Christopher Jackson found it hard to sleep the past few nights in anticipation of being back in “the room where it happens” — otherwise known as Radio City Music Hall, where the original Broadway cast of “Hamilton” reunited for a special performance during the Tony Awards.
“I’m elated. I’m full. My heart is overflowing,” Jackson told Variety’s Gordon Cox on the red carpet about reuniting with the original company for the first time in a decade. “It was so impactful when we were doing it. It continues to be impactful now. It never really went away.”
It’s been 10 years since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s revolutionary musical took over Broadway, winning 11 Tony Awards, including the statue for best musical. It also won Grammys, Oliviers and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show was filmed and later released on Disney+, where it became a streaming hit.
Then, on Sunday night, the original company — including Tony winners Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs and Renée Elise Goldsberry, as well as Jackson, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Okieriete Onaodowan and Jonathan Groff — reassembled to perform a special live “Hamilton” mix-tape, which featured many of the show’s biggest numbers and earned a standing ovation from the Tonys crowd (including an elated Oprah Winfrey).
Goldsberry, who originated the role of Angelica Schuyler, confirmed that the HamFam quickly slipped back into their roles during rehearsals. “It never left,” she said, before admitting that “there were a couple times somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘That’s not the note.’”
They weren’t being rude, Goldsberry explained; she’s just been singing the music by herself while touring around the country, “so when you get to do it with the actual people again, sometimes you’ve got to remember what [note] it actually is. But it’s so good.”
“Hamilton” alums — (L-R) Emmy Raver-Lampman, Voltaire Wade-Greene, Seth Stewart, Austin Smith, Jasmine Cephas-Jones, Jon Rua, Betsy Struxness, Sasha Hutchings, Okieriete Onaodowan, Daveed Diggs and Ephraim Sykes — attend the 78th annual Tony Awards.
Jenny Anderson/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
But Jackson (George Washington) cautioned that reprising their parts full-time might be a little bit trickier. “I told Tommy Kail, our director, after the first rehearsal, ‘I’m ready to sign up [again]. Let’s go!’” Jackson said. “I’d love to go back, and then about five shows in, we’d all be ready to collapse.”
Beyond that, the time apart gave the cast the most important gift of all: perspective.
“This group was really special, and you took it for granted when you were doing it,” Diggs (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson) said of having the rare opportunity to reunite. “You just feel very fortunate that we’re getting to come back and do it again because that doesn’t happen for everything. So, to be able to live in it again and be reminded about how special it is, at a time when I’m a little more equipped to slow down and appreciate it, it’s really, really wonderful.”
Indeed, the “Hamilton” cast have gone on to be incredibly successful over time, adding TV and movie credits (as well as an Oscar for Ariana DeBose) to their already impresssive stage legacy, Groff (King George III) pointed out another thing they have in common. “Everybody looks as hot, if not hotter, than they did 10 years ago,” he quipped.
About Sunday night’s number, Groff added: “I just walk out for five seconds and go, “Da, da, da, da, da’; it’s like the easiest thing ever — and then I’m just watching in total awe. It was such a reminder of the genius of that show and the genius of that original cast. It’s such an incredible group.”
Other members of the original ensemble who performed at the Tonys included Carleigh Bettiol, Andrew Chappelle, Ariana DeBose, Alysha Deslorieux, Sydney James Harcourt, Neil Haskell, Sasha Hutchings, Thayne Jasperson, Stephanie Klemons, Morgan Marcell, Javier Muñoz, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Jon Rua, Austin Smith, Seth Stewart, Betsy Struxness, Ephraim Sykes and Voltaire Wade-Greene.
Watch the full performance below:
