8. The Public Theater has an Important ‘Presidential’ Connection

Photo courtesy Disney+

While this may not be the ‘presidential’ connection you were thinking, it may be one of the most important, explosive, and excited thing related to the government in New York’s current events to have happened: Hamilton. Lin Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning masterpiece, now one of the most hard-to-get tickets on Broadway, began at the Public Theater, continuing the Public’s oldest and noblest tradition of bringing to the forefront theater that “is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone.”

Not only did Alexander Hamilton get a premier here, but so did Andrew Jackson in Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman’s Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which had its New York premier at the Public in May 2008.