Eric F

There’s no doubt Lin-Manuel is a tremendous talent, a wonderful composer and entertainer but everything I’ve seen him in (at least on screen) he’s just not very good in. I just watched Mary Poppins Returns and he wasn’t good, and I think he’s one of the worst things in HBO’s His Dark Materials. Yes he’s great in Hamilton and I love his music in movies like Encanto, but his on screen presence is severely lacking (I’m not all too fond of his singing voice either).

Am I missing something? Has anyone here seen him in a live performance like Hamilton. I’m wondering what they think.Maybe someone can point me to an on screen performance he’s actually good in?

RichC2

He's good as Amy's overachieving douchebag brother in Brooklyn Nine Nine.

The Questyen

I'll disagree. I think he's fantastic in all those roles you mentioned. He's a great actor and has a great voice.

Dan

He has Theater Kid energy to the bone. I generally like him (and I love Hamilton, even if it's not cool anymore), but agree that his film presence isn't quite the same. He's immensely talented at songwriting. I haven't seen the movie he directed though.

Kurt D

Never should have left The Electric Company in my opinion.

dex14

You need to remedy that ASAP.

mwbmis

Well, it was a one off so we didn't get a chance to hate him. This is how I described it in the thread that year. "So Amy's brother who is good at everything, but is also kind of a smug douchebag that no one likes...Lin Manuel Miranda...perfect."

d2cheer

Who??????

JeremyM

He was fantastic in the Sopranos. (Kidding aside, for a two-line part, he is pretty funny.)

Bandoman

Inhumans99

From that clip, I get the vibe that Tony S wanted to bury him under the current hotel for being so useless when it came to answering his question, lol.

Also, I thought he was good in Mary Poppins Returns, and just okay in In The Heights (which I enjoyed), and did not really make that big an impression on me in the other roles (bit parts or otherwise) that I have seen him in.

I still have not seen Hamilton on D+ so I have just come to accept that he is the bees knees in Hamilton, and yes...a hyper-talented songwriter (like the husband/wife team that did a lot of the music for the Frozen films) but someone who I bet if all his cameos, etc. were recast with another actor you would not go oh, that role should have been played by Lin-Manuel Miranda. He also had a smallish role in the current Curb Your Enthusiasm show (the 1st season when the show starting airing again) where he dropped F bombs and seemed to be having fun with the role.

I think it helps that he seems like the type of person who has not let all the adulation thrown at him go to his head and can poke fun at himself; or let others wring a laugh or two out of parodying something Lin-Manuel had a had-in.

Giles

he's talented but he's gotten a bit overexposure IMO

I recently saw the musical 'A Strange Loop' and there's a really funny bit of dialogue

'Did you see 'Hamilton'?' / 'no, I'm poor'

GoldenJCJ

I liked Hamilton a lot and I thought he did a pretty good job in it but I do think he was overshadowed by some pretty monster talent, particularly Daveed Diggs and Leslie Odom Jr. who both have “superstar” written all over them. Compared to them Miranda seemed like he got lost under their massive talent.

Even if he doesn’t have quite as big of star power as others, his song writing talent is second to none. He and Eminem could probably turn out a great album if they ever worked together.

JayTL

I feel like he just wants to act too. But honestly with his directorial and soundtrack work, he doesn't have to act ever again and he's going to end up with a ton of awards/nominations

spainlinx0

I first saw Hamilton when it came to Disney+, and while I absolutely loved the show and the music, it always seemed like they could've gotten someone better to play Hamilton. The other stars absolutely crushed him in talent.

My girlfriend is also not a big fan, and her big worry while watching Encanto is that he would show up as a character since he did the music.

JayTL

I disagree with the sentiment. I think the success of Hamilton comes from how well the cast was. The entire cast, I wouldn't change at all. Was LMM the best in the play? No, maybe not even top 5. But, still wouldn't change him.

Runaway

Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't have to be the Lead in Hamilton to make it a success and to be fair, having a successful Broadway show still means "no one" saw it, if you compare it to a movie and not everyone who saw Hamilton, was able to see the show with it's original cast.
Nevertheless it's his show and why not cast himself. He is not the best actor, but he isn't the worst either. In Mary Poppins Returns or His Dark Materials he wasn't great. He got those parts because he is LMM, but he still better than 50 Cent who didn't even shine when he was playing a version of himself in Get Rich or Die Tryin.