On long car rides, we would always listen to the 'Blues Brothers' soundtrack and try to emulate everything that Aretha Franklin was doing. There was soul and grit in it that I think a kid from the suburbs really needed.
I decided one day to put on my tutu and jump on the coffee table and sing Aretha Franklin songs for the painters that were painting the house.
I will say, I can definitely throw down a sick beat once in a while and provide an amazing backup track for somebody who can really, actually freestyle.
I think in general, people are baffled by love and what it does to them and how far they'll go to have love and be loved.
I think I'm obsessed with food. Maybe that's why I'm making the transition to organic products - they just feel yummy. I like vanilla scents. I like mint. I like sage. I like the idea of smelling blackberries every time I blink. It's so good.
You are carving out a story. You and your colleagues are trying to make something that is bigger than yourself. Although it can be a scary experience because you're putting your work out on the line, it's also incredibly rewarding because a lot of it comes from you.
Doing a show eight times a week is kind of like doing yoga or tai chi. A vinyasa is the same every single time you do it, but depending on how you're feeling, it tells you a lot about what's happening in your life.
We try to find the information, the clues, to unlock the play or the story or our characters, especially when they're based on real people that live and breathe.
You get to crack the code of the play. You get to really pick at it and see, 'What is the story that we're telling?' 'What are the clues in the text that I can find that will help inform what story we're telling?' It's almost like a detective mystery.
During the winter of 2013, we were running 'Comet' up in midtown - as opposed to downtown - and across the street in the Standard, and that was, like, our third time going at it, from Ars Nova to downtown to near Broadway. We weren't on Broadway. We were near Broadway, as we said.
Right out of school, I did this show called 'Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.' It is based on a classical text with new music - not necessarily confined by a certain genre. It was a diverse, interesting group of musicians, actors, nonactors, and singers all creating this thing that is bigger than all of us.
I've been very lucky. I made a choice, getting out of school, to follow the work and the people that really struck my heartstrings; 'Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812' was one of those - maybe it was an accident.
Everyone has a different interpretation of characters we know and love from Shakespeare, from 'Miller'. There's specific things about them that are written that are kind of the fingerprints of the first person who played that role, and so I like to think of it as a road map.
There's the cool factor, right? You see your face on a sign or your name on something, like, 'Ahh! Here I am!' And then there's a huge responsibility and the scary part of it, which is like, 'Now what happens?' And then you realize, 'Oh, yeah, this is my job.'
I eat a light but sustaining dinner before the show: a bunch of greens and some non-gluten quinoa or rice. I'll have a snack at intermission. I'm trying so hard not to have meals after the show because it's so late, but sometimes I just want a big bowl of pasta.
I went through a phase when I was watching a lot of foreign films, just itching to get out of the suburbs and explore.
There's no map for you to follow and take your journey. You are Lewis and Clark. You are the mapmaker.
I didn't know anything about Eliza when I first got the call about 'Hamilton.' Tommy Kail, the director, asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. I knew what he was talking about because I'd seen the video of Lin performing it at the White House for Barack and Michelle Obama.
My mother took my brother and I to a production of 'The Tempest', and it was in this very small - it could have been the basement of a church or a black box. The space was vast, but there were maybe 15 seats in the middle. Ariel came out wearing a nude sparkly thong and spike heels, and the muses had these gossamer see-through gowns on.
'Hamilton' just asks us all to go a little bit deeper: whether you're a hip-hop fan seeing musical theater for the first time, or if you were thinking you were gonna see some reprise of 1776, and now it's this? And you're thinking, 'Wait a minute, these people aren't white!' It asks you just take a step and go a little deeper.
