Lin-Manuel Miranda stars as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton, the musical based on the life of the Founding Father, but he almost ended up taking on the role of his great rival Aaron Burr instead, before deciding on the former. The lives of Hamilton and Burr are entwined in Miranda's musical, which he also created, from their first meeting to the fateful duel where the latter kills his nemesis. Indeed, such is the breadth of Burr's role in Hamilton that he almost becomes the main character at times, portrayed magnificently in the original Broadway production (a filmed version of which is streaming on Disney+) by Leslie Odom Jr.
The performances of Miranda and Odom Jr. are a huge reason for Hamilton's popularity, from the songs to the actual acting both are doing on stage. While the roles have since been inhabited by many different people both on Broadway and elsewhere, they remain synonymous with the two historical figures. Odom Jr.'s vocal talents shine particularly bright as Burr, who gets some of Hamilton's best musical numbers, but what would it look like if Miranda played him instead?
When he was in the process of writing the musical, Miranda was torn over whether he should play Hamilton or Burr; the two are intrinsically linked yet opposites of each other - one quiet where the other is loud, one cocky where the other is deliberately reserved, one who rushes into things headfirst where the other is cautious. And yet, despite the huge differences between the person he ended up playing and the one he almost did, Miranda told the New Yorker back in 2015 that he identifies a lot with Burr: "I feel an equal affinity with Burr,” he says. “Burr is every bit as smart as Hamilton, and every bit as gifted, and he comes from the same amount of loss as Hamilton. But because of the way they are wired Burr hangs back where Hamilton charges forward. I feel like I have been Burr in my life as many times as I have been Hamilton."
Ultimately, however, he chose to play Hamilton because it offered the chance to play a different kind of role to the ones he would typically be offered in Hollywood circles, allowing him to act a little differently and yet still be a character he has some connection to. He said: “If I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it. I get to be cockier than I really am; I get to be smarter than I really am; I get to be more impulsive than I really am - it’s taking the reins off your id for two and a half hours."
It's easy to understand why Miranda found the role of Hamilton so appealing, even beyond it being the lead part; after all, it was the story of Alexander Hamilton first and foremost that he was drawn to and wanted to tell, so it makes sense that's the person he'd end up portraying. Hamilton is an extremely compelling figure too, at least in the musical's narrative, which presents him as far more complicated than an outright heroic figure.
However, Miranda taking on the lead role did mean he missed out on some of Hamilton's best songs, like "Wait For It" and "The Room Where It Happens". When accepting the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Monte Cristo Award in 2018, he admitted that whenever he wrote Burr songs, he thought that was the part to play because they're so good, and previously told Grantland that the aforementioned numbers were two of the best he's ever written. However, it's also uncertain just how well those songs - and Hamilton as a whole - would've worked out had Miranda chosen to play Burr instead of Alexander. Miranda is an incredibly talented performer, but Odom Jr. certainly has a greater vocal range; "Wait For It" in particular would likely be quite different with Miranda singing it, while he himself is perhaps better suited to more of the rap elements that some of Alexander's songs have. Although Hamilton likely would've been good either way, it's undeniable just how much Miranda and Odom Jr. brought to their respective parts, and so is definitely for the best that the creator also opted to take on the title role in the end.