It was November 2019 when Australian actor Callan Purcell scored arguably the most sought-after ticket in the world, to watch Hamilton, the musical by Lin Manuel Miranda, in New York City.
Purcell could only get his hands on a standing room ticket and spent the next two hours and 40 minutes on his feet at the very back of Broadway's Richard Rodgers theatre. It didn't dim his awe. He was so starstruck by the show he handwrote seven words on the back of his ticket: You are going to perform in this.
Months later, as the COVID-19 pandemic exploded in New York, every Broadway theatre closed its doors.
Then, at the start of this year and seemingly against all odds, the dream Purcell had written on the back of his ticket that night in New York became a reality in a way he never could have envisaged.
Purcell performed the lead role in Sydney, the only city in the world staging Hamilton at the time. Purcell was the understudy to Jason Arrow, cast as Alexander Hamilton in the Australian production, and Arrow couldn't play the part that night.
"I count my blessings each time I've been on," says Purcell, 27, who has performed the lead role seven times from when the show opened at Sydney's Lyric theatre in March until it closed suddenly on June 25 as COVID-19 forced Sydney into lockdown.
But after almost four months and 133 missed performances Hamilton opens again today for the first shows since June.
"It’s been hard. We were only open for three months before we closed," Purcell says. "We were just getting started. We’d built a community that was taken away overnight."
Purcell spent lockdown "trying to keep four roles in my body." He understudies several roles as well as Hamilton, each requiring different accents, choreography, music and lines.
He had 12 hours worth of material to keep on top of — done alone or through Zoom rehearsals — poised for the reopening announcement which has finally come.
"We return as more than just a company but a family that all went through this ordeal together. It'll influence how this show plays out for future audiences" he says.
A cult following
Hamilton, about one of America's lesser-known founding fathers, has garnered an international cult following. Michelle Obama called it "the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life".
"Absolutely I was disappointed," says Purcell of how he felt hearing he wouldn't be cast as principal lead. "I was 25 and hungry for it."
But Purcell says he has since realised being an understudy "is one of the greatest privileges you can be offered in theatre".
Every musical has a cast of understudies, covers, standbys and swings. Each production operates them slightly differently, but generally speaking it goes like this:
- Understudy: is usually on stage nightly as a member of the ensemble; only covers principal roles: named characters, leads
- Cover: is usually on stage nightly as another named character role and is the second choice to step up as the lead after the understudy
- Standby: is usually offstage. Sole purpose is to be on call to step in as a principal role (lead or major character)
- Swing: is usually offstage. Understudies all the ensemble roles and steps in if one of the ensemble calls in sick or can't perform
In Hamilton, 18 offstage performers are always ready to go on for 18 onstage actors. They nickname themselves 'Swing Nation'.
It's an important community for Purcell, who will be at the theatre six nights a week for at least the next year of his life. "I'd actually rather spend my nights backstage than out [partying]," he says when I ask if he's missing out on pub sessions, doing stuff other 27-year-olds might be doing. "It's cheaper, and I'm constantly learning."
An essential yet hidden role
As an understudy, Purcell's role is an essential yet hidden one in any major musical. And while many might expect an understudy to be enviously coveting the lead, there is a little-known benefit: understudies get to explore a wider variety of roles than principal leads — and participate in close-knit backstage communities.
Purcell says being a standby in Hamilton is enriching. He's paid as an actor to explore several different roles, allowing him to grow as a performer. Being cast as the lead, dazzling as it is, means you only get to explore one character.
Not only is Purcell standing by for Alexander Hamilton, he's also the standby for the characters of Lafayette/Jefferson, Laurens/Philip and King George III.
It's an extraordinary feat, given there are 20,520 words in Hamilton — 144 a minute. Purcell needs to know and be able perform at the drop of a hat a sizeable chunk of this garrulous musical.
His strategy for staying on top of it is rigorous: he has almost 10 notebooks in which he has broken down verbs, adjectives and nouns. He gets the script "into his body" by acquainting each with feelings and stories, until he is encyclopaedic on the hip-hop extravaganza.
In addition to playing the hero, an understudy often also gets to play a part some actors savour even more: the villain.
In this musical the villain is Jefferson and Purcell relishes a chance to play this role almost more than he does the lead of Hamilton. "He's the showman — so he's cheeky and he gets the laughs," Purcell says. "I can get away with a lot more as Jefferson than I would as Hamilton."
Purcell, who has never been a standby before, is as busy as any stage performer: every night Hamilton is on, a parallel performance is rehearsed off-stage with pianos, props and sets. "That's what drew me to this job," Purcell says. "I get paid to learn and develop my relationship with everyone else through the work instead of sitting and waiting. It keeps us hungry, busy and curious."
I am not throwing away my shot
Purcell and Hamilton lead Jason Arrow rarely get to spend time together, occupying as they do, parallel but interconnected stage universes. Arrow — who performs eight shows a week — has two standbys and one understudy.
In preparation for the standby role, Purcell interviewed other standbys from Book of Mormon the Hamilton NYC cast. He came out with a clear idea of the discipline, composure and patience required. "They all said, 'know your work, but also trust you've done the work'," he says.
But no amount of work could have prepared him for what happened during his first performance as the lead, six weeks into the show's run.
"It was abysmal," he says. "At the end of Act one, Hamilton runs up these stairs and declares, 'I am not throwing away my shot!' Then there's a blackout."
It's supposed to be the "most triumphant" moment of the show, Purcell says. "But I slipped, fell over and my bum was in the air for all the audience to see."
Although the experience was a "sobering" one, he reassured himself that "in live theatre, no performance is perfect".
From Hamilton ... to Moulin Rouge
In Melbourne, Elenoa Rokobaro is in rehearsal for Moulin Rouge. She's playing Arabia — one of the four Lady Marmalade actors who open the show — and is the cover for the leading lady, Satine.
It isn't the first time Rokobaro has understudied, having done so in Ghost in 2016. "It's one of those times I'm very thankful to be a woman — we can multitask," she says. "And I learnt from the best — my mother, queen of multitasking."
She laughs when I ask whether she secretly wishes the leading lady trips up and injures herself one night.
"Hilarious you asked that," she says. "It's not like the movies. No one is wishing you'll fall over, we're very much a team. We're there to help each other out."
She relishes the "diamond opportunity" to represent her community when the day comes for her to step into the role played by Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's film. "As Pacific Islander, that feels massive," she says. "The responsibility is great, but my heart is already full."
I ask the same question of Rokobaro's co-star, Maxwell Simon — the principal cover for Christian, the show's hero, and the Duke, its villain.
After laughing through a denial, Simon confesses to being friends with the lead, Des Flanagan. "I went to university with him, and anyone who's secretly hoping ill-will on him … wouldn't get my respect, to be honest," he says. "You take this job knowing you may never go on. If you're not fine with that, you're not fit to take this job."
This role, this glitzy show, is world away from what Simon's life looked like last year. "It was the worst time of my life," the 29-year-old says. "I had no acting work and was working in fast food asking if people want fries with that — it was pretty f**king shit, to be blunt."
Moulin Rouge has also been caught out by COVID, forced to cancel it's planned August premiere (which would have marked Melbourne as the second city to host the show after it opened on Broadway in 2019). All performances until the end October have been cancelled with hopes the show may be able to go ahead in November.
Say no to this
A darker side of life as an understudy emerged in March, when American actor Dan Belnavis spoke out about his experiences working on Hamilton in the US. Belnavis understudied George Washington, King George III, and Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, and played Man 6 in the ensemble.
In a blogpost he criticised the "extreme lack of intersectionality within the gatekeepers of Hamilton", which he argued "drastically juxtaposes the highly intersectional identities of the Black and Brown actors they employ and continue to get rich off of".
He claimed a white musical director had told cast members they sounded "too urban" in certain songs. "He constantly white-man-splained Hip-Hop to us and committed multitudes of microaggressions," Belnavis wrote.
He also shared his personal difficulty playing a "marginalised role" eight times a week. "It mirrored the marginalisation that I have felt for my entire life," he said. "I am gay. I am Black. I have never been economically privileged."
Tigist Strode, who covers Angelica, Eliza and Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in Sydney's Hamilton, says it's a privilege to tell multiple stories in a musical that "gets standing ovations most nights, and changes people".
However, she says, performing in the ensemble and covering all the major female roles takes a toll. "In addition to performing, there are 4.5-hour rehearsals daily — it's pretty hectic," she says. "Sometimes I'm so tired and struggle to find motivation but I know that's my opportunity to connect and bond with the offstage cast I love so much."
Meanwhile, Callan Purcell says he doesn't secretly hope Jason Arrow will call in sick and be unable to play Hamilton — instead, he's discovered a side of waiting in the wings that he loves.
"It gives me time for other creative endeavours, like encouraging more young people to experience the benefits of live theatre," he says, a big grin forming on his face. "I can have my cake and eat it, too."
Gary Nunn is a freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter: @garynunn1.
