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NORFOLK — Actor Tyler Fauntleroy burst into tears when he, at last, landed the part.
Fauntleroy, 28, who grew up in Hampton, estimates he auditioned for the cast of the Broadway hit “Hamilton” at least 20 times, about four times each of the last five years.
Then he got it. Fauntleroy will play the gung-ho revolutionary John Laurens and Hamilton’s ill-fated son, Philip, in the national tour of “Hamilton,” which opens Tuesday in Norfolk. The show runs through April 9.
“It’s the biggest thing that I’ve ever done,” he said in a phone interview.
Performing it here is also surreal, he said.
“To have your dream come true and then to share it with the people who made me who I am — the village that made me who I am, in Hampton Roads — is amazing,” he said.
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Since its Broadway premiere in 2015, “Hamilton” has become a cultural reference point by telling the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton through hip-hop, jazz and R&B.
The show took home 11 Tony Awards in 2016 and received a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. It remains a hot ticket on Broadway and has productions in England, Germany and Australia.
“And it’s definitely the place,” Fauntleroy said, “I think a lot of actors in musical theater dream to be.”
He certainly use to dream about it.
Fauntleroy wasn’t the type to try to grab the spotlight; standing in one was more of a nightmare than a fantasy when he was a shy student at Eaton Middle School.
But he loved to sing in his church’s choir. When he was about 12, he was prodded and convinced to take on a solo in a Christmas play. It revolved around Motown stars witnessing the birth of Christ. Instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh, musical luminaries such as Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson offered up songs as gifts to the little Lord. Fauntleroy, playing Stevie Wonder, sang “Someday at Christmas.”
He was scared but performed well; he learned that he could carry a stage on his own.
“It was really kind of a turning point in my life.”
Later, he was invited to a friend’s school play. He was enthralled by the fun the kids were having singing and pretending to be other people.
“That’s where, like, the theater bug bit me.”
He tried out for every play at Bethel High and auditioned for and was accepted into the Governor’s School for Performing Arts and Humanities at Radford University one summer. As a high school senior, he auditioned and got a spot at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts where he studied acting and began pursuing “Hamilton.”
In the fall of 2015, Fauntleroy downloaded the “Hamilton” soundtrack. He felt the show was a “love letter to hip-hop” written as a classical musical theater. He was blown away and listened to it over and over again until the morning. When the show put out an audition notice that December, the young theater student responded.
He sent in a video that he recorded in his dorm singing show tunes and rapping Nas’ “If I Ruled The World.” Four months later, he received an email: “Hey, could sing the songs from our show and put those on tape and send it back to us?
“I was like, Oh, my God. Oh, shoot! Okay, okay. Oh, shoot!” he said. “So, I like scrambled” and sent in another try.
He didn’t hear back until March 2017. Fauntleroy and his advanced acting class were preparing senior showcases to be performed in New York City at the end of the term. “Hamilton” casting directors asked him if he’d like to audition — this time in person.
He did but didn’t get the part.
But, he said, “this is where it gets hilarious.”
He kept getting callbacks. He went to them all.
In one in January 2020, he finally knew that he’d absolutely nailed the performance. But the pandemic shut down Broadway a couple of months later.
He worked at regional theaters performing “Looking For Leroy” at the New Federal Theatre in New York and “Fences” at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. He also booked roles on TV shows “Succession, “FBI” and “The Oath.”
Then, last October, he took a conference call with his manager and agent who asked if he was still interested in “Hamilton.”
“They want to just offer it to you,” he recalled them saying. “It’s yours if you want it. You don’t have to come back in and do another callback.”
The actor wept.
He started rehearsals on Jan. 2 for the tour and took on the roles of Hamilton’s friend Laurens and son on Feb. 21 at a performance in Boston.
Weekend Scoop
He’s proud his persistence paid off.
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com
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If you go
When: March 28 through April 9
Where: Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Blvd., Norfolk
Tickets: Start at $49
Details: broadwayinnorfolk.com