Hamilton is Not Coming to Movie Theaters with the "Original Broadway Cast" According to One Former Cast Member

This past week, it was announced that Disney had purchased the pro-shot rights to Hamilton for $75 million and plans to release it in theaters on Oct 15th, 2021. Both Disney and Lin-Manuel Miranda both tweeted out the announcement that the show would be coming to theaters starring the “Original Broadway Cast”.

Except both were wrong. The film we see in 2021 won’t have the “Original Broadway Cast”. It will be missing someone. It will be missing Betsy Struxness. And she’s letting us all know she's not happy about it.

The former ensemble member posted the following statement to her Instagram and Facebook accounts:

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To quote Lin from @nytimes, “The ability to democratize this is a really rare privilege.” Well then let’s democratize it fully. I am not in this film and I am an original Broadway company member of @hamiltonmusical. However Hamilton, despite its revolutionary storytelling and casting, is not revolutionary in its dismissal of the contributions of the ensemble in an original Broadway musical or in the theatrical canon in general. Words matter. I matter. Dancers matter. Ensemblists matter. It matters to me that a company quick to carbon copy my image in all its subsequent productions would be equally as quick to...*ahem* erase me from their narrative, but to borrow words yet again, “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” I do. I tell my story and I will not stand quietly by anymore and watch this show edge me out. I am incredibly happy that it WAS filmed and that the world will get to see the wonderful piece of art we all made together borne on Lin’s incredible words, but be true in the dissemination of those words regarding its creation. It’s A Broadway company, not the original Broadway company.

A post shared by Betsy Struxness (@be_strux) on

Ms. Struxness is not holding back her thoughts on being erased from the OBC. And I can see her point. She was a part of the opening night cast at The Public Theatre and was with the production through the first six months of its Broadway run. She posted the below statement about her reasons for leaving the show.

But because she left after 6 months and opted out of the remainder of her contract, in legal terms, does this mean she isn’t considered officially as part of the original cast? Also, does calling this the OBC without her push her out from receiving any residual monetary gain? After all, I believe she was included in the record-setting profit-sharing deal producers struck with the OBC.

/n

I don’t know for sure, but given that we’re talking about Ms. Struxness and perhaps one other cast member, it seems such a detail that it wouldn’t be overlooked by especially Mr. Miranda. After all, she was the show’s Legacy (formerly “Gypsy") robe, recipient.

And some of the other original cast are supporting her. Javier Munoz, Mr. Miranda’s alternate in the show and first replacement voiced his support for Ms. Struxness on Twitter.

https://t.co/QZdMfHH7pW

&mdash; Javier Mu\u00F1oz (@JMunozActor) <a href=https://www.onstageblog.com/"https://twitter.com/JMunozActor/status/1224481614211829760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\%22>February 3, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://www.onstageblog.com/"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>","resolvedBy":"manual"}" data-block-type="22" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1580875643772_26579">

But some on social media are calling Ms. Struxness’ statement simply “sour grapes” and being “salty” that she wasn’t invited to come back for the pro-shot. Some voiced that since she quit the show, it looks petty for her to call them out now.

Personally, I think Ms. Struxness has every right to be upset that she’s being erased from the OBC. At the same time, I don’t know how Disney or Mr. Miranda could have phrased it “Original Broadway Principle and most of the Ensemble”. Maybe they should have left the term out altogether.