Christopher Jackson remembers the energy of the “Hamilton” stage-door crowds on Broadway in the summer of 2016.
The musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which tells the story of the rise and fall of Alexander Hamilton, America’s first Treasury secretary, had just won 11 Tony Awards, including for best musical. Jackson had been nominated for his performance as George Washington. And tickets — if you could get them — were going for as much as $849 a pop.
“It was challenging, and it was exhausting, and it was exhilarating,” Jackson, 51, said during a recent conversation at Blake’s Tavern, the bar next door to the Richard Rodgers Theater, where “Hamilton” is still playing.
In the musical, Washington has an avuncular gravitas, acting as a mentor to Hamilton (originally played by Miranda). For almost two years (including the show’s Off Broadway run in 2015 at the Public Theater), Jackson’s warm tenor carried some of the musical’s most famous melodies on numbers like “One Last Time.”
Now, nearly a decade later, he has returned to the role for 16 weeks on Broadway, through Jan. 3.
“This show was hugely impactful for my career,” said Jackson, who has had roles in “Hell’s Kitchen,” a Broadway show inspired by the singer-songwriter Alicia Keys’s teenage years in New York, as well as in HBO Max’s “Sex and the City” spinoff “And Just Like That …” (Yes, there was a “Hamilton” joke.)
“I want to feel a challenge. I want to sweat — it’s really hard to find good roles out there,” Jackson said. His former co-star Leslie Odom Jr. had similar reasoning for reprising his Tony-winning role as Aaron Burr in the show for sold-out runs over the past year on Broadway and in London.
In the years since his original run, Jackson has continued to delve into the life of Washington.
“I don’t play him differently,” Jackson said of Washington, “but I view him differently now.”
Before a recent evening performance — during his second week in the show — Jackson reflected on what brought him back to the musical and why he still feels he has something to prove each night. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How’s it going so far?
I’m having a good time. It’s a lot, though. You’re not learning a show; you’re remembering a show. Ten years is a long time, so there’s not a lot of muscle memory.
What brought you back?
Curiosity, the desire to work, the desire to touch it again. After the 10-year anniversary [performance at the Tonys] last year, and being with everyone and feeling the spirit of it, I wanted to see what the experience was going to be like. I watched Leslie move through the process. And then once I saw him do it, I just started feeling a little tap on my shoulder.
It’s a rare thing to be part of a show that, one, would still be running 10 years later, and two, for it to be a role that I could approach from 10 years of life and experience and see it from a completely different angle.
How so?
We’ve been through quite a bit in the last 10 years. The show was written in a time where hope was what we were striving for, holding on to, and the pandemic did a lot to diminish that and exhaust people and scare people. And so the kind of hope that we were aiming for in 2015 is quite different than the kind of hope that we need now.
How are you personally in a different place?
I don’t think there’s a single part of my life that isn’t different. My kids are almost grown. My wife [Veronica Vazquez] has thankfully been able to restart her career, and is going into the City Center production of “In the Heights” next month. I’m probably more calm than I was back then. I wouldn’t say I’m less worried. I’m just worried differently.
What do you remember about that original run?
Every show held the potential to be the most important thing ever, because there was an audience that was waiting breathlessly to see it. The musical didn’t exist in a movie form. It didn’t even exist as a cast recording for a lot of that run. It was just this word-of-mouth excitement, this curiosity, and then we got to go prove to people what their friends had told them about it. Not in a means of trying to impress, but to fiercely tell the story in a way that would make them feel like it was because of them that we were able to do so, to allow them to see themselves inside of it.
How much of the show did you still have memorized?
Almost none. “Hamilton” lives with this internal rhythm from the very first note. You’re internalizing everybody else’s parts while you’re doing it because of the tempo. The moment that goes out of your head, it’s so hard.
You and Marcus John, the actor now playing Hamilton, are almost 20 years apart in age. Does an older Washington change the show?
All the stuff that the younger cast members have experienced isn’t that far removed from the things that I’m experiencing every day. I’m a Black man in America. [But] I’m trying to break down the idea of, like, O.G. I’m like: No, I was here before, but I’m here new now. And they’ve all been very welcoming, very gracious.
Was it challenging for you find a way into Washington?
It was the first time I’d ever played a role where there was so much source material. I went to Mount Vernon and walked the grounds, and I got to be in the house after everyone left. I bought the [Ron] Chernow biography, and every day on the bus and the train, I just started going through it. It was my Bible for seven or eight years.
Do you feel differently about Washington now?
I know more. I didn’t stop exploring the man and the times. I’ve always really been interested in history. I don’t think the context of the show creates a means where I can have a completely different take on who this guy is. But personally, absolutely I do.
It can be easy to forget what a jolt “Hamilton” was when it arrived on Broadway in 2015. In the decade since, people have definitely become more willing to criticize it.
I like that people challenge it. At this point, I’ve heard just about every real, developed criticism of the piece. But I always felt, 10 toes down, on the fact that it accomplishes the thing that it’s supposed to accomplish.
The algorithm hit me with an Instagram post the other day by this young man who saw the show 20 times, quote-unquote hating a lot of what Lin had chosen to include. And yet he couldn’t wait to come and see it again. And I thought, well, [expletive], that’s the coolest thing. That’s art having an impact on somebody in real time.
What’s next for you?
I’m doing the music and lyrics for a new musical called “The Crossover,” which is based on Kwame Alexander’s Newbery Medal-winning book. And I’ve got the rights to a new book. It’s on the New York Times best-seller list, but I can’t talk about it yet. It’s a Civil Rights-era musical.
Now that “Hamilton” is a global juggernaut, do you feel less pressure to win people over every night?
There’s an element of that. But I’m going to focus on the guy who’s never been to a musical before, never seen the show before, doesn’t really know if they’re going to like it. I always imagine 100 of those people. People are paying money to see this show, and I want it to be the best thing that they’ve ever seen.
Well, that’s a good way to approach it.
It’s the challenge. Pulling the show off is the hardest thing in the world.
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