One of the greatest ensembles in modern Broadway history will go their separate ways tonight when Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr. and Phillipa Soo play their last performances in the landmark musical Hamilton.
Fans bid as high as $41,000 for a pair of tickets to the performance, and emotions are likely to be high as the three performers who play Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton relinquish the signature roles for which all three earned Tony Award nominations.
Miranda, who also wrote the book, music and lyrics to the show, is leaving to work for the Walt Disney Company as both a writer (Moana) and an actor (Mary Poppins Returns). He will be succeeded by his longtime alternate, Javier Muñoz, who starts July 11. Michael Luwoye replaces Muñoz as the Alexander Hamilton alternate. Miranda will also be busy with the various productions of Hamilton in the U.S. and abroad.
Odom Jr., who won the 2016 Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for his role, recently released a jazz album, and has scheduled a series of jazz concerts in New York. He will be replaced by two-time Tony Award nominee Brandon Victor Dixon (Shuffle Along), who will begin performances mid-August. Austin Smith and Andrew Chappelle are currently the understudies for the role of Aaron Burr.
Soo, who recently agreed to write the foreword to a biography of Eliza Schuyler, will be seen on Broadway again later this season in the title role of the new musical Amélie, based on the French film. Lexi Lawson succeeds her in the role of Eliza starting July 11.
Click here to read why the original Hamilton stars will go down in history.
Ensemble member Ariana DeBose, who originated the role of the Bullet and has been with the production since its Off-Broadway run at the Public Theater, also departs the show July 9.
The rest of the cast, including Tony winners Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson and Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, remains the same.
The Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Hamilton also stars Tony nominee Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton, Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds, Rory O’Malley as King George, Thayne Jasperson as Samuel Seabury, Neil Haskell as Charles Lee and Ephraim Sykes as George Eacker.
The cast also includes Carleigh Bettiol, Andrew Chappelle, Alysha Deslorieux, Hope Easterbrook, Karla Puno Garcia, David Guzman, Gregory Haney, Sasha Hollinger, Sasha Hutchings, Elizabeth Judd, Morgan Marcell, Austin Smith, Seth Stewart, Kamille Upshaw, Voltaire Wade-Greene and Daniel J. Watts.
