A Few Notes on Dual Roles in Hamilton

Because there’s such a marked divide between Hamilton’s first and second acts (the American Revolution, followed by America’s early governance,) people who are important in Act I don’t feature in Act II, which introduces prominent characters of its own.  As such, several actors in the production play dual roles, and I thought it’d be fun to take a look at these.  (Some spoilers.)

Jasmine Cephas Jones has the least to work with in her two roles.  Essentially, she’s playing the two named females who aren’t Eliza and Angelica.  In Act I, she’s Peggy Schuyler, and she really only sings in “The Schuyler Sisters,” where her nervousness about the revolution contrasts with Angelica’s excitement.  She has a bit more in Act II as Maria Reynolds, who has an affair with Hamilton, but again, she’s only in one song (“Say No to This.”)  Still, the contrasting roles are interesting.  It didn’t really hit me that Jones plays both until I saw her onstage.  Jones is giving two entirely different performances of very different characters, jittery good girl Peggy and sad-eyed seductress Maria.  Especially since Peggy is such a “barely there” character, it’s to Jones’s credit that they’re so distinct; even their singing voices are nothing alike.

It’s neat to look at the two characters played by Anthony Ramos.  I suppose both roles – John Laurens in Act I and Phillip Hamilton in Act II – skewer younger than most in the show (in fact, for much of Act II, Phillip is an actual child.)  But there are other parallels as well.  Both men fight in duels, and both men die young (although Laurens dies in the war, not during his duel.)  Both have the same unbridled enthusiasm; Phillip’s cocky routine in “Blow Us All Away” reminds me of Laurens’s introduction in “Aaron Burr, Sir.”  Laurens, though, is much cooler to me.  While we seeing Phillip losing his life over a pique of family pride, Laurens is a dedicated abolitionist, and his devotion to the cause is mentioned in nearly every song he takes part in.

I’d say Daveed Diggs has the best one-two punch of characters.  I absolutely adore the Marquis de Lafayette in Act I, and Act II’s Thomas Jefferson is such an entertaining, engaging opponent for Hamilton.  The similarities here are a little more superficial.  Both characters are connected to France, with Lafayette being “America’s favorite fighting Frenchman,” while Jefferson appears in Act II after returning from his ambassador work in Paris.  I suppose you can say that fighting for freedom is important to both, since Jefferson supports sending aid to France during their revolution (even asking Hamilton, “Did you forget Lafayette?”), but then, Jefferson isn’t even around for the war in Act I, so the parallel isn’t as strong.  Probably the biggest common factor is that both have charisma in spades, although much of that is down to Diggs’s performance!

But if you ask me, Okieriete Onaodowan’s dual roles are the most fun, because of how different they are.  Act I’s Hercules Mulligan is a tailor’s apprentice/patriot spy, and Act II’s James Madison is a sly politician/wealthy slave owner.  The disparity in class and contribution are big enough, but what I really love is how different these characters act.  Mulligan is down-n-dirty, rough, raucous, the life of the party – the show’s first 18^th-century sex jokes come from him.  Madison, meanwhile, is the complete opposite.  He’s such a cold fish, it’s hilarious to me.  He has no game, which makes it even more fun when he’s backing up Jefferson’s swagger.  It kills me when Jefferson looks to him to supply the rhyme “France” in “Cabinet Battle #2,” and he says it without the slightest hint of rhythm or expression.  And to know that this is the same guy who played personality-bomb Mulligan in Act I?  Onaodowan is fantastic!