“There is nothing in [Hamilton] that feels fake. [Miranda] is a really good rapper, by rapper’s standards, and he’s culturally connected to the music. From the beginning, I felt the show was authentic. I needed to be a part of it.” Diggs prepared devotedly from the day he was cast in an early Hamilton workshop, aiming to keep up with performers more experienced in Broadway-style singing.
To this day, when asked his favorite part of the show to perform, he names not any of his own show-stopping numbers, but “Wait For It,” which Leslie Odom Jr. sings as Aaron Burr.
“Every night, singing backup for [Odom Jr.] during ‘Wait For It’ [makes me] feel like I’m living out a bizarre fantasy. I love how he sings that song, and [I know] I’d never get that job as his backup singer, outside of Broadway. 'Wait For It’ is such a beautiful song and the fact that I get to support it…”
Diggs trails off as a huge cheer erupts on 46th Street, outside his dressing room window. Hamilton’s ticket lottery has become an event in itself, a chance for fans to win ten dollar tickets to the show with an average ticket price that hovers around $150, and a record-breaking advance sale of nearly $60 million. The Hamilton lottery boasts what they’ve dubbed “Ham4Ham,” where cast members team up with other actors to perform a special free show on the street for lottery entrants.
“The lottery is just one thing about this show that feels like it opens the doors and gives people access,” says Diggs. The show’s diverse casting inarguably does this as well, and he has experienced young people “from all walks of life, all different colors and shapes and sizes” who are eager to discuss the show, and to have a chance to audition for Hamilton someday.
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