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The Rockefeller Foundation, a New York philanthropic
organization, will subsidize the tickets with a $1.46 million
grant to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, a
nonprofit group that is developing educational programming to
use the musical in the classroom.
"Hamilton" uses rap and R&B influences and color-blind casting
to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding
fathers of the United States who served as treasury secretary
under President George Washington and led the creation of the
U.S. financial system.
Tickets to the show, which is sold out through the end of this
year, range from $57 to $160 each and are fetching up to $2,000
on the secondary market. Under the program, the students will
pay $10 to see Wednesday matinee shows beginning in April 2016.
"Works like this don't come around very often, and when they do
we must make every effort to maximize their reach," Judith Rodin,
Rockefeller Foundation president, said in a statement.
Hamilton was killed in an 1804 duel with then Vice-President
Aaron Burr. In 1818, his widow, Eliza, established the Hamilton
Free School, the first school in the Washington Heights
neighborhood of Manhattan.
The educational mission of the ticket program was not lost on
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show's star and creator.
"We get to teach thousands of children. We get to see them
growing up," Miranda said in a Twitter posting on Tuesday,
playing off lyrics sung by Eliza Hamilton in the musical.
The first group of participating schools will include those with
large numbers of students eligible for free and reduced-price
lunches, a program available to low-income families.
(Reporting by Katie Reilly; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Will
Dunham)
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