The production aims to give high schoolers a chance to experience the Broadway smash — and participate in a hands-on curriculum — but the 21-week run in Hollywood comes with fresh challenges.

Every Wednesday afternoon, thousands of low-income teens in New York and Chicago are in the room where it happens, seeing the musical Hamilton for $10. With the show making its long-awaited opening at the Hollywood Pantages on Aug. 16, come this fall L.A. high schoolers also will have the chance to experience the Broadway smash. "There is no audience more honest on earth than 17-year-olds — they're unjaded and scream at any action or kissing," says Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musical's creator and original lead, who earned an Emmy nomination for hosting Saturday Night Live and next stars in Disney's Mary Poppins Returns.

By the time they get to the theater, they're buzzing. They've learned about the show and this chapter in American history, and they're ready to go."

These Title I public school students, all participants in the Hamilton Education Initiative (aka #EduHam), first complete a hands-on, online curriculum — created by Hamilton producers in conjunction with New York's Gilder Lehrman Institute — that not only introduces them to the people and events of the United States' founding, but also challenges them to pen performance pieces in the same way that Miranda composed his show about the life of Alexander Hamilton. On the morning before watching the musical, students from each school perform their works onstage for each other and the cast.

"These kids are writing these incredible poems and dances and songs and scenes, not just from the perspective of George Washington, but also Sally Hemings and Phillis Wheatley — it's this incredible way to explore how history isn't told," he says. “We really don’t treat Hamilton as the be-all, end-all of American history — it’s a musical! It’s as much as we can cram into two hours and 45 minutes! — but it’s been a great jumping-off point."

Read the source article at Hollywood Reporter