10 Years Later, This Original Cast Member of Broadway's 'Hamilton' Is Still in the Room Where It Happens (Exclusive)
Thayne Jasperson has remained a steady in Broadway's Hamilton since it opened 10 years ago
The actor tells PEOPLE he "knew he had to be part of" the musical when he first began working on it during its workshops
Tickets for Hamilton are now on saleOn the tenth anniversary of Hamilton raising its curtains on Broadway, one original cast member remains — and he has no plans of throwing away his shot.
Thayne Jasperson hasn't always been the 'stick-around' type. 'I did Newsies for a year, Matilda for a year, Finding Neverland for six months and the West Side Story tour for a year,' the 45-year-old actor, singer and dancer tells PEOPLE. 'I was the year guy.'
That all changed when Jasperson joined the early workshops for a new Off-Broadway musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton. The show would soon become Hamilton, the cultural phenomenon still in performances at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre.
"I knew Hamilton was going to be epic, so I knew I had to be part of it," Jasperson recalls of joining the ensemble and portraying the scene-stealing loyalist, Bishop Samuel Seabury.
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So why did he make it past a year? 'I couldn't leave before the Tonys, then it was the Grammys, then we were filming it [for Disney+], now we have all of these people coming..." he says. "I just couldn't leave."
"Did I know Obama or Beyoncé would show up to the show? No,' he adds with a laugh. 'But it's become this huge, epic thing that's kept me tied in. I always tell Lin [Manuel Miranda], 'You wrote too good of a show… I can't leave.' "
Miranda affectionately calls Jasperson 'the ghost of the Richard Rodgers,' and for good reason. Some of the performer's fondest memories live in the walls, staircases and, of course, the stage of the theater.
'I remember our Eliza [Phillipa Soo] and I used to run up and down the stairs singing, 'I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with a wonderful guy,' just because,' he says. 'There was a group of us — me, [James] Madison [Okieriete Onaodowan] and two of the other ensemble boys — who all had longboards and would just skateboard through the streets downtown. I mean, there were a million amazing memories.'
But with time came change, and not all of it was easy. 'The first change that was actually a hard one for me was when Hamilton became a bigger thing,' he admits. 'At first, we were this singular story; nobody else knew the words, no information, no video and I loved it when it was like that. Then it became this huge thing with casts around the country, and I had a hard time with that. But what's beautiful is that the story is so relatable.'
Ten years later, Hamilton remains one of Broadway's most beloved shows, and Jasperson believes its staying power lies in how universal the material is. 'I think it's just the relatability mixed with truth,' he tells PEOPLE. 'It makes people proud of the country that was formed. They still have pride in what we've been able to do with the separation from the UK… That relatability keeps people coming back.'
With a decades-worth of performance experience behind him, Jasperson says Hamilton taught him one of life's most powerful lessons: having faith in yourself.
'Hope in yourself is important,' he says. 'When I moved here with a one-way ticket, I stood in Times Square, set my suitcase down and my spirit was like, 'This is where you're meant to be. This is it. I had started my destination on Broadway, and I was gonna do it.'
What's next for Jasperson? The future is unwritten, he says, and that's exactly how he likes it.
'You're gonna be wheeling me out in a wheelchair. I'm gonna be 82, and they'll be like, 'Get off the stage!'' he jokes. 'So what's next is more of this. I don't have a plan. I'm trying to be spontaneous and live in the moment. When something feels right, I move with it. This is where I'm meant to be. And I want to always be ready to move to my life's mission, whatever it may be.'
Tickets for Hamilton are now on sale.
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