That brick that you're standing on, that foundation that you're standing on, there's a brick in there that was placed by someone you never knew, sort of a faceless possibility, but you're there now. You have an opportunity to put your own brick in there. That's what it feels like we're doing with 'Hamilton'
Christopher Jackson
The emergence of social media in the Broadway fan's life - it's sort of a serendipitous thing for us and for a lot of shows. I always wonder what 'Rent' would've felt like through that lens.
Tupac was the first artist that I really related to.
I'm used to multitasking... I like it that way. I like when things are busy. I strive off the pace.
If you look back throughout the history of Broadway, there's always been periods where writers and producers have delivered the kind of things that people want to see, while at the same time pushing the form along.
Our understanding of history goes awry when we only tell one part of the story.
There's never been a show where I did not literally offer my guts on that stage.
I get great joy from being a part of a play that doesn't take itself too seriously.
I'd like to think of myself as an ambassador for Broadway.
You can make the most powerful movie ever made, and you hope that whatever resonates gets taken home and survives the night. You also hope that, the next morning, it gives someone pause before they would act on their more base instincts, or out of habit.
I've never wanted to do just one thing. I don't have an attention span for that. I can focus really well on one thing - what's in front of me.
Broadway is at its best when it represents as many people as possible.
I pay attention when people get manicures and pedicures. I've always noticed it as a guy. When my wife goes to get her nails done, I'm always very aware of it.
It instantly felt like, for me as an actor that I justified, I was able to draw a direct relation between Chris the actor and being George Washington.
The fight for civil rights did not end when Donald Trump was elected president. We've got work to do.
I know it's going to sound cliche, but we're all artists just trying to tell a story. Whether it's on television or whether it's in a theater, you just hope that people are moved.
Hamilton' doesn't compare to anything I've ever done.
I consider it a great honor to be able to step on stage every night and do a show that people have paid money to see.
I don't ever take a day 'off.' If I can't work, I won't work.
I was going to play pro baseball. That was the dream. But in my sophomore year of high school a teacher who knew I performed, singing in church, she said, 'You know we have a speech team,' and she handed me a copy of 'The Crucible.'
I love to write.
I've had to make time to really explore all the amazing things that are out and try to understand the history of how fashion has moved through modern times and how it shaped everything, from overall aesthetic to design to how it's influenced the great artists of our time.
With television, you rarely get a response. You don't have an audience that you're in front of.
I was an extra on 'New York Undercover.' I played a person at a homeless shelter.
Well, I went to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy - I went to the conservatory - for acting.
Well, theater is kind of my life blood. Not kind of - it is my life blood.
I came into the business where Will Smith was pretty much taking over the world - or defending it, if you will. He was showing success on so many different fronts - television, recording, movies. So that was really my prototype in terms of looking at the business and seeing where you fit in.
Every day is different. I've only ever been happy spinning a thousand plates at once.
When I was doing 'In the Heights,' I was the co-music supervisor for 'The Electric Company' on PBS, so I was writing songs all day, doing the show, staying up until 3 A. M. Writing more songs, recording demos in the intermission in my dressing room.
My most important jobs are to be a father and a husband, and so some things have to wait.
I get goosebumps going out on stage every night.
The idea that you can make one speech or one movie, or express a thought or show the injustice of a particular time, you hope that it resonates, and you hope that resonance will last. You hope that it would create change.
If you can save one body, and one heart and soul and mind, then it's a worthy cause and a worthy venture.
I knew I wanted to be in the arts and acting.
There's only one Broadway and that's in New York City.
If an artist doesn't have anything to say, he'll be quiet. Or he'll yell into the darkness until he finds something and hears something back.
I approach most every job that I do with some sort of team ideal involved.
I've been playing team sports since I could walk... so anything sports-related story is always fun for me.
I'm sort of a history nutjob.
To me there's nothing more fascinating than a roomful of young people just trying to look at the world and seeing how they can affect it as they're being affected by it.
One of the beautiful parts about Hamilton is it takes these figures that we've always revered as figures of antiquity and there's real blood flowing through their veins. There's real conflict. There's real life.
Because for every Lin Miranda performance, there's some young person out there saying, 'Oh, I can write something like this.' Or, 'I didn't think that this was possible.' It opens a world of possibilities.
I've joked for years I want to land a TV show so I can finance my theater habit.
Hamilton' is as hard a job as anything I've ever done. It's equally rewarding, but it's very taxing. It's just so hard physically and emotionally to do it, and it just empties you out.
I took a trip to D.C. before the Off Broadway production started, and one of the things that was really telling is that Hamilton has probably the smallest statue in all of the Mall area, and yet he's got the greatest monument of any of them because we're all walking around with him in our pockets.
I love television, and I get so spoiled because I'm coming from such an amazing ensemble in 'Hamilton' to such an amazing ensemble on 'Bull.'
I grew up singing in church. My family owned funeral homes so I would sing for the occasional funeral, as well.
One of my first public performances was singing hymns at a funeral for a friend of our family.
The reach of 'Hamilton' never surprises me. It's always a delight to meet someone who's seen the show.
Being a part of the 'Hamilton' family has been the most thrilling and rewarding experience of my career.
