#399: Shan Ako // Hamilton West End // Part One
The Hamilcast: A Hamilton Podcast
Gillian Pensavalle
4.5 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2024
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shan Ako is a singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and author who has a degree in Music Business and is in the process of getting her Masters in Positive Psychology. Shan is currently playing Eliza Schuyler in the West End and previously played Eponine in multiple iterations of Les Miserables, Whitney Houston in Whitney: Queen of the Night, and blew everyone away as a member of Simon Cowell’s team on X-Factor. In her first episode, Shan talks about growing up in a musical household and how her musicianship is always at the forefront of her projects and artistry. Her main goal as a performer is honesty, and it comes through in every facet of Shan’s storytelling: from her surreal experience on X-Factor to falling in love with Eponine to hoping listeners are encouraged by the fact that she initially made it as far as final callbacks for Eliza only to be told “no” by the Hamilton creatives. As Shan herself says, “Welcome to The Shan Show!!!”
Shan sings original track at Simon Cowell's house | Judges' Houses | The X Factor UK 2018
The X Factor UK 2018 Shan Auditions Full Clip S15E06
///
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Stage and Stages Lin Manuel Miranda, and you're listening to The Hamilcast. |
| 0:05.1 | Butts and cuts and, and boots and... Hello everyone welcome back to the Hamelcast I'm Jillian and I am here with Shan Echo. Hi, Shan. |
| 0:26.0 | Hi, hello. |
| 0:28.0 | Hey, Ginny and thanks for having me. |
| 0:30.0 | Thank you for joining me from your very gorgeous dressing room. |
| 0:34.0 | So stunning. It's like a little room. |
| 0:36.0 | I wish I could give you a tour right now. |
| 0:38.0 | Yeah, it looks beautiful. I thought you were in your apartment or like a hotel room. |
| 0:42.0 | No, no, it's definitely, definitely dressing room. |
| 0:45.7 | I've definitely tried to make it homely. |
| 0:47.8 | It looks it. |
| 0:48.4 | You've succeeded. |
| 0:50.3 | Shan, before we continue, can you please tell me and the listeners your pronouns she |
| 0:54.6 | her she and you are currently Eliza in the West End previously and we will get |
| 1:01.1 | into all of this in detail. The National Tour of Magic of Motown. You played |
| 1:06.3 | Whitney Houston for three years in Whitney, Queen of the Night. You were a quarter-finalists on X-factor |
| 1:12.2 | and then you went on the X Factor Arena Tour. |
| 1:14.8 | You've played Eponine in multiple productions, one of which you won best performer in a musical |
| 1:21.0 | at the stage debut awards. |
| 1:22.8 | You're a singer, you're a songwriter, you're a musician. |
| 1:25.2 | You have all of these incredible musical influences. |
| 1:28.1 | You have like, you've been releasing self-produced music |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Gillian Pensavalle, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Gillian Pensavalle and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.