If you’re trying to figure out exactly when the world went crazy for a hip-hop musical about a Treasury Secretary, the answer isn't just a single date. It’s a whole series of "firsts." Most people will tell you 2015. They aren't wrong, but they are definitely missing the bigger picture.
The short version? Hamilton officially opened on Broadway on August 6, 2015.
But that’s just the night the celebrities showed up at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The actual "birth" of the show happened way before that, and the version most of us have seen on our TVs didn't arrive until much later. Honestly, the timeline is a bit of a marathon, not a sprint.
The Night it Actually Started (2009)
If we’re being technical about what year did Hamilton come out, we have to talk about 2009. Lin-Manuel Miranda was invited to the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and Spoken Word. Everyone expected him to sing something from In the Heights. Instead, he stepped up to the mic and told the Obama family he was working on a "concept album" about someone he thought embodied hip-hop: Alexander Hamilton.
The room laughed.
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Then he started the opening lines of what we now know as "Alexander Hamilton." You can still find the video on YouTube. It’s wild to see the future of musical theater starting as a nervous pitch in a room full of politicians. At that point, it wasn't even a play; it was just a project called The Hamilton Mixtape.
Off-Broadway and the 2015 Explosion
Fast forward through years of writing. Lin-Manuel spent forever on individual songs—he famously took a year just to write "My Shot" because every couplet had to be perfect.
The show finally hit the stage for the public on January 20, 2015, for previews at The Public Theater. This was "Off-Broadway." It was smaller, grittier, and the hype was already becoming a monster. It officially "opened" there on February 17, 2015.
It was supposed to be a limited run.
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It wasn't. It sold out so fast that they had to extend it twice before realizing they needed a much bigger house. That’s when the move to Broadway happened. Previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre began on July 13, 2015, leading up to that massive August 6, 2015 opening night. If you’re ever at a trivia night, that August date is the one they are usually looking for.
Why the 2020 Release Was Different
For a lot of people, Hamilton didn't "come out" until the pandemic.
Unless you had $500 for a ticket or won the "Ham4Ham" lottery, you probably hadn't seen the original cast. That changed on July 3, 2020. Disney+ released the filmed version of the stage production, which was actually shot back in 2016 with the original crew (Lin-Manuel, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, the whole gang).
Fun Fact: The movie was originally supposed to hit theaters in late 2021. Because of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Disney moved it up by over a year to give people something to watch at home.
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Key Dates to Remember
- The White House Performance: May 12, 2009
- Off-Broadway Debut: January 20, 2015
- Broadway Opening Night: August 6, 2015
- The Hamilton Mixtape Album: December 2, 2016
- Disney+ Movie Release: July 3, 2020
The "Mixtape" vs. The Musical
Don't get the years confused with the album releases. The Original Broadway Cast Recording dropped in September 2015, shortly after the Broadway opening. But Lin-Manuel never gave up on his original "concept album" idea.
In December 2016, he released The Hamilton Mixtape. This was different. It featured artists like Kelly Clarkson, Usher, and The Roots covering the songs. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It sort of bridged the gap between theater nerds and mainstream radio.
The Global Rollout
The show didn't just stay in New York. If you’re in London or Chicago, your "Hamilton year" might look different. The Chicago production kicked off in September 2016, and the West End version in London opened its doors in December 2017.
Even now, in 2026, the show is still touring. It has become one of those permanent fixtures like Phantom or Wicked. It’s hard to remember a time when "Cabinet Battle #1" wasn't a thing people quoted.
Essentially, the answer to what year did Hamilton come out depends on how you consumed it. Was it the 2009 demo? The 2015 Broadway smash? Or the 2020 streaming event?
To see the show for yourself today, your best bet is checking the official Hamilton app for lottery tickets in your city or sticking with the Disney+ version for that front-row view of the original cast. If you're a superfan, tracking down the 2009 White House footage is a must-watch to see how much (and how little) the lyrics changed over six years of development.