Lin-Manuel Miranda's wife doesn't enjoy musicals

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wife doesn’t like musicals.

The ‘In The Heights’ creator will “watch anything” that features singing and dancing on the big screen but his spouse Vanessa – with whom he has sons Sebastian, six, and Francisco, three – is much more choosy.

He said: “[Vanessa does not] really care about musicals. She likes good ones, but she doesn’t like any old musical. They have to be good. I will watch anything; I think the worst musical is better than a good movie.”

And Lin-Manuel admitted ‘Hamilton’ wouldn’t have the pace and energy it does if it wasn’t for his wife.

He explained to The Guardian newspaper’s Saturday magazine: “Because if it took too long she’d be like [drumming her fingers on the desk].”

But the ‘Moana’ composer admitted there are particular musicals he doesn’t like very much.

He said: “I have dislikes within the genre. Like, I’m not good at meta musicals. I don’t love a musical that makes fun of the fact that it’s a musical. That’s my personal taste; I’m like, don’t apologise! You like musicals, too, otherwise you wouldn’t be writing one. I don’t like things that apologise for what they are. So when a musical’s like, ‘We’re singing a song, isn’t that crazy?!’ I’m like, ‘No; I came to see a musical, it’s not crazy that you’re singing a song. Sing the f****** song’.”

A scene in the 41-year-old star’s directorial debut, ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ sees Andrew Garfield’s character, ‘Rent’ writer Jonathan Larson begin playing air piano during a romantic moment with his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), and Lin-Manuel admitted the scene was “a bit of a dirty laundry thing for writers – the mic’s always hot if you live with us.”

He added: “Sondheim said it better than anyone – there’s a part of you always mapping out a sky. For any writer, in any form, there’s a part of you that’s living, and a part of you that has a tape recorder on: remember this for later.”

But when Vanessa saw the scene, she reassured her husband she wouldn’t react in the same way.

He recalled: “She said, ‘If you had an idea for a song, I’d say I’m glad you got something useful out of this fight we had’; it wouldn’t be, ‘F*** you for writing while we’re fighting’; it would be, ‘Well, something’s come out of this’.”