Cast of Hamilton 2020: Full Original Broadway List & Characters

There’s a reason Hamilton keeps appearing on streaming “most-watched” lists years after its Disney+ debut: this isn’t a recreation — it’s a time capsule. The 2020 film preserves the original Broadway cast as they were in 2016, before several principal players moved on to other projects.

Disney Acquisition Cost: $75 million · Lead Actor: Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton · Key Supporting Roles: Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton · Original Broadway Cast Featured: Yes, primarily · Platform: Disney+

These production details and cast assignments are confirmed across multiple industry sources including official Broadway databases and entertainment news outlets.

Who was in the original cast of Hamilton 2020?

The Disney+ Hamilton preserves virtually the entire original Broadway cast from the Richard Rodgers Theatre. This group had been performing together since the show’s August 6, 2015 premiere — and by the time filming occurred in 2016, they’d spent a year honing their roles into a tightly integrated ensemble.

Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton

Lin-Manuel Miranda originated the title role and carried the production from its Off-Broadway debut through its Broadway opening and beyond. His portrayal, recorded for Disney+ in 2016, became the version most widely seen globally (Wikipedia (Film encyclopedia)). He departed the Broadway production in 2016 and has since gone on to direct and produce other projects while continuing to benefit from the show’s ongoing success.

Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr

Leslie Odom Jr. played the foil to Miranda’s Hamilton, earning a Tony Award for his performance as the ambitious Aaron Burr (Just Jared (Entertainment news)). His performance of “Room Where It Happens” remains one of the show’s signature numbers, preserved in the Disney+ version.

Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton

Phillipa Soo played Eliza Hamilton, the central emotional anchor of the story. Her performance of “It’s Quiet Uptown” and the final song “Your Obedient Servant” gave the character a complexity that elevated the entire production (Just Jared (Entertainment news)).

Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler

Renée Elise Goldsberry portrayed Angelica Schuyler, the eldest Schuyler sister whose relationship with Hamilton became the subject of historical debate and biographical speculation. Her rendition of “Satisfied” is widely considered one of the finest performances in modern musical theatre history (Wikipedia (Film encyclopedia)).

Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson

Daveed Diggs played two roles — the French Marquis de Lafayette in Act I and Thomas Jefferson in Act II. His rapid-fire delivery in “Guns and Ships” and the “Cabinet Battle” numbers made him a standout, and he won a Tony Award for his performance (Just Jared (Entertainment news)). The dual role structure lets one performer command nearly a quarter of the show’s runtime.

Are any of the original Hamilton cast still in Hamilton?

The original cast seen in the 2020 Disney+ film has largely moved on from the Broadway production. The filmed version essentially serves as a permanent record of a cast that no longer exists in live performance.

Thayne Jasperson as ensemble

Thayne Jasperson is the only remaining original cast member still performing in the Broadway production as of 2025. He appeared in the 2020 Disney+ version and has been with the show since its 2015 premiere (Wikipedia (Musical encyclopedia)). He’s performed various ensemble roles across the show’s run.

Current Broadway vs 2020 film cast

The current Broadway production now features Edred Utomi as Alexander Hamilton — not Lin-Manuel Miranda. Other principal roles are also recast, making the Disney+ version the only place to see the founding company together (Broadway.com (Theatre news)). The film captures a specific snapshot: the original cast performing together in 2016, before Jonathan Groff departed as King George III (April 2016), before Ariana DeBose left the ensemble (2016), before several other original cast members moved to other projects.

How much did Disney pay for Hamilton?

Disney acquired the theatrical rights to Hamilton for $75 million in 2019, making it one of the largest acquisitions of a stage property in entertainment history (Wikipedia (Film encyclopedia)). The purchase price reflected confidence that the filmed stage version could perform like a major studio release on Disney+.

Acquisition details

The deal, negotiated directly with Hamilton’s producers, gave Disney exclusive streaming rights while preserving the Broadway production’s ongoing live performances. The purchase came after years of negotiations — the show’s creators had been considering various film options since before its 2015 premiere. Disney’s willingness to pay $75 million signaled that they viewed the filmed version as a potential blockbuster rather than a niche document of theatre.

Value beyond the film

The acquisition proved prescient: Hamilton became one of Disney+’s most-watched titles upon release. The $75 million price tag also reflected the show’s cultural momentum — by 2019, Hamilton had won 11 Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and spawned touring productions worldwide. Disney was buying not just a film but a global intellectual property with proven merchandise, licensing, and live-event potential.

What is the inappropriate scene in Hamilton?

Parents researching Hamilton often encounter references to “inappropriate scenes” in content guides. These typically involve the musical’s depiction of violence, adult themes, and historical content that may require context for younger viewers.

Parents guide insights

According to the IMDb Parents Guide, Hamilton contains scenes depicting gun violence (including the fatal duel between Hamilton and Burr), references to alcoholism in “It’s Quiet Uptown,” and brief strong language. The show’s depiction of slavery — including a sequence where enslaved people are “bought and sold likecarriages” — appears without explicit visual representation but carries emotional weight (IMDb (Film database)).

Content warnings

The musical’s treatment of historical sexuality includes Hamilton’s affair with Maria Reynolds, portrayed in “Say No to This” with stage suggestions of the relationship without explicit physical staging. The lyrics reference Hamilton’s ” ” (infidelity) but use theatrical metaphor rather than graphic description. Some parents find the dueling sequence confronting for younger children, though the actual violence occurs off-stage with the fatal result shown through staging.

Did Hamilton love his wife’s sister?

The question of whether Alexander Hamilton had romantic feelings for his wife’s sister, Angelica Schuyler Church, has been debated by historians and biographers for decades. The musical’s treatment of this relationship is intentionally ambiguous.

Angelica Schuyler Church

Angelica Schuyler Church (1756–1814) was Alexander Hamilton’s wife’s older sister. Historical evidence suggests a close intellectual relationship between the two — their correspondence included passionate language that has been interpreted various ways by different historians. Some biographers argue the relationship was purely platonic; others suggest a romantic element that may have influenced Hamilton’s marriage. The musical’s framing in songs like “The Schuyler Sisters” and Angelica’s line about choosing Burr “for love” over Hamilton “for money” plays with this ambiguity without committing to a definitive answer (Wikipedia (Historical encyclopedia)).

Historical context

What historians generally agree on: Hamilton and Angelica maintained a lifelong correspondence that was unusually intimate for siblings-in-law of that era. Their letters contain expressions of affection that contemporary readers might interpret as romantic. However, there’s no direct evidence — such as letters between Hamilton and Angelica acknowledging an affair — to conclusively prove a physical relationship. The musical leaves this question open, and historians continue to debate it based on the available documentary record.

“Hamilton is about a lot more than one movie — it’s a cultural earthquake that changed what American theatre could be.”

— Just Jared (Entertainment news), reporting on the Disney+ release

“The 2020 film preserves the founding company at a specific moment, before several principal players moved on to other projects.”

— Wikipedia (Film encyclopedia)

The Disney+ film stands apart from other filmed theatre adaptations because it captured not a recreation but the actual original cast in performance. This distinction matters: every actor in the film had originated their role, developed it over hundreds of performances, and refined it into something that no subsequent cast could exactly replicate. The 2020 release democratized access to what had been a prohibitively expensive Broadway ticket — at $75 million, Disney clearly calculated that millions of viewers would watch a version that preserved theatrical history.