Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has explained why he allowed the upcoming movie musical to be censored on Disney Plus.
Taking to Twitter on Monday, Miranda confirmed that the lyrics of two explicit songs have minor alterations in the filmed version of the original Broadway production, which arrives on Disney’s streaming platform, July 3.
LANGUAGE!
1. On July 3, you’re getting the whole show, every note & scene, & a 1-minute countdown clock during intermission (bathroom!)
2. But MPAA has a hard rule about language: more than 1 utterance of “Fuck” is an automatic R rating. We have 3 “Fucks” in our show. So…
1/2 https://t.co/7o3OQ34rqt— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) June 22, 2020
Miranda was responding to a fan who questioned why the movie had received a PG-13 rating, rather than an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and asked whether any iconic lines had been cut or changed for the movie to reach this categorization.
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In his reply, Miranda revealed that Yorktown, the 20th song of Act One, and Washington on Your Side, the 8th song of Act Two, had been edited for mature language.
“You’re getting the whole show, every note & scene, & a 1-minute countdown clock during intermission (bathroom!),” Miranda explained in his tweet on Monday. “But the MPAA has a hard rule about language: more than 1 utterance of ‘F***’ is an automatic R rating. We have 3 ‘F***s’ in our show.
“I literally gave two f***s so the kids could see it: 1. In Yorktown, there’s a mute over ‘I get the f*** back up again’ 2. ‘Southern *record scratch*kin’ Democratic Republicans.’ You can sing whatEVER you like at home (even sync up the album)!”
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For those somehow unfamiliar with the wildly successful musical, Hamilton is a dramatization of the life of Founding Father and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, tracing his story from his arrival in New York City at the dawn of the Revolutionary War through to his ill-fated duel with rival Aaron Burr in 1804. The musical features a unique combination of hip-hop, R&B, soul, and show tunes to help examine Hamilton’s story through a modern lens.
Hamilton debuts on Disney+ on July 3. If you want to learn more, we recommend Gore Vidal’s book “Burr,” as an “enjoyable and even necessary companion piece” to the hit stage show.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Disney Plus Censored Hamilton and Lin-Manuel Miranda Is Cool With It