CLEVELAND — "Hamilton" the musical has won Tony Awards, a Grammy, a Pulitzer Prize, and multiple other accolades. One actor who grew up here in Northeast Ohio had a chance to be part of the show's original cast. When "Hamilton" takes the stage at Playhouse Square, Rory O'Malley will moonlight for a hometown audience. Maureen Kyle sat down with Rory to talk about the opportunity to come home and perform.
“I'm so lucky that I've had a few of these really cool moments that were dreams come true,” said Rory O’Malley.
O’Malley is at the height of a very successful career as a Broadway, TV, and film actor. One of his luckiest breaks, came from an unlucky one.
“I was working on another Broadway show called 'Nerds,' I was playing Bill Gates and it was about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Apple verses Microsoft. And we were like three weeks into rehearsal and the producer walked in and said, 'Everyone go home, we are not opening on Broadway,'” O'Malley remembered.
But the next day, he got the call of a lifetime.
“My agent called and said, 'How would you like to do another Broadway Show?' And I said, 'Oh no, I don't think I could right now I’m just so devastated.' And she said, 'Well, what if it's to play the King in Hamilton?' And I said, 'I’m on my way, I'll be at the theater right now,'” O’Malley said. “Within a week, I was in a dressing room with Lin Manuel Miranda and the entire original cast. It was like being transported into a Broadway nerd's dream.”
He starred in the original cast of the "Book of Mormon" alongside Josh Gad and was nominated for a Tony. O’Malley has done countless TV and movie roles, including his cameo in the movie “Dreamgirls."
But Maureen Kyle knew him as an endearing and brilliantly talented teenager. She asked if he dreamed of Broadway back in his High School days at St. Ignatius.
“No, no I didn't. I mean, I remember so vividly that time just desperately wanting to get into The Magnificat High School Musical and just hoping that somehow, I could get in. I mean, I remember my nerves I remember how just that was the biggest deal is being in the in the plays at St Ignatius and Magnificat,” O'Malley said.
O’Malley was just a kid when he realized his calling.
“I have very vivid memories of my mom picking me up from Glenview daycare center when I was going to Westerly in Bay Village, Ohio at that time, and saying that her boss at her accounting firm had season tickets to Playhouse Square and wasn't able to use these two tickets and she was going to take me that night to go see a musical called ‘Les Misérables.' And I didn't know anything about it; I was in third grade, probably inappropriate in some places, but I am telling you, my mother took me to that show, I think we were in the last row, and it changed my life ... it changed my life,” O'Malley said.
Now, in what he calls a full circle moment, he is going to take that same stage as King George in Hamilton.
“First of all, I'm nervous. I'm more nervous now to do it in Cleveland than I was on Broadway with the whole cast,” says O’Malley. “And, I hope I'm not just like sobbing crying through every single performance because that's not a very good acting choice.”
Rory O’Malley will be playing King George in every performance from December 19 through January 15.
Editor's Note: The following video is from a previous, unrelated report.
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