A decade after opening night, the acclaimed actor and singer talks about coming home to Aaron Burr, the show's legacy of inclusion, and what's changed since 2015.
It's been a milestone year for the musical about the $10 founding father without a father. "Hamilton," the hit show based on U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton, turned 10 this summer -- marking a decade since it stormed Broadway, rewrote the rules of musical theater, and became that rare cultural phenomenon everyone from high school students to U.S. presidents had an opinion about.
In that time, "Hamilton" has cemented itself as a cultural colossus. It joined the billion-dollar club in January, becoming only the fourth production in Broadway history to do so. It earned its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Pulitzer Prize, spawned a streaming juggernaut on Disney+, and turned many of its original cast into household names.
For Leslie Odom Jr., the timing was uncanny: The show opened on his 34th birthday, August 6, 2015. This year, just shy of his 44th, he announced he'd be returning for a limited run to play Aaron Burr -- the role that won him a Tony and cemented his place in Broadway history.
Speaking to Reuters from New York City on the first Friday of his return, Odom reflects on how 10 years away have given him a new perspective -- on Burr, on the show's place in our culture, and on why "Hamilton" still resonates in 2025.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What made you decide to step back into the role of Aaron Burr?
I mean, what an opportunity. I've spent my career collecting experiences. So the opportunity to return to a place that had this profound impact on me -- the idea that I could go back again. The show is still in the same theater. My dressing room is the same.
And yet it's wildly different. My life is different. It's a different company of people. It's a different time in the nation, in the world. How could I not go back and see what that feels like?
Was it like riding a bike?
People keep talking about this bike. Where is this bike? I am waiting for this phantom bike to show up.
No muscle memory?
Oh my God, no. I had to learn a new show, and trust people when they told me "You did this the first time. You created this." There are things about it that feel impossible.
There's some symbolism in that, in that it's about the American experiment, which is something that often feels impossible, still. Even though it's worked for a few hundred years, it is a tightrope. It's a thing that we all have to agree to, every election cycle, ideally, right? To hold this thing together. So it should be hard. "Hamilton" is hard and it should be hard because it's about something that is.
You've been intimately familiar with Aaron Burr, the man, for a very long time. Has becoming a father and growing older shifted how you connect with him?
Oh, sure. I feel closer to Act Two Burr than I do Act One Burr. So the acting challenge this time around is remembering the young scrappy and hungry kid. Remembering Princeton College, remembering that college-boy version of him.
The whole evening is a conjuring of Burrs. It's full of humanity and regret, and pain, and joy, and rage, and admiration, and love. Love requires acceptance, and acceptance is a tall order.
When you think about Broadway before "Hamilton" and after "Hamilton," what do you think changed the most?
We are living in Lin-Manuel's vision of Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and beyond. We have ["Hamilton" director] Tommy Kail to thank as well, of course. At the actual 10-year anniversary of the opening I looked around that stage and there were just dozens and dozens of actors that had done this show. Men and women and everything in between. So many shades and sizes and races. All historically marginalized folks but because of this show a light has been placed on them. Lin opened the door. He thought we should’ve had a shot too.
The show did open a lot of doors for inclusive casting for new forms of storytelling. When you look around where do you see that influence the most?
I see it everywhere. There are little cousins of this show everywhere. I look at the "Bridgerton" universe that Shondaland has created. Even shows my kids watch like "Descendants." Lin and the creators of this show reminded everybody that we didn’t have to be literal in our storytelling and that stories are made more interesting when you hand the mic to somebody else.
When you were in the show the last time you led a fight to ensure that actors' contracts included profit sharing. Has that had an impact on other productions and has it evolved over the last 10 years?
It has and it’s evolved positively. We knew that if one of the biggest shows of all time couldn’t find its way to include a fair piece for the original performers and stage managers who helped make it then it would be that much more difficult for anybody behind us.
We were at the table asking for ourselves but it was not just for ourselves. There were other voices in the room already. We were there as representatives for scores of people behind us.
There have been companies that have come along since then that have let us know that we inspired them or that we let them know it was possible.
Burr and Hamilton were friends through a lot of the story even though they had very different viewpoints and politics. What do you think audiences can take away from watching the evolution of this friendship?
It's changed the way that I parent, the way that I partner, the way that I husband, and the way that I friend because things can get out of control. Tempers can run hot and if you’re not careful you can make choices that you will live to regret. I love that about this show: While it feels so fresh and contemporary and exciting, there is something ancient about the story.
What audiences should take away is just be careful of your temper. Learn to breathe in those moments when you think you only have one option and that option is destructive. That is your cue to keep thinking. That is your cue to search. You haven’t found it yet because that is not the only option.
To that point, do you think there are any parallels between the story of "Hamilton" and the political violence we're seeing right now in this country?
We've always had political violence in this country. When I think of what it must have been like to raise children when every time you turned on the TV for a decade [it was] one leader after another being murdered when it comes to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Kennedy ... We have a history of political violence in this country and that is always a warning to us. There's a shadow to everything, right? There's a shadow that lurks for all of our experiences.
What's next for you?
I pivoted to music. That was my dream leaving the "Hamilton" stage 10 years ago. A concert career was my shot at the moon so the fact that I’m leaving the show the day before Thanksgiving to embark on a Christmas tour around the country is just as special to me as this moment. After "Hamilton," what I hear the most about if you can believe it are these Christmas albums that we’ve made. People have really made these albums a part of their yearly traditions. They put these albums on while they’re decorating the tree. I’m deeply touched by that. I’m excited to hit the road.