#473: Manny Schvartzman // Hamilton Music Director and Conductor // Part Two
The Hamilcast: A Hamilton Podcast
Gillian Pensavalle
4.5 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Manny Schvartzman (Hamilton Music Director and Conductor) is back for round two as he continues discussing his experience putting up Rent in Cuba with Andy Señor, Jr in 2014. The whiplash of going from the shiny, multimillion dollar On Your Feet to a space with daily power outages and a lack of running water was an intense, rewarding, and life changing experience. It taught Manny that anything was possible, and theatre could truly be done absolutely anywhere. If he could do that, he could do anything.
After Rent in Cuba and successfully adapting Gloria Estefan's music to a Broadway stage, Manny made his way to Hamilton, which he was a fan of "from day zero." Manny knew about Hamilton before any of us did, and being able to be a part of the show - and to work with his hero Alex Lacamoire - was beyond a dream come true.
In this episode, Manny breaks down his super detailed job of Hamilton's music director (and conductor and keyboard player) and it takes us no time at all to become an Alex Lacamoire Appreciation Podcast, a very familiar topic on The Hamilcast.
"Revolution Rent" Documentary directed by Andy Señor, Jr.
Carmen La Cubana: First Look! Hamilton's Alex Lacamoire Adapts Carmen For the Modern World
Alex Lacamoire on The Hamilcast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Stage in Stages, Lynn Manuel Miranda, and you're listening to The Hamelcast. |
| 0:05.0 | Boots and cuts and boots and cuts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hey friends, I'm Jillian, and welcome back to the Hamelcast. I'm in the middle of a truly great |
| 0:21.7 | conversation with Mani Schwartzman. Mani is the music director, conductor, and key one for the |
| 0:25.8 | Angelica Company. He dives into exactly what that all means in today's episode, but he's basically |
| 0:29.7 | responsible for anything related to the show's music. Mani grew up in Argentina and moved to Miami |
| 0:34.2 | when he was about eight years old, around the same time he started teaching himself how to play piano. At first, Manny was all about classical music. He's like everyone's |
| 0:41.3 | favorite Beethoven superfan, Schroeder. Classical music forever and always. But by high school, |
| 0:45.7 | not unlike Schroeder, everyone was always hounding Manny to be in their productions because he |
| 0:49.2 | was just that good. When he finally agreed to help them out with Fiddler on the roof his freshman year, he instantly fell in love with how collaborative the experience was. |
| 0:55.8 | He ran towards the theater world and never looked back. |
| 0:58.2 | They also made him the music director of the high school theater department at 14 years old. |
| 1:01.7 | So yeah, like he's that good. |
| 1:03.3 | As we wrapped up last week, Manny had just been summoned to New York City for a dream job |
| 1:06.9 | to help turn Gloria Estefan's music into a Broadway show. |
| 1:09.9 | Everyone knows Glory is a legend. |
| 1:11.4 | But remember, Manny got this call while living in Miami. |
| 1:14.1 | Her music was the soundtrack to his life. |
| 1:15.9 | To call it a dream is actually an understatement. |
| 1:17.6 | It's bigger than that. |
| 1:18.4 | That gig led him to Cuba, where he worked with Andy Signore to make history. |
| 1:21.9 | They put up Rent, the first Broadway show to go to Cuba in 50 years. |
... |
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