Hamilton hits Brisbane with hopes for a holiday

Jason Arrow stars as Alexander Hamilton in the hit musical Hamilton and he and fellow cast members plan to turn their Brisbane season into a working holiday.

The Australian cast of Hamilton Olivia Carniato, Julian Kuo, Callan Purcell, Sami Afuni, Jason Arrow, and Shewit Belay, in Brisbane before their opening show at QPAC. Picture Lachie Millard

Hamilton star Jason Arrow has a hectic season ahead of him in Brisbane but hopes for a vacation too.

Arrow, 33, plays one of America’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, in the hit musical featuring a score that blends hip hop, jazz, R&B and Broadway tunes and features a diverse cast of talented Australians. It has won numerous awards.

Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda played the lead role on Broadway and won a Pulitzer Prize for writing the show. He’s happy to have an Australian cast here and Jason Arrow is happy about that too.

And even happier to be in Brisbane where he and fellow cast members caught up with fans at a special event at QPAC Tuesday before going into rehearsals ahead of previews starting Friday with a glittering opening night planned for Tuesday.

Jason Arrow leads the cast of Hamilton Picture: Daniel Boud

South African-born Arrow says he and the cast are thrilled to be in Brisbane which he is treating as kind of a vacation despite having to do eight shows a week.

“Brisbane is a beautiful place to have a working holiday,” Arrow says. “I want to wander around South Bank, try the restaurants, find some nice parks.” The avid jazz fan also hopes he might attend a gig or two on his two nights off each week.

“I’ve only been to Brisbane once before when I was starring in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical a few years back,” he says. “I think it’s a great place to end a tour.”

For Arrow it’s the role of a lifetime earlier than expected.

“I didn’t expect to get a show of this calibre for some years,” Arrow says. “It’s only my third show after all. I thought something like this might happen a little further on.” But he’s not complaining.

Neither is the show’s Australian producer Michael Cassel who says it has been hugely successful in Sydney and Melbourne but Brisbane is next level. He expects the level of enthusiasm for the show in the Queensland capital to be at “fever pitch” by opening night. He won’t say exactly how ticket sales are going but he’s all smiles which is a good indication that they are hitting box office targets.

Australian producer Michael Cassel says Brisbane is mad for HAMILTON. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

“Brisbane hasn’t let us down,” Cassel says. “This city has a great love of musical theatre and when we announced the show was coming to Australia there was an outpouring of requests from here saying - please bring it to Brisbane.”

So they did. The bad news is that it has to wrap up on April 2 because it then begins its international tour in New Zealand where Jason Arrow is again leading the ensemble.

But as he and others point out everyone in this diversely casted show is a star and locals can’t wait to see former Indooroopilly State High School student, rapper Sami Afuni, on stage in his home town for his first ever theatrical appearance.

And as for a show that has the same name as one of Brisbane’s prestige suburbs, well, that’s a nice coincidence and Michael Cassel says there has to be a photo opportunity around that.

qpac.com.au