Where were you the first time you heard 'Hamilton'? The actors remember. - Harvard Gazette

"Both A.D. Weaver and Tyler Fauntleroy remember exactly where they were in 2015, the first time they heard the "Hamilton" soundtrack. Weaver was working a shift at Best Buy. He wasn't supposed to be listening to music on the sales floor, but he'd snuck a headphone into one ear instead of his work-issued walkie-talkie. Fauntleroy was in his college dorm. By the time the soundtrack got to "Helpless," the love song in the first act, he was lying down, completely floored."

"'I remember 'My Shot' had me like, 'OK, this is something else,' Fauntleroy told a group of students over a campus lunch on Tuesday. 'By 'Wait for It' I just was like, 'I have surrendered to this album.' It was one of those times where you're like, 'I'm engaging with something that's going to change my life.'" Weaver now plays George Washington and Fauntleroy plays Alexander Hamilton in the North American touring cast of "Hamilton.""

"For Fauntleroy, who first auditioned in 2015 and was cast in 2023, playing Hamilton feels like a hard-won victory. 'It was a long, long, long road of 'You did everything great, nothing you could do differently,' Fauntleroy told students, describing the audition process. 'For whatever reason, they go the way that they go. Now there's something about [performing] the end of 'Yorktown' and seeing the feeling of victory wash over all of us. The awe of, 'Oh, my God, we're here. We did it.'"

Members of the North American touring cast of Hamilton — A.D. Weaver, Tyler Fauntleroy, Marja Harmon, Lauren Mariasoosay, and Christian Magby — visited campus for an ArtsBites Luncheon hosted by the Office for the Arts at Harvard. Cast members recalled first hearing the Hamilton soundtrack in 2015 and described paths from fans to cast, including long audition processes and eventual casting. Fauntleroy described audition setbacks and the emotional victory of performing the end of "Yorktown." The visit emphasized theater, representation, and connections to U.S. history for students on campus.

Read at Harvard Gazette