A DECADE OF SUCCESS

Leslie Odom Jr on marking 10 years of Hamilton

- KATHRYN LURIE

Leslie Odom Jr accepts his Best Actor Tony for Hamilton, in 2016.

It's been a milestone year for the musical about the US founding father without a father. Hamilton, the hit show based on Alexander Hamilton, turned 10 this year — marking a decade since it stormed Broadway, rewrote the rules of musical theatre, and became that rare cultural phenomenon everyone from high school students to US presidents had an opinion about.

For Leslie Odom Jr, the timing was uncanny. The show opened on his 34th birthday, Aug 6, 2015. This year, just shy of his 44th, he announced he'd be returning for a limited run to play Aaron Burr — the role that won him a Tony and cemented his place in Broadway history.

Speaking from New York City on the first Friday of his return, Odom reflects on how 10 years away have given him a new perspective — on Burr, on the show's place in our culture, and on why Hamilton still resonates in 2025.

I mean, what an opportunity. I've spent my career collecting experiences. So the opportunity to return to a place that had this profound impact on me — the idea that I could go back again. The show is still in the same theatre. My dressing room is the same.

And yet it's wildly different. My life is different. It's a different company of people. It's a different time in the nation, in the world. How could I not go back and see what that feels like?

People keep talking about this bike. Where is this bike? I am waiting for this phantom bike to show up.