Arts & Entertainment

How A West Village Theatre Inspired Lin Manuel Miranda

The Hamilton creator released a video with Google to revisit some NYC locations most inspiring for his work. A West Village spot included.

An image of Lin Manuel Miranda and the Jane Hotel in the West Village.
An image of Lin Manuel Miranda and the Jane Hotel in the West Village. (Picture 1 Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Picture 2 Credit: Anna Shanks/Shutterstock)

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Lin Manuel Miranda needs minimal introduction for his work or New York City upbringing. The Washington Heights native routinely credits the influence of his neighborhood in everything he's been able to create during his career.

However, in a video posted Friday, the Hamilton star also mentioned an old West Village theatre that played an essential role in his journey to Broadway.

On Friday, Google Arts & Culture released an eight-minute video where Miranda gives a virtual tour of his favorite hidden gems in Manhattan and explains why they're important to him both personally and professionally.

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He mentions Washington Heights gems like Sylvan Terrace and Morris-Jumel Mansion, while also highlighting what used to be the Drama Bookstore in Midtown and one of the last New York City phone boots in SoHo.

The other Manhattan location he takes time to mention is the West Village's old Jane Street Theatre, which is now a hotel.

Find out what's happening in West Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Senior year of college I go see Tik Tik Boom, which is a musical Johnathan Larson wrote before Rent, after his passing the playwright turned it from a one-man show to a three-man show," Miranda says during the video. "And it premiered at this corner, which is now the Jane Hotel — when I saw it in 2001 — it was the Jane Street Theatre."

The present-day hotel is located at 113 Jane Street.

Miranda described the West Village experience as such a significant moment because it showed him that musicals could be made about what his life was actually like, and not about a tale from centuries ago in some faraway land.

"Tik Tik Boom" is the story of a young aspiring composer who worries he might have made the wrong career choice being part of the performing arts scene — a reality that Miranda was also dealing with at the brink of college graduation and his entrance into the working world.


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