‘Incredible’: Brisbane actor Claire Abaijah-Griffin get’s big-time shot in Hamilton

A 24-year-old nursing student has become only the second Queenslander to make the cast of the hit musical Hamilton, telling how she got rejected by the show three years earlier.

She’s only the second Queenslander to make the cast of the hit musical Hamilton and Claire Abaijah-Griffin is over the moon about that.

The 24-year-old was born in Townsville and grew up in Ipswich where she attended St Mary’s College.

She now lives in Brisbane where she has been studying nursing at QUT.

But the nursing studies are now on hold and on Friday night she made her debut in the Lyric Theatre at QPAC in Hamilton, the hip hop musical about Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers.”

And Claire is in the ensemble playing a lady of the late eighteenth century America.

Mind you it took a few years to get the gig that means the world to her.

“I auditioned in 2021 and wasn’t successful,” Ms Abaijah-Griffin said.

Claire Abaijah-Griffin ahead of her debut in the musical 'Hamilton' at QPAC. Picture: Richard Walker

“They had another round of auditions late last year and I tried again.”

That set her on a path to success and when she kept getting asked back her confidence grew. She finally joined the company for rehearsals several weeks ago after being cast in the ensemble playing a lady of the late eighteenth century America, singing and dancing in a support role. She even has a few lines of dialogue.

The Hamilton cast is famously diverse and Ms Abaijah-Griffin has Papua New Guinea heritage.

Her first weekend with the company was even more exciting than she imagined due to a visit from the US by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda who came to Brisbane to see the Australian cast of his show, presented in Australia by producer Michael Cassel.

“I got to meet Lin-Manuel Miranda my first weekend,” she said. “That was incredible. It’s amazing to be part of this show and I have a few weeks in Brisbane and then I go on tour to Auckland. I’m beyond grateful and I am not throwing away my shot.”

Ms Abaijah-Griffin studied dance with the Queensland National Ballet School and has danced with Sydney Dance Company and she worked as a performer on cruise ships, a career interrupted by Covid. Then she set her sights on Hamilton and worked hard, harder again after she was rebuffed first time around.

“I was fighting for it so badly,” she said. “I knew it wasn’t a show that would wait for me. I had to do it and it’s not easy but it’s all about timing.”

Her parents, siblings and her partner were all there Friday night to see her strut her stuff on stage in a cast that includes another Brisbane local, rapper Sami Afuni, who went to Indooroopilly State High School.

“I didn’t know Sami was from Brisbane,” Ms Abaijah-Griffin said. ‘But I did see him wearing a Broncos jersey the other day.”

Hamilton is on in the Lyric Theatre at QPAC until April 23.