The noise inside London’s Victoria Palace Theatre as Leslie Odom Jr. makes his entrance is deafening.

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Very few performers could produce a reaction like this — from the usually polite, etiquette-obeying British crowds — on the West End. His return as Aaron Burr, the slippery frenemy of our titular founding father, is history in the making: For the first time since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical hit the city nearly a decade ago, a cast member from the original Broadway production is gracing the stage.

From July 3 until Sep. 5 this year, Odom Jr. is showing fans a whole new side to him. That is, the select few thousand who successfully nabbed a ticket to one of his shows. The run sold out in minutes, proving once again that Hamilton‘s influence on pop culture holds strong 10 years on from its debut, or indeed that its enormous fanbase remains loyal to the actors who originated these now world-famous roles.

“For a show with this [amount of] worldwide acclaim and success, I think humility is a good thing,” laughs Odom Jr. over Zoom in late July, having had a few weeks to settle into life in London. “So I am humbled by the impact of the show,” he says, though he adds: “I don’t totally understand it.”

He struggles to put into words the enduring popularity of Hamilton, a unique blend of rap, hip-hop, and traditional showtunes chronicling the rise and fall of the president that never was, Alexander Hamilton. Perhaps the stats can capture it: The New York instalment broke records at the 2016 Tony Awards, accruing an all-time high of 16 nominations and 11 wins. Later that year, it was honored with a Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Award, and had racked up over $140 million at the Broadway box office. Hamilton‘s West End transfer continues to pack theaters across the Atlantic, and the filmed version of the production remains one of Disney+’s most-watched movies since its 2020 release.

Still, some might have been surprised to see Odom Jr.’s Burr back on the poster. Alongside the likes of Miranda, Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, and Phillipa Soo, the Queens-born actor was launched to stardom with Hamilton — it was long overdue, given his first Broadway role came aged just 17 with Rent — and the Tony winner has since scored two Oscar nominations for 2020’s One Night in Miami…(best supporting actor and best original song) as well as roles in Murder on the Orient Express, Harriet, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and more recently, Apple TV’s Imperfect Women. He’s also released five albums, toured and published a book (2017’s Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning).

So what’d he miss? Here, Odom Jr. talks with THR about the pressure he felt during Hamilton‘s original run, what he still finds particularly challenging about embodying Aaron Burr and why this latest stint is allowing him the freedom to dig deeper than ever before: “There was certain grief that I was not willing to feel 10 years ago. I felt [that] if I allowed myself to be a little bit sad, I might be sad forever… I’ve lived more life and I’ve experienced more loss, and [now] I understand.”

I don’t think I’ve ever felt energy like that in a West End theater before. Have you been surprised by the reaction? Has it gotten old yet?

(Laughs.) It has not gotten old. I don’t know if it’ll ever get old. You know, I have to divorce myself a little bit from the reaction, because I have quite a bit of work to do after that. (Laughs.) So I really do separate myself from it. It really is about them. They do it because they need to do it. I know people who have traveled from far [away] to be there, or they waited in a queue for you. They were number 78,000 in a queue, you know? It’s just this unexpected thing, where they didn’t expect that anybody from the original company [would return], that they would get to see us inhabit the world of the show again. So people are excited. I just kind of stand there. I’m just present in that moment with the audience, and then I get along with the business of doing the show — because that’s the most important thing: that we deliver that. That’s the contract! For the next three hours, I want to deliver something worthy of their time [and] worthy of the sacrifice that they’ve made to be there. So I just have to stand there for sometimes 10 seconds or a little bit more. (Laughs.) It’s a small price to pay.

When you left the Broadway production of Hamilton, did you ever think you’d return to the show —in any capacity — one day?

I think I did. My first experience in a Broadway show was as a replacement. So I joined the Broadway company of Rent not long after they’d opened. It’s crazy to say — the show opened in ’96, and I joined the Broadway Company in ’98. And I remember the profound gratitude that I had to that original company because it felt like there was something that they left there for me. There was something still in the building that made it so hundreds of us came through that Broadway house and got to live our wildest dreams — thousands of us all around the world. So that show, that company… I’ve told [Rent producer] Jeffrey Seller and a few of the original Broadway cast members of that company in the years that have followed that they really taught me what it meant to be in a Broadway show, and what being in a hit Broadway show could mean for those that were lucky enough to be a part of it.

So I knew that was always in my head: Yes, if you are blessed enough to land one of those generational shows, a thing that not only can you be a part of a legacy of performers that share a role with you, [but] that potentially it’s something you can revisit at a different time in your life, and get to experience from a different vantage point… That was something I hoped I might have the opportunity to do at some point in my career.

What pulled you to the West End?

I’ve never done the West End. As a theater lover, there are special houses, there are special districts. There are special communities around the world that, if you’re lucky enough to get to spend some time in or around them, you take it. So for this to be my West End debut, to be here in a show where I don’t really have to worry about if people are gonna like it… The normal situation is you’d be opening a new show or maybe a revival of a show, and yeah, you’d be nervous. Are people gonna like the show? Are they gonna like me in the show? Are we gonna get good reviews? Are we gonna have a run? Are we gonna get to hang around for a bit? So to get to bypass all of that and be flown over and welcomed with open arms in this way is more than a dream come true. It’s once in a lifetime, really.

It must be really cool knowing everyone in that audience is (partly) there for you. To see history. How has the West End lived up to your expectations? Have you noticed any major differences compared to Broadway audiences?

It’s not a one-for-one. It’s not like every laugh we get in New York we get here, or every cheer. It’s not the same exact kind of thing here, but overall, the show impacts an audience in the same way. It’s just such a formidable piece of writing. That’s really what still lands on me 10 years later — what an impressive piece of writing it is, and how lucky I am to get to cover that emotional range in an evening as an actor. It’s just such a rewarding and satisfying experience as a performer, and it’s worth the sacrifice because theater is a sacrifice on Broadway [and] on the West End. Believe me, it’s the same. It hasn’t gotten any easier physically. (Laughs.) It is a taxing proposition. Eight shows a week is more than a notion, so that has not changed.

But when you happen upon a piece of material that is worth that sacrifice, there’s just nothing better for a performer like me. There’s nothing greater. It’s the pinnacle, you know? I got into this business to be in the theater, and I am getting to live out that dream all these years later on stages all over the world. I think that 17-year-old kid who made his Broadway debut in Rent, I know he is so proud. And I’m grateful every day.

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Does the enduring popularity of Hamilton, and the way it’s captured the zeitgeist for 10 years now, surprise you?

Yes. And I’m curious about that now, because I know the reason is different for everybody. I was a performer, so I know why the theater touched me in the way that it did. The theater changed my life, and it didn’t just make me a better performer. It made me a better citizen, a better friend, a better father, and a better partner. It did all those things for me.

I do wonder and marvel at how the theater can really touch and impact people who aren’t performers, because I’m meeting young people who saw the show for the first time on Disney+ a year or two years ago. It’s a new show to them. So I’m really enjoying that too — the way the show is hitting people fresh, 10 years later, because of Disney+. I marvel at it. It’s a bit of a mystery to me why the show connects with people in the way that it does. Mysteries are humbling, and a show with this [amount of] worldwide acclaim and success, I think humility is a good thing too. (Laughs.) So I am humbled by the impact of the show. I don’t totally understand it.

As someone involved with Hamilton since near its inception, how have you noticed the production has evolved? You’ve talked about wanting this West End production to feel fresh. Why might it feel like something fans haven’t seen before?

Well, I think that I certainly felt a tremendous responsibility in this sense of import, the grandeur. Because in that original run, it was the first time that people were hearing this modern masterpiece. So every word, every syllable, every step, it needed to be crystal clear and crisp. There was all of that attached to the first time — to ensure it’s understandable. I think as the narrator too, the function that Burr had, I was honored to have such a pivotal role in the audience’s experience. It was quite a big and serious task then. So much of that has gone away 10 years later. People know it better than I do. (Laughs.) Or at least as well as I do. So I’m able to have a lot more fun. I also think two kids later, some evolution in my life later, I am able to have more fun. It’s just not as tense and rigid an experience as it was for me 10 years ago.

I’m very aware that I’m amongst friends. I’m amongst people that feel about the show the way that I do. So we can celebrate it together. We’re all happy to be there. I’m happy to be at the Victoria Palace too, and this show impacted and changed my life too. So, yeah, we’re sending it up together.

Has that same freedom allowed you to understand Aaron Burr better, or play him in a different way this time around?

I’m able to lose myself in it even more. It’s a life thing too. There was certain grief that I was not willing to feel 10 years ago. Like a lot of people, I felt [that] if I allowed myself to be a little bit sad, I might be sad forever. So there were just certain notes of grief that I wouldn’t allow myself to play on my instrument and I wouldn’t allow myself to explore. What I didn’t know 10 years ago was that my unwillingness to explore those few notes [means] you also lose the converse of those notes, you lose the balance of those notes. Not being willing to feel the lows, you don’t have access to the highs. You don’t have access to those same notes on the other end of the spectrum.

So coming back around, maybe because it’s a more joyful experience, it also allows me to mourn in a deeper way as well. I can feel the low notes. I’ve lived more life and I’ve experienced more loss, and I understand. I’ve access to more of a range in my life. That’s probably the biggest difference. I have access to more colors this time around.

Do you have a favorite number? What do you find most difficult?

I don’t know if I have a favorite. That changes. And the most difficult part remains the athleticism of eight shows a week. I know the kind of theater I like to see and I know what the bar is for me. I try to deliver that every single night. The kind of theater that I like to witness is that thing that happens when you go and you feel, ‘Well, surely I saw them on a special night. No way did they do it like that last night. When I saw it, there was this special thing that happened.’ If [you] go see it on a two-show day, it’s like, there’s no way they can do that twice in a day. That’s the magic of theater for me. If a performer can make me feel like they’ve never done it before and maybe they’re never gonna do it again, and I really just feel so special for having been in the theater.

But I’m surrounded by the best of British theater here at the Victoria Palace, and very similar to the Broadway companies that I’ve been a part of, they astound me every single day with their professionalism and their commitment. Their re-attack. I’m here with a bunch of theater animals, you know? (Laughs.) We are all made of the same stuff.

Do you have a pre-show or post-show ritual? The cool-down — especially on a two-show day — must be pretty intense.

That cool-down is no joke! I mean, my family has finally joined me, which is so lovely. I was here for a few weeks by myself, so the wonderful thing now is that the theater — this jewel of an experience — is folded into the rest of my life that I love so much. My kids are here, my wife is here, and there’s normalcy, you know? As soon as I walk through the door at home and up until I walk out the door, I’m just dad. They couldn’t care less, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. (Laughs.) So it’s a really well-rounded experience. When I have a friend here to see the show, we love to go get a drink at Soho House or one of the clubs after the show. But yeah, now I just can’t wait to get home and spend time with my family, and do it all again the next day.

What have you seen recently on the West End that you’e enjoyed?

I loved Arcadia. I loved Cyrano. That was my first time seeing Adrian Lester on stage. I just loved it. I saw something else too… Maybe I didn’t love it as much. (Laughs.) But I go to the theater as much as I can, especially when I’m in London. We’re gonna see Paddington this weekend. It’s really such a treat to be part of the theater community here for a little while. I’ve been a fan for a long time and I am having the time of my life.

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