#todaytix

It’s Day 2 of my #HerculesLoveFest and today’s subject is James Monroe Iglehart who will be playing Philoctetes (or just Phil) in The Public’s production in the Park.

I first became aware of Iglehart, as most people did, when he was cast as the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway. *(see note at bottom)

(Photo Credit: TheaterMania)

If my reader’s couldn’t tell, I am very nostalgic about the animated Disney films of my childhood and Broadway’s Genie would have to be beyond extraordinary in order to impress me. And James Monroe Iglehart was just that.

Since then, the only other time I have seen Iglehart perform live was with Freestyle Love Supreme** back in 2016 at The Gramercy Theatre. This was only a 2 night run and they weren’t making people lock their phones into pouches so the pic below is one taken by me (hence the not amazing quality) during the bows. James Monroe Iglehart is all the way on the right (Lin-Manuel Miranda is on the far left).

He is currently playing Lafayette & Thomas Jefferson in the Broadway cast of Hamilton and I have heard rave reviews from friends of his performance. 

(Photo credit: The New York Times)

His fabulous voice can also be heard in Tangled the Series where he plays Eugene’s buddy Lance Strongbow. This cartoon made me appreciate a Disney movie that I didn’t originally think much of and it is packed full of Broadway actors as the voices. Check out Zachary Levi and James Monroe Iglehart singing together below.

Here’s hoping that I get to see the dazzling James Monroe Iglehart perform live again in a few weeks at the Delacorte Theatre!!

*He was in the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee when I saw the show in 2007 but I checked my Playbill and his understudy went on for the performance I attended.