’t know a lot of that American history', and I go: ‘most Americans don’t.'"

"That’s the dirty little secret. I didn’t know any of this stuff, I fell in love with the story reading Chernow’s biography. I think Hamilton’s story affects you no matter where you’re from, just by the sheer volume of stuff he got done while he was alive.

"You see that show and you go: 'man what am I doing with my life?' I hope that will ring true here."

Miranda was also quizzed about recent events that saw Brandon Victor Dixon (who plays Aaron Burr in Hamilton on Broadway) read out a speech to vice-president-elect Mike Pence during his visit to the show. A video of the speech went viral after president-elect Donald Trump shared it calling for the cast to apologise.

"I don’t think there’s anything to apologise for." Miranda said soberly. "We tried to be as respectful as we could and basically ask him to lead on behalf of all of us.

"Mike Pence went on a TV show that Sunday and said 'I wasn’t offended', and he said to his kids, 'That’s what freedom sounds like'".

Moana is out in cinemas nationwide from today. Hamilton opens at the Victoria Palace Theatre in November 2017.