#406: Jonathan Butler-Duplessis // Hamilton Broadway // Part Two
The Hamilcast: A Hamilton Podcast
Gillian Pensavalle
4.5 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jonathan Butler-Duplessis (Hamilton Broadway: Aaron Burr, George Washington, and Mulligan/Madison) is back for round two! In this episode, we kick off talking about his experience playing Jim Conley in Parade. It was a really intense audition process, Jonathan couldn't afford contacts for the first half of the run so could barely see and the audience looked like blobs, and he had to deal with several instances of the cops being called on him for existing while Black. But according to Jonathan, all of this craziness actually *helped* his performance.
We also dive into his Hamilton story, which starts with the belief that he was wrong for absolutely every part in the show. Of course that wasn’t the case because we eventually hear the story about how Jonathan was giving Lin-Manuel Miranda shit for eating Sicilian style pizza at the Richard Rodgers so things worked out pretty well! Side note: Jonathan takes his Chicago pizza very, very seriously.
Jonathan also has an incredibly moving debut experience, and talks about what it was like to play Aaron Burr for the first time. He explains his connection to Wait For It and how he carries his past with him as he moves forward.
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Jonathan on Instagram
Jade Armor
The Plate Show Podcast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Stage and Stages Lin Manuel Miranda, and you're listening to The Hamelcast. |
| 0:05.5 | Butts and cuts and, poos and... Hello friends I'm Jillian and welcome back to the Hamelcast. This is my second episode with Jonathan Butler Duplasis, |
| 0:24.2 | currently in the Broadway company of Hamilton. |
| 0:26.1 | He covers Aaron Burr, George Washington, and Mulligan, Madison. |
| 0:29.2 | Last week Jonathan told me about growing up in Chicago, |
| 0:31.6 | singing in church, |
| 0:32.7 | getting his first big break, thanks, in part |
| 0:34.7 | to his grandmother's babysitting gig, |
| 0:36.3 | going to high school and meeting the best voice teacher ever, |
| 0:39.0 | doing a lot of community theater, |
| 0:40.5 | and then he just stopped. |
| 0:42.1 | As Jonathan explained, he grew up in the projects and didn't think there was anything more to do with this whole singing thing. |
| 0:47.0 | After a quick, not great experience at a Christian Bible college, |
| 0:50.0 | he had the opportunity to audition for the University of Illinois and he took it. |
| 0:54.0 | He worked hard, he wanted to learn, he used the tools they gave him, and he built up one hell |
| 0:58.1 | of a resume over the next 10 years. |
| 1:00.0 | Jonathan has this no shortcuts mantra, and it's definitely the vibe of these episodes which I love |
| 1:04.1 | from professional wrestling to a metaphysical discussion of Beyoncé's Renaissance to his love of |
| 1:08.6 | small details it all seems to come back to how all of these things affect his performance in Hamilton and |
| 1:13.5 | everything else he does. So we left off talking about how he was nominated for the |
| 1:16.9 | Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for supporting actor in a musical in 2017 for two |
| 1:21.2 | separate performances. |
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