Jonathan Groff traded in Broadway's 'Hamilton' for a Netflix serial killer series (KPCC):
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"Spring Awakening" was, to me, one of the great shows I've ever seen. I wonder if when you're an actor and you're early in your career, do you recognize while you're doing a show that it means something?
Yes and no. We started at the Atlantic Theater off-Broadway and there was this sort of summer camp energy about the show. And Michael Mayer, the incredible director of "Spring Awakening," kept us all in our place. When we were off-Broadway he said, We're never moving to Broadway. He just kept our noses to the grindstone and kept us working. And so, in some ways, we were very protected, in sort of our own bubble. It wasn't until after that we realized what waves that show created. But, at the same time, it completely transformed me as an actor because I'd never gone to college and I never studied acting.
It's always been on-the-job training. And up until "Spring Awakening" it had always been just about getting a job and working. You take anything. But the material of "Spring Awakening" was so challenging and so transformative to perform eight times a week. And I did it for about two years in total, including off-Broadway and Broadway. It completely changed who I was as an actor and who I was as an artist. I learned through that experience that material ends up defining you, particularly in the theater, because you repeat it night after night and it has the power on a cellular level to change you as a person. And so after "Spring Awakening," moving forward I would think, Okay, what is the material? Who is the director? What is the next challenge? How is the next opportunity going to make me grow? Because "Spring Awakening" taught me what it meant to be an artist.
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And then another musical comes along, "Hamilton." How did you get into that show? Was it immediately clear that even if you didn't want to continue with "Hair" on Broadway that this absolutely had to be a part of your life?
Lin texted me and said, Hey, Brian d'Arcy James has to leave the show right after we open off-Broadway. Do you want to come in for the run of "Hamilton," basically for two months? And I said, Sure. Without having read it or seen it or anything. And I went to see it at the Public Theater on a Friday night and I thought, Oh my god, I won the lottery. I can't believe I get to be a part of the show and play the part of King George.
I had one day of rehearsal and then went into the show and then ended up doing it on Broadway with them. And so I ended up working on the show for about a year. And because King George is only on stage for nine minutes, I would go into the audience and watch the show when I was not on stage.
Would people see you?
No, I would hide behind them.
What was that like?
It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I mean, to quote the show, I just kind of wanted to be in the room where it was happening. [. . .]
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