On September 5, 2025, Hamilton was released in theaters to celebrate the musical’s 10-year anniversary. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the musical, encouraged movie audiences to sing along while watching the movie in theaters.
On opening day, I went to watch the musical with my friend at the AMC Theater in Bloomsburg.
We found out a few days before we bought tickets that we were allowed to sing when we arrived. We were so excited because we love to sing and are big fans of musicals. We had a whole plan to sing along and have the time of our lives.
When we got there, we were very excited, and I was a bit nervous, hoping others would sing as well. When the musical started, there was a surprise video at the beginning from a lot of characters from the original cast.
As the musical started, we quietly sang along until we heard the people around us singing too. We started singing a bit louder, having fun with my friend, and hearing the people around us.
When we got out, I overheard others complaining about people singing in the movie theater.
While I normally agree that it is rude and people shouldn’t sing in the theater, I was excited to since we were given explicit permission from the creator, and some theaters had cast members join, sing, and act silly as the musical was playing.
It is a part of the experience that we are able to sing along and have fun.
I found it to be a fun and different experience from how a musical would normally be, watching and listening to the musical and the cast singing, but to be able to be a part of it by getting to sing along made it feel very special, especially for the anniversary.
I can understand that some people were nervous to sing since it didn’t look like a sing-along when the songs came on. There were a lot of fans who were nervous to sing out loud for the fear that other audience members wouldn’t sing, and they didn’t want to be loud and disruptive.
It would make sense if it were a new musical, but it has been out and known for 10 years.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has seen how excited and involved Hamilton fans are, so he wants them to enjoy the magic and get to interact, having fun watching it in the theaters.
