‘We’re on the same team’: Simon Longnight reprises role in ‘Hamilton,’ as tour comes to Spokane

The last time performer Simon Longnight was on stage at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, he was walking at his high school graduation.

Just over a decade later, Longnight is back at the Hult Center, this time as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the international sensation “Hamilton.”

“I walked on that stage for graduation, so it’s going to be a fun full circle getting to live out my wildest dreams playing a character that I’ve always wanted to play,” he said.

After returning to his Oregon stomping grounds, “Hamilton” will bring Longnight to Spokane when the musical opens Tuesday at the First Interstate Center for the Arts and runs through April 20.

“Hamilton” features a book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda based the musical on the book “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow.

Upon its premiere in 2015, “Hamilton” became a near-instant success, moving from off-Broadway to Broadway and launching national tours and productions in the West End, Australia and Hamburg.

The show opens with Aaron Burr (Deon’te Goodman), acting as a narrator throughout the show, telling audiences about the difficult upbringing Alexander Hamilton (Blaine Alden Krauss) had on the island of St. Croix before he immigrated to New York City.

It’s while at King’s College that Hamilton meets Burr, John Laurens (Lucas Hinds Babcock, who also plays Philip Hamilton), Marquis de Lafayette (Longnight) and Hercules Mulligan (Eddie Ortega), whom he impresses with his way with words and hopes for the future.

Laurens, de Lafayette and Mulligan share Hamilton’s hopes, but Burr remains apprehensive about their plans.

We then meet the Schuyler sisters – Peggy (Candace Quarrels), Angelica (Jisel Soleil Ayon) and Eliza (Kendyl Sayuri Yokayama). The three are excited about the upcoming revolution, though loyalist bishop Samuel Seabury argues against it, and King George III (Paul Louis Lessard) is sure the colonists will come crawling back to him.

Soon after accepting a position as George Washington’s (Kameron Richardson) “Right Hand Man,” Hamilton meets and falls in love with Eliza, who returns his affections. Their wedding is a happy moment quickly followed by worsening conditions for Continental Army and a duel between Laurens and Charles Lee, which results in Washington temporarily suspending Hamilton from the army.

Eliza, pregnant with their first child, tells Hamilton he should slow down, but Lafayette convinces Washington to bring Hamilton back. At Yorktown, Hamilton and Lafayette work to bring down the British, with Mulligan’s help.

After victory, Hamilton and Burr enjoy fatherhood and continue working as lawyers, with Hamilton gaining influence with his writing. Eliza once again asks Hamilton to slow down.

The second act begins with Thomas Jefferson (Longnight) and James Madison (Ortega) arguing against Hamilton’s financial plans. While away with family and working on a potential compromise, Hamilton begins an affair with Maria Reynolds (Quarrels).

After Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison reach a compromise, Burr expresses his envy of Hamilton’s political sway. He switches parties and ends up defeating Hamilton’s father-in-law for a place in the Senate.

Things continue to get difficult for Hamilton, especially after Washington steps down as president and Jefferson, Madison and Burr confront Hamilton about his affair.

The cast also features Travante S. Baker, Zach Bravo, Brittany Campbell, Stephen Carrasco, John Devereaux, Nicole deRoux, Malachi Durant, Victoria Fiore, Lili Froehlich, Cyndal Gilmore, Tristan Hall, Sabrina Imamura, Jorrel Javier, Dharon Jones, Kourtney Keitt, Alexa Magro, Vanessa Magula, Josh Marin, Terrance Martin, Taeko McCarroll, Tyler McKenzie, Alex Nicholson and Nick Sanchez.

Though he grew up watching musicals like “Cats” and films like “Singing in the Rain” with his mothers, Longnight was an athlete before he was a performer.

After he “got bored swimming back and forth,” Longnight’s parents enrolled him in a free ballet class for boys at the Oregon Ballet Academy that he said changed his life.

“It showed me a new way of expressing myself,” he said. “It opened my eyes to what it feels like and what it looks like to be an artist and really apply myself to being an artist.”

From there, Longnight joined Actors Cabaret of Eugene, a dinner theater, and participated in high school theater. After graduating, he studied musical theater at the University of Michigan.

One of Longnight’s first professional gigs after college was the “And Peggy” tour of “Hamilton,” which marked the show’s first time in Puerto Rico and Miranda’s return to the title role.

Performing with Miranda, who Longnight said is an extremely kind man who allowed him to make the characters his own, and in front of such excited audiences was “wilder than (his) wildest dreams.”

“I felt like I was part of something special, which was really, really an incredible and life-changing experience,” he said.

After the show’s run in Puerto Rico, the company set down roots in San Francisco. Longnight was then part of the group who started the “Hamilton” company in Los Angeles. The day before the L.A. company was supposed to open, however, COVID forced the team to hit pause.

The L.A. company eventually ran for about seven months before closing in March 2022.

Then living in Los Angeles, Longnight booked a few commercials and a seven-episode stint as Hendrix on “The L Word: Generation Q.”

Life then took him to New York and after some time, Longnight felt like he was in a good place to return to “Hamilton.” He got in contact with the show and asked if there were any openings on the horizon.

It turned out that Longnight, who said he would have taken any role with the show, had called at the right time and would soon be able to reprise his role of de Lafayette and Jefferson on the national tour.

Longnight was inspired by Daveed Diggs’ take on de Lafayette and Jefferson, though he was also excited to do his own research to better understand the characters he was playing. He started with the resources offered through Edu-Ham, or the Hamilton Education Program, which was created to bring history to life for high school students.

Both Lafayette and Jefferson, Longnight said, were two very different people with their own desires and fears, but they shared a hope for a better future. With both roles then, Longnight gets to bring out different sides of himself.

Longnight enjoys playing into the revolutionary aspect of de Lafayette in the first act and the idea, “If we don’t all win this, we all lose.” In the second act, Longnight, as Jefferson, is focused on his own personal happiness while being confronted with Hamilton, who challenges his opinions.

“Lin and the original team did a great job of really creating these human characters from these historical figures who oftentimes can be viewed without their humanity, can just be viewed as names in a history book,” he said. “But I feel like the show does an amazing job making these people accessible, and you can empathize in certain ways with their pursuits and their plights. … It asks all audience members to have empathy for the founders of this country, and also the Black and Brown bodies on that stage, portraying those founders and using music that is historically Black and Brown, like R&B, to tell this story.”

Since its 2015 debut, “Hamilton” has been described as “America today, presenting America then.” Longnight said the team behind the show is hopeful that by seeing “Hamilton,” audiences can gain “a better understanding of the humanity it took to create the revolution.”

That understanding, Longnight hopes, will extend to the people of color telling the story.

“I hope that audiences can see these Black and Brown bodies presenting a revolution that we as American citizens can agree on and be like, ‘Oh, I feel empathy for people who may look different from me,’ and know that we’re on the same team.”