Michelle Obama Honors Friend Lin-Manuel Miranda with National Portrait Award: 'Love This Guy'
Ten years ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda was a little-known performer and musical composer with a song to sing at the White House about a very famous dead politician named Alexander Hamilton.
That performance, in May 2009, was the world’s first glimpse of what became Hamilton, Miranda’s smash hit musical.
In attendance that night at the White House? Then-President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. And a friendship formed.
On Sunday night, Mrs. Obama presented Miranda with the Portrait of a Nation Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., at the gallery’s fundraising gala.
“I asked her. They said, ‘Who’s your dream presenter?’ And that’s my dream presenter, and my dream presenter said yes,” Miranda, 39, explained to reporters on Sunday. “I owe her, from performing the first song at the White House in 2009 to her coming to see Hamilton — not on Broadway, but off Broadway at the Public Theater, which I think is unprecedented for the first lady. Presidents and first ladies go see Broadway shows, but they don’t go downtown that much. So that early advocacy, I can’t ever repay her for that.”
In an Instagram post from Sunday night, Mrs. Obama, 55, had equally gushing things to say of him.
“[W]hat I love most is that he believes it’s his duty to lift up those around him, especially the next generation,” she wrote along with a photo of her and Miranda with a portrait of him that will hang in the museum.
She highlighted his relief efforts for Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, his support of Hamilton as a curriculum tool in schools and his advocacy for voting.
“He’s someone who has, in melody and rhyme and connection, painted as honest a portrait of our country as I’ve ever seen,” Mrs. Obama wrote. “Love this guy.”
Noted for her fashion choices while her husband was in office and since, for Sunday’s gala Mrs. Obama chose a custom-made corset-like Schiaparelli gown in bright — almost fluorescent — yellow (sans sleeves, of course).
“The inspiration for the shape originally came from the crinoline, which is often found underneath couture gowns, but the real starting point for the overall look was the color,” Schiaparelli’s creative director, Daniel Roseberry, said in a statement.
Miranda was one of six recipients of the Portrait of a Nation prize on Sunday, along with: Nobel-winning chemist Frances Arnold, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the musicians Earth, Wind & Fire, longtime Pepsi executive Indra Nooyi and Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
On Twitter, Miranda shared the photo of him and Mrs. Obama. Perhaps still soaking it all in, he kept the caption brief — to a pair of eyes emoji. “Bit of a night,” he hashtagged it, promising more later.
Speaking with reporters on Sunday, Miranda was asked what he would call a musical about Mrs. Obama. He playfully cited her child’s wellness initiative while she was first lady: “Let’s move!”
• With reporting by WENDY GROSSMAN KANTOR
