Trailer: History meets hip hop as Hamilton finally makes it to Alberta

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The wait is over.

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Albertans will finally have the chance to see live Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, the most universally acclaimed and award-winning musical of the 21st century.

Hamilton plays the Jubilee in Edmonton from June 21 to July 10 and in Calgary from July 12 to 31.

Hamilton’s off-Broadway run, which began in February 2015 with Miranda playing the title character of Alexander Hamilton, has garnered eight Drama Desk Awards. When it transferred to Broadway six months later, he swept the 2016 Tony Awards by winning 11 coveted awards. That year he also received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

Hamilton began his first US touring productions in 2017 with two shows zigzagging across the United States and was scheduled to play Jubilee Auditoriums in Calgary and Edmonton in 2021, but was postponed due to the pandemic.

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In January 2019, Miranda took a third company on tour to Puerto Rico for two weeks. His understudy for that run was Julius Thomas III, who would later take the new company to San Francisco for an extended run, and eventually to Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary as part of the current national tour.

“I had to rehearse with the new cast and then handed them over to Lin-Manuel. I remember telling him to take care of my parents and then seeing him raise tons of money for charity. It was a great honor knowing that the producers felt I was capable of leading the newest company,” says Thomas, who is no stranger to Hamilton the musical or Hamilton the character.

In 2017, he was cast as an understudy for the roles of Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and King George III. Two years later, he took over the role of Hamilton and has held it ever since.

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Ironically, Thomas had never seen a production of Hamilton before auditioning for the musical five years ago.

“I wasn’t consumed by the musical like so many artists and audience members because, ever since I started working in the industry, I thought of myself as a singer and not a rapper and Hamilton is a sung and rapped musical.

“When I was cast, I had to ask people for favors to let me stand in the back of the theater so I could see it and it worked its magic on me just as it has worked its magic on everyone who sees it.”

Julius Thomas III co-stars with Julia K. Harriman in Hamilton's national Broadway tour Across Canada.  Courtesy Joan Marcus
Julius Thomas III co-stars with Julia K. Harriman in Hamilton’s national Broadway tour Across Canada. Courtesy Joan Marcus jpg

Fresh out of drama school in 2006, Thomas landed a role in Chicago in the first professional production of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and would make his Off-Broadway and Broadway debut in 2010 in the Kander/Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys and three years later he appeared on Broadway in Motown: The Musical.

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“The big difference between all those other musicals I’ve been in is that you have to win over the audience, but with Hamilton, we don’t have to do that. When people sit in theaters, they are excited and ready to have a good time. They are already on our side. That’s something special, and as artists, we’re grateful for that.”

Hamilton is the story of Alexander Hamilton, an American revolutionary, statesman, and founding father of the United States. Miranda turned Hamilton’s story on its head, not only by telling it through rap, hip hop, R&B, soul and pop tunes, but by having all the characters played by actors of color. He says his musical is the story of the people who founded America as told by Americans today.

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Thomas admits that he knew very little about the historical figure before he was cast.

“I know most people who come to the musical don’t really know the story, but that’s what we’re giving them in a very different and exciting way. I keep learning more by being in the musical, which is why I’ve stayed all these years. What we do with Hamilton is we take these larger-than-life history book people and make them real. We take them down from their pedestals. We make them human.”

He thinks Canadians will find Hamilton exciting because “it’s essentially about wanting to have a legacy. It’s about wanting to make the world a better place than how we found it. It is about improving the lives of our friends, family and neighbors, and we can all identify with that goal.”

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Thomas, whose father is a minister, always aspired to be a humanitarian.

“I wanted to do something in medicine, that’s why I was studying biology. I didn’t like my courses very much and then I saw a production of Rent. I saw people around me laugh and cry and have so many cathartic moments and I realized that this is what I wanted to do for people…”

“I feel like I’m doing it through Hamilton. You feel the joy you are bringing to people. My parents and sister say that I have brought joy and fun into their lives. I did that for my dad when he was starring in Motown: The Musical. My father was always a huge fan of Motown music and its creator, Berry Gordy. When he was starring in Motown, I was able to introduce my dad to Berry.”

Thomas says that one of the things lost to the pandemic is the stage door where people wait outside the stage door to get photos and autographs from the performers they just saw.

“This wonderful tradition has been put on hold because we are very concerned that if one of us gets COVID, we could be shut down.

“For three hours, the artists contemplate the darkness. We cannot see the faces we are trying to affect. Before COVID, when we were able to meet with audience members after the show, we were able to see what our art was doing for people. I can hardly wait until it’s safe again.”

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