If You’ve Ever Wanted to Be in ‘Hamilton,’ You Can Now Do So — on Roblox 

This screengrab provided by Super League shows an Alexander Hamilton game avatar from the "Hamilton" simulator for Roblox. (Super League via AP)
This screengrab provided by Super League shows an Alexander Hamilton game avatar from the "Hamilton" simulator for Roblox. (Super League via AP)
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If You’ve Ever Wanted to Be in ‘Hamilton,’ You Can Now Do So — on Roblox 

This screengrab provided by Super League shows an Alexander Hamilton game avatar from the "Hamilton" simulator for Roblox. (Super League via AP)
This screengrab provided by Super League shows an Alexander Hamilton game avatar from the "Hamilton" simulator for Roblox. (Super League via AP)

The landmark Broadway musical “Hamilton” has landed on Roblox, turning the innovative stage show into an immersive online environment for a new generation.

“‘Hamilton’ has global recognition. Roblox has 66 million daily active users from all around the world. What a perfect match,” Matt Edelman, president and chief commercial officer for Super League, which designed and built the online experience in collaboration with Small World Games.

In the Hamilton Simulator, players use their own avatars as they rub shoulders with the musical’s characters and negotiate through 10 levels set during the Revolutionary War. It starts at the New York docks and the goal is to free the city from British yoke. Appropriately, the music-filled game requires no real money from players.

“The intent here was to create a fun experience for this community and by doing so, introduce them to ‘Hamilton’ if they don’t already know it, or to honor and inspire the passion that they have if they’re already fans,” says Edelman.

The game has the blessing of writer-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose blockbuster musical charts the rise and fall of statesman Alexander Hamilton and stresses his orphan, immigrant roots as well as his near-Greek tragedy of a fall.

Roblox is the largest immersive gaming platform on the planet and businesses like Mattel, the NFL, Dave & Buster’s and Cirque du Soleil have all planted a flag there, as have fashion labels Vans, Ralph Lauren, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Givenchy and Gucci.

“If you are an intellectual property owner and you want to connect to the younger generations — people really under 25 and particularly under 18 — that’s where they socialize, that’s where they learn. More than half of Gen Z expects to discover a brand for the first time in an immersive space,” Edelman says.

Hamilton Simulator players assemble a squad from characters in the musical — James Madison and Charles Lee, perhaps, to begin with, and more valuable characters like Maria Reynolds and Angelica Schuyler coming later — to confront Redcoats. Victories earn coins, which can be used to better arm companions as stronger enemies lurk.

The 10 settings include a tavern, George Washington’s office, town squares, the ballroom where Hamilton and Angelica fall in love and the Battle of Yorktown. Each level has songs from the musical, including “Guns and Ships,” “You’ll Be Back,” and “The Schuyler Sisters,” used as a sort of sonic laser to wear down and defeat enemies.

“For us, being able to allow the player to connect to the characters and the music was really important. And that really inspired the general approach to the gameplay,” Edelman says.

The simulator currently ends around the midpoint of the musical, with British rule defeated and a nascent country needing its Founding Fathers to guide them into becoming a nation of laws. Creators hope the simulator can also grow.

“We have plenty more in the future to expand on and we’re really excited about what we can do with this experience moving forward over the coming months to really be able to expand gameplay, expand the story and really be able to listen to our players and what are they doing,” Edelman says.

Each scene is carefully realized, with ceremonial swords, candles burning, flowers, artwork, sandbags and smoke. David Korins, who designed “Hamilton” for the stage, consulted on the look of the simulator and offered his tweaks. (There are also Easter eggs, like The Public theater, a nod to the off-Broadway space where “Hamilton” premiered.)

“‘Hamilton’ has achieved something that feels timeless. And if you can achieve that with an intellectual property, you can bring it into any channel and have success because it has that innate feel of belonging everywhere,” Edelman says.

The genesis of the idea came from Maggie Brohn, the executive producer for “Hamilton” worldwide and chief operating officer of Adventureland LCC, the lead producer for “Hamilton” and other Broadway shows.

She had been pondering a marriage between the musical and a gamemaker, eventually turning for advice to Edelman, her brother, who knew the perfect platform.

“My kids during COVID were glued to Roblox,” she says. “They became our our test group as we’ve been going through this.”

The hardest part was taking an award-winning linear narrative and turning it into an interactive experience. The breakthrough came when it was conceived as a simulator, one of the most popular Roblox genres.

“When you bring intellectual property to a medium where it did not originate, if it doesn’t have kind of some of the natural components to it already that belong in that new medium, it isn’t easy,” says Edelman.

Super League and “Hamilton” creators suspect their simulator will attract some visitors who have never heard of the musical, but will get caught in its gravitational force — much like the cast album became a hit by people who hadn’t yet seen the show.

“The music brought people to ‘Hamilton’ in some cases before the actual production of the show brought them there,” says Edelman. “I don’t think this will be any different if we achieve our primary goal, which is to make this a fun gameplay experience that attracts the Roblox community.”



Dua Lipa, Public Figures Urge UK to End Israel Arms Sales

Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)
Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Dua Lipa, Public Figures Urge UK to End Israel Arms Sales

Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)
Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)

Pop star Dua Lipa joined some 300 UK celebrities in signing an open letter Thursday urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel, after similar pleas from lawyers and writers.

Actors, musicians, activists and other public figures wrote the letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end the UK's complicity in the horrors in Gaza".

British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa has been vocal about the war in Gaza and last year criticized Israel's offensive as a "genocide".

Israel has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide and says its campaign intends to crush Hamas following the deadly October 2023 attack by the Palestinian fighters.

Other signatories include actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and Riz Ahmed, and musicians Paloma Faith, Annie Lennox and Massive Attack.

"You can't call it 'intolerable' and keep sending arms," read the letter to Labour leader Starmer organized by Choose Love, a UK-based humanitarian aid and refugee advocacy charity.

Sports broadcaster Gary Lineker, who stepped down from his role at the BBC after a social media post that contained anti-Semitic imagery, also signed the letter.

Signatories urged the UK to ensure "full humanitarian access across Gaza", broker an "immediate and permanent ceasefire", and "immediately suspend" all arms sales to Israel.

"The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute. Prime Minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?", the letter continued.

Earlier this month, Starmer slammed Israel's "egregious" renewed military offensive in Gaza and promised to take "further concrete actions" if it did not stop -- without detailing what the actions could be.

Last September the UK government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel, saying there was a "clear risk" they could be used to breach humanitarian law.

Global outrage has grown after Israel ended a ceasefire in March and stepped up military operations this month, killing thousands of people in a span of two months according to figures by the Hamas-run health ministry.

The humanitarian situation has also sparked alarm and fears of starvation after a two-month blockade on aid entering the devastated territory.

Over 800 UK lawyers including Supreme Court justices, and some 380 British and Irish writers warned of Israel committing a "genocide" in Gaza in open letters this week.

Hamas killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, in their October 2023 attack on Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Fighters also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's military offensive launched in response has killed 54,084, mostly civilians, in Gaza according to its health ministry, displaced nearly the entire population and ravaged swathes of the besieged strip.