Miranda eyes life after 'Hamilton,' and it's busy

NEW YORK — So the little musical you've written becomes the hottest thing on Broadway, and in pop culture, capturing the Pulitzer Prize, 11 Tony Awards and the hearts and minds of a nation. What do you next?

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of Hamilton, and a famously ferocious multi-tasker, has no doubt given this question some thought. "I have five really good ideas in my mind," he says, tucking into breakfast with a few reporters — and his proud dad, Luis A. Miranda Jr. — at Coogan's in Washington Heights, where he grew up.

But "it's no accident," Miranda adds, "that the idea for Hamilton — maybe the best idea I'll ever have in my life — came to me on vacation. It came to me when I had a moment's rest from being in In the Heights," his previous musical and also a Tony winner. Hamilton has, he says, "been the best tsunami in the world, but it's been a crazy thing to be in the middle of this...The next project doesn't start until I get a minute to sleep."

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Mind you, Miranda will still have a lot on his plate when he leaves the production July 9, at the end of his contract. Javier Muñoz, who shares Miranda's Puerto Rican heritage and already fills in once a week as Miranda's alternate, will take over July 11. But first, he will be filmed in the current production for posterity, over two nights in late June.

And Miranda plans to revisit the role of the founding father and architect of our financial system "a lot," he adds, though "I don't know where and I don't know when yet." He'll have a few options: He and director Thomas Kail are preparing a Chicago production, opening in September, and a national tour will launch next year, with a London staging also planned.

For now, though, Miranda has "other opportunities that are going to kind of need my mental real estate." He's "putting the finishing touches" on music for Disney's Moana, due in November. Miranda's 1 ½-year-old son, Sebastian — who, not by coincidence, shares his name with a character in another Disney animated film musical, The Little Mermaid — watches test screenings regularly on his dad's computer. "He calls it Agua, because there's so much water."

Later this year, Miranda will begin rehearsals for a sequel to a live-action Disney classic. He play a lamplighter in Mary Poppins Returns, opposite Emily Blunt's Poppins and under Rob Marshall's direction. "It's an original film musical, and that's sort of a lost art," Miranda notes, adding, "I'm going to be (looking) over (Marshall)'s shoulder, taking notes, because I would also like to do that some day."

Meanwhile, a Hamilton mix tape is being readied for release in October, when PBS's Great Performances is set to air a documentary featuring interviews with various famous fans. The mix tape is still evolving, Miranda notes, but says it will feature demos (including cut songs woven into interludes) and covers. A new version of My Shot will showcase original contributions from "incredible rappers," and a cover of Satisfied "is going to blow your ... minds."

Charity and philanthropy are also on Miranda's list. Tee-Rico, the new merchandise line he launched Thursday to promote other artists inspired by his —art (and his prolific tweeting), is offering a T-shirt featuring the emotional sonnet he read at the Tonys, in the wake of mass shootings in Orlando; proceeds will benefit Florida's LGBT community.

"I understand that I have this weird megaphone right now," Miranda says, adding, "I also understand that it's more powerful if I use it sparingly. I use it to highlight causes where I think I can be effective." Where the upcoming election is concerned, "I'm going to be trying to get out the Latino vote as hard as possible" in a non-partisan fashion, as he did in 2012, when he made videos to encourage such participation.

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MIranda says, "I think it's very clear that Latinos living in the United States, their interests are bound up in voting this year, and I'll leave it at that." Pressed, though, Miranda elaborates. "Our issues are on the table, from Puerto Rico, to a wall to keep half of us out being a party platform."

On another issue that's been in focus among Hamilton fans, ticket prices, Miranda— who has protested the exorbitant prices charged by third-party brokers — says, "I hope that everything I said about coming back to the show, and the fact that they’re documenting me in the show, brings down the resale price, because that’s not a thing I control. And I think that's a frickin' insane amount of money to spend on an evening of theater."