BASSO’S FRONT OF HOUSE: “Hamilton” actress Phillipa Soo was still reeling from Monday’s simulcast performance she and the rest of the Broadway show’s cast delivered from the Richard Rodgers Theater during the Grammys. Before Tuesday’s Dennis Basso show, she said, “It was kind of amazing to take a moment to pause to see how far we’ve come.”
Instead of showing up an hour before the curtain went down, as is typically the norm, Soo and the rest of the troupe were in the house at noon. More than 25 million people got a glimpse of Soo as Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton and the rest of the cast in the sold-out musical Monday night. “There was an audience full of people in our own theater so we felt comfortable. The only thing that was different was the cameras. It was kind of like a normal night but there were lots of people in on it,” she said.
Afterwards, the actors hit The Glass House Tavern to celebrate and “everyone was really effusive about how we put a lot of work into this. I particularly was just so happy for Lin[-Manuel Miranda] and Alex Lacamoire. Alex was mixing for weeks and weeks and weeks, working on the album.”
Flooded with her share of ticket requests, Soo never has any to give away, but has helped wrangle some here and there, depending on what’s available. Having been involved with the production for two years, the Chicago-born actress has no plans to move on any time soon. “For now, we’re all there, or mostly all there, ongoing. I’m kind of just living and enjoying having a steady job,” she said.
Seated beside Soo was another Broadway standout, Ana Villafañe, the lead actress in “On Your Feet” the musical about and created by Gloria Estefan and her husband Emilio. Playing a lead character who is still alive is “a different kind of responsibility,” Villafañe said. “I think I’ve learned a lot as an actress because I want to apply that same level of respect for the woman I play to any other character. I feel like my job is to honor and celebrate someone’s life and her accomplishments. It’s amazing because I’ve gotten to know Gloria so well that I can actually apply what I know now about her as a human being. I put that on stage in little nuances in the way she carries herself, the way she uses her hands, those types of things. It feels very cool because there is a full-on transformation that I feel from knowing her personally.”
Estefan and her husband have been “very welcoming in treating” Villafañe as if she is part of their family. Before opening night, the Estefans invited the actress to family dinners, birthday celebrations. “I would be sitting with them. I had presumed that I would be sitting on the outside or at the kids’ table. They’ve been very open and authentic with me,” the actress said.
“I think people would be surprised to learn how much Gloria kept bottled up for years. There’s a vulnerability that is exposed in the show which was really catapulted. After the accident, she started letting her thoughts out a little bit more and taking more control,” she said, referring to the 1990 tour bus accident that left the Cuba-born Estefan with a broken back and threatened her ability to walk.
Villafañe said, “But she and Emilio have a really beautiful partnership, and he lifted her up so much. And she kind of just ran with it. It’s a beautiful love story in that way.”