Interview: Ebrin R. Stanley on HAMILTON's 10-Year Legacy

Ebrin R. Stanley is currently making his Broadway debut in Hamilton as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison. Stanley's journey with Hamilton began years ago when he starred in the Chicago and LA companies of Hamilton. BroadwayWorld spoke with Stanley about what it means to him to be starring on Broadway, his favorite Hamilton lyric, the production's 10-year anniversary, and more! 

 Read the full interview here and check out photography by BroadwayWorld's own Jennifer Broski!

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Hamilton has had such a cultural impact since its debut. What does it mean to you personally to be part of this show?

It means a lot. I go back to when I first heard the album, before it was released on streaming, I heard it on NPR first, where you had to listen all the way through. I just remember being in a college dorm, and I was like, ‘Man, what is this? I’m going to be in this!’ So, to be able to say that in 2015, and now in 2025 I’m living out the big dream on Broadway it means a lot. I’m at a loss for words, I’m just very grateful. Very blessed. 

How do you make this well-known role your own?

Oh, man! Making it my own, big shout out to Oak, the OG himself. I kind of just took the blueprint of what was there and was like, ‘What can I bring?’ When I first started the show in summer 2018 in Chicago, I was taking over for Wallace Smith at the time, and I remember watching Wallce Smith do the role, and I said, ‘Oh you can definitely bring your own thing.’ Because it’s kind of scary, when you’re going into the number one show in the world, and I was only 23 at the time, I was like, ‘Can I do my own thing, or do I have to do what Oak has done so famously that people fell in love with?’ And to see another actor who was in a different company put their own spin on it, I was like, ‘Great!’ 

And seven and a half years later, I think I’m just now officially really making it my own. It’s about bringing yourself to the role. If you’re not putting yourself in it in some type of way, whether that’s your heart, your mindset, or a part of you, I don’t know if you’re doing it justice. 

What do you remember most from your first night in the show ever? 

My first night in the show was a two-show day! They got me on a Saturday, and my mom and sister both came into town. And since my sister had just had my niece, they couldn’t come at the same time, so one came to the first show, and one came to the night show! And of course, at the first show I flubbed my last line in the show! I made it all the way through, no flubs, no mistakes, and then I get to the last one and I said, ‘Damn, I did it!’ I think that will always stick out to me, I was so close to having a somewhat flawless show and I flubbed my last line! I feel like that’s the right of passage in Hamilton, once you have that first flub, you’re like, welcome to the fam. 

What has surprised you the most about being part of the Broadway company of Hamilton?

That’s a great question. What surprised me most is how much more intimate it feels. Because the Richard Rodgers Theatre is a lot smaller than some of the touring houses that we perform in across the country. And I was in the sit-down companies in both Chicago and LA, and both of those theatres were so huge, and everything was so big because you wanted to reach the balcony. Where, in the Richard Rodgers, we only have the orchestra and the mezzanine, and so it’s much more intimate while we’re telling the story.

And for me, I think that helps it in a different way. Figuring out how to really hone in on storytelling and not trying to make sure that it reaches everybody, but that you trust in the gift that’s there. And live in what it was originally built in, which is an intimate theatre. It was built in The Public, which is very small. So, it made me go, ‘Wow, Hamilton, though it may seem big to a lot of people, it was built to be intimate.’

Do you have a favorite moment in the show that you look forward to every night? 

I would say my favorite moment in the show would be ‘Helpless’. I’m a sucker for a good love story. I think the way they set us up for this lovey-dovey story—because every story needs one—and then we just get our hearts broken with ‘Satisfied’ right after that, and how the staging is, and the different parts that Andy [Blankenbuehler], and Tommy [Kail] chose to depict visually, while Lin beautifully writes the lyrics, and you hear all the nuances of stuff you didn’t even realize was happening at the party… I look forward to that ‘Helpless/Satisfied’ combo every night. 

What is your favorite Hamilton lyric? 

You’re the first person to ever ask me that! There’s a lot. I think it would be “Legacy, what is a legacy?” I really do. I think as I’m getting older, and we’re living in a climate right now where you have to question a lot of things in order to figure out, ‘What is it you want your legacy to be?’ And I’m baffled some days that people are living the life that they’re going to leave one day for people to take a look at. And I’m not saying I’m perfect or anything, I’m perfectly imperfect as I like to say, and I know my trajectory of life is not pretty. But one thing that I can say when I leave this earth is that I was perfectly imperfect, which just means human. I try my best to right my wrongs, and I try my best every day to live the life that I would want my kids, if my wife and I choose to have them, to be okay with. So lately, I’ve really been stuck on “Legacy, what is a legacy?” 

Do you have anything else you’d like to share?