You’ve probably heard the buzz all the way from New York: HAMILTON, The Musical has been a fan-favourite since it graced the off-Broadway stage in 2015, extended three times before heading on tour. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda—the Tony, Grammy, and Emmy awards-winning artist—the show reimagines America’s Founding Fathers with an ethnically diverse cast.
The AND PEGGY Tour is the first tour of Hamilton‘s third company, which debuted in Puerto Rico with Lin-Manuel himself in the role of Alexander Hamilton. Once they moved to San Francisco, and are now on tour, that role has belonged to Julius Thomas III.
Fellow actor Brandon Louis Armstrong is excited to be part of the cast and performing together in Edmonton at the Jubilee Auditorium until July 10.
1) What’s exciting about touring with this company in particular?
This company is special because so many of us have been together for such a long time. There are quite a few of us who have been here since the very beginning, and there’s a reason why so many of us have stayed—the culture here in this company is just one of love and humbleness and laughter.
2) Can you tell us a bit more about the characters you play in the show?
In Act One, I get to play Hercules Mulligan, and that is one of Hamilton’s long-time best buds. His great friend. He also was a spy for George Washington and spied on the British. In Act Two, I get to play President James Madison, who actually started out as one of Hamilton’s friends. We don’t really show that part of the story in this show, but they actually started out as good friends. We make a quick mention to one of the numbers… but they had a pretty big falling out and a huge split in their political ideologies. So by the time the audience meets James Madison, I am one of Hamilton’s biggest adversaries, both politically and personally. It’s great—it’s awesome! Getting to play that range, right? I get to be his best friend and his worst enemy, all the same night.
3) If you could play any other HAMILTON character, who would you pick and why?
King George, absolutely. That’s the dream part right there! The show is a three-hour long haul to the end, and we’re on stage jumping off of things, sweating, dancing, going crazy, and then we’ll come off stage and after the show, people will be like “Oh my favourite part was the king!” Who’s done like 10 minutes of work—he comes out for his one little song, he’s got that one little tune two more times, and the audience is like “Yes, him!”
4) Did you know much about this historical background before preparing for the roles?
That is a great question—yes and no. Yes in the sense that I, obviously, I’m an American, and we take American History in school. But no in the sense that it was one of my least favourite subjects. I hated learning about it; I never found it interesting…
I knew more about HAMILTON: The Musical when I booked the show than I did Hamilton the human being. Or any of the founding fathers! So when I booked it, I started reading and researching, and I read the novel that the show is based off of… It was such an incredible moment for me in getting to experience history in that kind of way. I was doing it in New York City and all these places they’d bring up in the novel—I was sitting in Hamilton Heights, right down the street from where they sing in the show… It was like, wow, the streets I’m walking on right now are streets that these men would have walked down. It really made history much more accessible to me.
5) What do you think of the accessibility to audiences as well?
This show is a fictional retelling, so not every single detail of this show is accurate history. For instance, one of the ones I think of immediately is there was never really a moment where John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan, and Lafayette Jefferson were all just sitting in a tavern together, sharing a beer. There are men who were very important to Hamilton’s life in the revolutionary war times, but they all would have circled him in different spheres and different places, and would have had a different connection to him.
So this show sort of crams them together and makes them this unit of friends that historically probably would have never been a thing. But what it does, is it makes the audience understand what these men mean. They may not understand the exact year-to-date in which he was meeting with Hercules Mulligan or the year-to-date in which he was actually out in the field with John Laurens or his run-ins with Lafayette—what we DO understand is that these three men played a pivotal role in Hamilton becoming the man he was.
6) There are nuggets beyond history as well! I saw the show with my partner and he pointed out references to Biggie Smalls lyrics.
It’s a great show for history buffs who love musical theatre, but it really is a love letter to hip-hop. Lin has infused so much of this show in stuff that is hip-hop culture and hip-hop references. I don’t think there’s a song that goes by that there isn’t some sort of homage to some sort of hip-hop song. We do the “Ten Duel Commandments” [song], which is a play off of Biggie Smalls’ “Ten Crack Commandments.” When someone in the audience knows that is already, the minute they hear the record crack and hear the sample, it’s like—the joy from just being a hip-hop fan and coming to see this show! It just makes it that much more accessible to that many more people.
7) What’s your favourite scene?
I think that changes show by show! There is no—oh, I would say Yorktown! “Yorktown” is the constant fun moment as Hercules Mulligan and getting to burst out of the sea of Red Coats and have that moment downstage. But really, that’s the beauty of live theatre—it’s never the same two shows that happen. So there will be a certain scene on Tuesday night that just really firing on all cylinders and the audience is engaged and we’re engaged and it’s just amazing, and then that same scene the next night might be like, eh that felt a little wonky tonight, but then the scene right after it might be what really connects to the audience. There’s a wonder in that live exchange of energy, which is so great to be back doing that after this pandemic, getting to share that with an audience of people again.
