“Hamilton” has been taking Broadway by storm since August 9, 2015. This A-Ham craze came to Little Rock, Arkansas this month. The show opened February 8th and will run through the 20th.

The Angelica cast of the show’s touring company was the group to take the stage during the show’s run in Little Rock.

The matinee performance on Sunday February 13 marked a monumental occasion for the cast—it was their 1400th show to perform! The cast celebrated this occasion with gold balloons and cake backstage before the show.

However, this celebratory occasion didn’t mean that each cast member had personally performed in every one of those shows. That would be impossible due to sickness (que the pandemic), fatigue, vocal strain, and actors simply taking leave.

But the show must go on, even when cast members are not there. How is this accomplished?

Thanks to three very important groups of cast members, the standbys, swings and understudies, the cast of every show is full of talent, even when originally cast members are absent.

A standby cast member only performs in the show when the actor’s character they are on standby for has to be absent. Standbys usually only exist for lead characters.

An understudy will perform in a role when a standby is unavailable, or one is not cast for the character that needs to be covered. An understudy is also usually a member of the show’s ensemble.

A swing is a cast member who only performs when they are needed in as many as 12 different possible roles, they have to be ready to “swing” into any role they are contracted for.

This program filler was stuffed in last Sunday evening’s playbill. It was a necessary addition to the program because there were several understudies, standbys, and swings performing in place of the cast list that was originally printed.

Deejay Young, a standby for Alexander Hamilton performed in place of Edred Utomi. An understudy, John Devereaux, performed the roles of Hercules Mulligan and James Madison instead of Tyler Belo. The roles of Philip Schuyler, James Reynolds, and the doctor were played by a swing cast member, Connor Wince. Those roles are normally filled by Will T. Travis. Jacob Guzman played Charles Lee in the Sunday evening performance; Robbie Nicholson is originally cast in the role.

These cast members graced the stage with their amazing stage presence and made my experience feel truly historic.

I was amazed at how much the cast sounded like the original cast recordings of the soundtrack. Even with multiple understudies, standbys, and swings filling the cast Sunday evening the integrity of the show was not affected.

If not for the little white slip of paper in the program I would not have noticed or known that there were performers taking the stage in roles they didn’t usually do. The presence of these fill-ins enables the show to go on, with no hindrance to the production. This is mind blowing to me and proves the talent and versatility of the artists.

This performance was the first time I had seen “Hamilton” live. I can say with certainty that the Disney+ recording of the show does not compare to being in the actual “room where it happened”.