The 10th anniversary Broadway performance of the cultural touchstone “Hamilton” will serve as a fundraiser for a coalition of nonprofit organizations that provide immigration services, creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said.
Dubbed and hash-tagged “HamilTEN,” the performance on Aug. 6 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre is on track to raise about $3 million for the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition, a group of 14 nonprofits serving several immigrant communities.
The invite-only event includes the show itself and a reception beforehand hosted by Miranda. Every single past Broadway cast member has been invited, while most of the other invites will go to winners selected from a Prizeo-sponsored sweepstakes whose contestants donate a minimum of $10 to the coalition.
A limited number of VIP packages were also being offered Thursday for $2,500 to $10,000 through the Hispanic Federation, which will also donate the proceeds to the coalition.
The fundraiser is both a hat tip to Founding Father and first U.S. treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, and a boost for groups that have lost millions in federal funding even as the need for their services burgeons amid the Trump administration’s immigrant purge.
While Hamilton did not identify as an immigrant, “his narrative in our country kind of mirrors that of an immigrant story,” Miranda told The Associated Press, noting that he didn’t grow up in America or emigrate from England but “came from the Caribbean, escaping harsh circumstances. And he really helped shape this country.”
Indeed, the coalition’s name is taken from what Hamilton assumed was a throwaway line in the show itself. “Immigrants: We get the job done” was uttered by Hamilton and French military officer Marquis de Lafayette at the Battle of Yorktown.
“I thought it was no big deal,” Miranda told the AP. “But from the moment it was performed on stage, the audience reaction was so joyous at just the utterance of that simple fact.”
Miranda previously supported the coalition in 2017, making a star-studded music video ode to immigrants from his “Hamilton” mixtape, and holding a sweepstakes via Prizeo for tickets to the show’s Los Angeles opening night.
With News Wire Services
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