ABSTRACT
A wave of scholarly reclamation seeks to understand the implications of celebrity “worship.” In older celebrity theory, scholars described perceived intimacy with celebrities within media culture as “parasocial interaction,” a term that often held associations with stalking and mental instability. In an attempt to explain fans’ emotional connection to celebrities, theorists in the late 1990s and early 2000s likened celebrity worship to more traditional religious worship. Later scholars, however, took issue with what they saw as a too-simplistic comparison. As fan studies scholar Mark Duffett argues, likening fandom simply or superficially to religion can be reductive and dismissive of fans’ critical abilities, more or less labeling them as dupes to false gods. Miranda undoubtedly has the largest reach of any Broadway Twitter personality, and his totemic status seems to diverge from the comparatively straightforward fan relationships displayed by other Broadway celebrities.
