John Devereaux
John Devereaux was in a San Antonio hotel room, fresh off learning that his show’s remaining performances in the Alamo City had been canceled due to concerns over COVID-19. Despite the obvious disappointment over the all-too-common tale of canceled shows in front of sell-out crowds, Devereaux was nonetheless excited about what was around the corner: a return to the city where he studied theater. Just two weeks after my Zoom interview with Devereaux, the cast of the iconic hit Broadway music, “Hamilton,” would finally make its way to the hallowed stage of Bass Performance Hall after the troupe’s long hiatus during the pandemic.
Devereaux, a member of the ensemble — who also portrayed George Washington the night I was able to attend — is a graduate of TCU’s theater program. Driven to help people, Devereaux initially had his sights set on entering the medical field — his mother was a nurse, an upbringing that steered him toward becoming a doctor. Yet, the Houston native found he could be just as effective helping people as a performer as he could a doctor. “I realized that so many people were affected by me being on that stage.” Devereaux says. “Whether it be to make people think, laugh, or cry. It's a vulnerable moment for us.”
FW: “Hamilton” has obviously been a cultural phenomenon for the past five or six years. How does one get cast in such an iconic production?
John Devereaux: In 2016, while I was doing “Dreamgirls” at La Mirada in Los Angeles, that's when the calls for “Hamilton” started coming. That's when the first call I got was in April of 2016, and I remember thinking like, "I don't know if I want to do “Hamilton.” I don't get the whole history and rap together. But the calls kept coming in, and I was like, "Okay, you know what? I'll bite." I went in and I did the general packet. I did the thing, and it was good. It was a good audition.
And after that they just kept adding a little more, they would add another role to my packet and add another role. But by the time I got to New York, I had at least five or six auditions that I've already done with “Hamilton.” And like from just the first audition all the way to doing work sessions with the associate music director and the associate director. So, when I got to New York in early 2019, I let my agents know where I was and the next day Hamilton called and was like, "Are you available for a movement call? Are you available to do this?" I was like, "Yeah, sure."
So, I went to the dance call. And it was just me, the dance supervisor, and one other guy. I'm like, this is a final, in my background, this is a final thing. This is like it. So I do the movement call and they send it off, and then I think it was about a week later I got the call that I needed to be on the road in a week after that. So I really did only stay in New York for about three weeks before I came onto this.
FW: Something that I love about theater is the fact that every night is a live performance, so every night there's something different. I mean, it's a different experience every night for the audience. But do you experience that as a performer? I mean, are you just going through the motions or do you experience it differently every night?
JD: It's a different experience every night. Just because with acting, with performance and, again, life, we have to be in the moment. And if you're truly in the moment, you'll notice when something is different. We may be saying the same lines over and over, but it's going to be a little different. And I like being in the moment because, on stage — especially on a tour where we do this eight times a week — we get a little bored sometimes. It's like, we don't want to be just going through the motions.
So, someone will give a look that'll set off a chain reaction; someone will do something different. That's still in the realm and still appropriate. But it just changes the chemistry of the show. I love to be in tune with my castmates. I'm always looking in people's eyes. I'm always like trying to get something from somebody else because acting is reacting. But yeah, I try to keep it fresh. I try to keep it new, because I feel like if we didn't, we would go a little star crazy just on the turntable going around and around.
FW: So, somebody who doesn't have any knowledge of Hamilton or what it's about — they're just coming into it completely fresh — what can you tell us about the musical and what somebody should expect?
JD: You're going to be challenged. You're going to be in awe of certain things. And you can expect top-tier talent from my company. They’re incredible But I guess in the show itself, it's a very relatable story because it's about what we leave behind after we're gone. We don't know what comes after this. We don't know what comes after life. And we want to leave something behind and see how our choices and the things we do and the people we meet and the actions we take or don't take effect that legacy. And it's so much more than just about Hamilton. It's about the people around Hamilton. It's about the people who've affected his life and the lives he's affected. But yes, that's what you should expect.
