Art Garfunkel Talked and Sang Through a Production of ‘Hamilton,’ Says Broadway Star Leslie Odom, Jr.
Hamilton is the hottest ticket Broadway has seen in years, with performances sold out through January 2017. But should you find yourself in the room where it happens, hope that you're not sitting next to Art Garfunkel. According to one of its stars, Garfunkel was more or less singing and talking non-stop during the first act, to the point where television producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal) nearly wanted to take one shot at him.
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night (May 28), Leslie Odom, Jr. revealed that, while on vacation from the musical last January, he decided to see the production from the audience. He and his wife wound in the V.I.P. section, where he noticed "a guy that was a little disruptive down the row. He's talking, he's singing a little bit and he's a little bit disruptive to [the] group of people in front of us. And they're getting very agitated. The woman's turning around. She said, 'Stop talking. It’s not that difficult, you don’t talk in a show!'
Odom admitted he was helpless as he didn't want to take the woman's side and risk offending somebody famous. And when the lights came up for intermission and they went to take a break, he noticed that it was Garfunkel who was singing along and Rhimes who "almost whooped Art Garfunkel's ass. ... It almost went down."
Odom plays Aaron Burr in the hip-hop-infused show about the life of Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, who was killed in an 1804 duel by -- wait for it -- Burr. The production is nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, while Odom grabbed a nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.
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