Stage phenomenon Hamilton heads to Southampton for six-week season

SussexWorld

Joining the production as Alexander Hamilton is 2024 Black British Theatre Award-winner Marley Fenton, whilst Billy Nevers, previously Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson in the tour, will now play Aaron Burr.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.

00:06Wow, this is the big one. It's been on our horizon for so long in Southampton, and it's

00:12almost nearly here. Hamilton, and lovely to speak to our Alexander Hamilton and Marley

00:18Fenton.

00:19Hello.

00:20Monumental role, isn't it? And you were saying it's probably about four or five months of

00:25auditions to secure. How on earth did you get that role?

00:29I mean, it was definitely a crazy time in my life. I was currently in another show and

00:35I was auditioning. I was on tour at the time, so I was travelling back to London every two

00:40weeks or so to go and audition. And then I had a couple of Zooms and things like that.

00:45And because it was something I wanted to do for so long, it was definitely quite a high

00:50intensity time. But luckily, it went the way that I wanted and the audition process was

00:56exactly what I'd hoped for. And of course, we're sitting here, so yeah, it went well.

01:01Clearly, and at the risk of asking the blindingly obvious question, what is it that attracted

01:05you so much to that role? Why did you want to be it? It's a monumental role, isn't it?

01:09Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, well, before even kind of seeing anything about who was in it

01:14and things like that, I heard the music and the music was something that drew me to it

01:21straight away. You know, the jazz, the hip hop, the rap, the soul, you know, that's music

01:26that I've kind of grown up on. So even just hearing that was definitely something that

01:30attracted me to it. And then seeing the casting for the show, even though I understood

01:36kind of what the show was about and the story, the thing that attracted me most was

01:40definitely the casting and how, you know, in the famous words of them, it's a story of

01:45America then told by America now, which is so powerful for me to, you know, hear and

01:50see multiple black people on stage kind of singing about freedom and singing about

01:54things like that. So those are definitely the things that attracted me to Hamilton.

01:58And it's so nice to be able to bottle that energy that I had when I first heard about

02:03it and then bring it on stage every night. Yes, it's a great feeling.

02:07In some ways, it's such an unlikely musical, isn't it? Because you could think it's so

02:11complex, isn't it? The story is telling. You don't believe it can be as thrilling as it

02:15actually is. You sit there watching it and it just comes along, doesn't it?

02:19Oh, yeah, definitely. It's great. Sorry, go on.

02:23No, no, I was just going to say, tell me what you think you have to nail to be authentically

02:27Hamilton. What have you got to be to be him?

02:30I think for me, there's a few different things, but I think it's definitely finding

02:34that kind of jumps in his age.

02:37He goes from being 19 to 47 in the show.

02:40And it's so crazy that each time he's kind of on stage, you know, other things have

02:46happened. And it's not just this is this is his journey top to bottom.

02:50You know, there's only three hours or so of content that you can kind of put into a

02:55musical, you know, over that that that lifespan that, you know, there's other things

03:01that would have came into it. So it's a lot of research and a lot of, you know, really

03:06honing in on who he was as a person to be able to carry that through his age.

03:12And then it's, you know, it's a very big technical aspect within the voice.

03:17It's, you know, a lot of a lot of rap, a lot of words.

03:20So it's kind of just getting that into your body as quick as possible.

03:23Yeah.

03:24An interesting time span. Obviously, you are at the younger end, aren't you?

03:28Yeah, definitely.

03:29Two years ago. What difference does it make that you are one of our younger Hamiltonians?

03:34I think it's definitely a thing of Act One feels like more accessible to me.

03:39You know, he's 19 when he when he's in Act One or at the start of Act One.

03:44And that's definitely been the thing that I've been able to gravitate towards more and

03:49kind of understand more. And then the challenge for me is Act Two and is is the

03:54older years, you know, when he gets a son and things like that.

03:57That's definitely the thing I've been working very hard on because it's a big jump.

04:01And it's obviously something that I've not experienced, but it's all a part of the job.

04:05And it's exciting that that's something I get to play. But, yeah.

04:10Well, it sounds super exciting. Really looking forward to seeing it.

04:13And really lovely to speak to you. Congratulations.

04:15And you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

04:19Yes.

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