Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has several actors play more than one character, Okieriete Onaodown included. Onaodowan plays Hercules Mulligan in Act 1, and James Madison in Act 2. These characters couldn’t be more different from one another, so why does the same actor play them both?
Onaodowan isn’t alone in playing multiple characters — Daveed Diggs pulls off the same feet as he plays both Jefferson and Lafayette. Onaodown’s performances as Mulligan and Madison work beautifully, as each character feels completely distinct. While Mulligan is aggressive, reckless, and strong, Madison is restrained, well-mannered, and sick. It is not in spite of these differences that Onaodown’s double-casting works, but because of them.
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When asked about the double-casting in Hamilton, Miranda tweeted “I realized early that characters that were important early in his life fade away while others appear later. The double casting was so that we’d be INSTANTLY invested.” This logic checks out: when the audience sees Madison for the first time in Act 2, he is both familiar and unfamiliar. While it may be jarring to watch Onaodowan behave so differently at first, this switch does not come out of nowhere. In “Alexander Hamilton,” Onaodowan sings “We fought with him.” The double casting gives this line a double meaning: Mulligan fought alongside Hamilton, whereas Madison fought against him.
The differences between Mulligan and Madison are visible in both Hamilton‘s choreography and music. Mulligan is always in motion, flying around the stage as he roars out lines like “Lock up your daughters and horses. Of course, it’s hard to have intercourse over four sets of corsets.” Meanwhile, Madison coughs intermittently as he walks across the stage, and his voice is measured and calm throughout all of his lines — his etiquette is so intense that he rarely betrays any emotion. Madison is more sophisticated but physically weaker.
Hamilton’s shift from Mulligan to Madison highlight how fighting takes a new form in Act 2 after the war ends. Onawodown plays two characters, one who is athletic and strong, and one who is ill — but Madison is an equally formidable player because the game has changed. Seeing the same actor play these two characters emphasizes that the fight is no longer physical. Brute force no longer works. Now, Hamilton has to completely reexamine the way he approaches fighting for what he wants.
Several characters in Hamilton struggle to grapple with this change — Hamilton himself especially. As Washington says to him during “Cabinet Battle #1”, “Winning is easy, young man, governing’s harder.” The major transformation Onawodown undergoes helps the audience understand this theme before Hamilton himself can. Ultimately, Hamilton‘s double-casting is successful because it works thematically — of course, it doesn’t hurt that Onawadown can pull off both characters so masterfully.
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