Of all the places to hear the views of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the social media platform, Tumblr, may not be the first place one would turn. Yet in 2015, with the newly successful Hamilton taking over Broadway, Miranda threw his hat into the ring on one of theatre’s most disputed models.
When a user of the site voiced frustration at the delay in receiving a bootleg copy of the musical, Miranda replied: "Here I am. The composer. Actively rooting against you." When the point of prohibitive cost was brought up, Miranda defended his stance in full.
He wrote: "I'm thrilled you haven't heard a shit, half-iPhone recorded version yet, because I spent 6 years writing this and when you hear it, I want you to hear what I intended. I'm sorry theater only exists in one place at a time but that is also its magic. A bootleg cannot capture it."
It seems perhaps odd, therefore, that Miranda announced plans to cooperate with Disney+ to broadcast his musical sensation as of 3 July. However, this change of heart, has been seen across the cultural sector in response to Covid-19.
In a piece for The Telegraph, Chris Stokel-Walker, writes that: “Theatre had long treated the idea of recording and posting videotaped versions of its performances online as a threat to its future.” Their logic being that, why would anyone pay to see something in person that they could at home.
Ben McOwen Wilson, the managing director of YouTube in the UK and Ireland, notes that: “As soon as lockdown really kicked in, we were getting more and more approaches from players in the sector.
Indeed, he believes there is very much a place for YouTube-Theatre partnership during the pandemic. “There’s a huge role we can play in helping to democratise – especially outside London – some of the access to this incredible cultural and creative heritage that the UK has and has built.”
Amid government policy to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it seems that theatres are going to have to partner with YouTube at least for the foreseeable future.
