Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, Tick…Boom! featured a plethora of cameos from dozens of musical theater legends, most notably director Miranda’s fellow Hamilton cast members. An homage to both old school Broadway and the new school of musical theater the movie has cameos from many of the principal leads of Hamilton (mostly in one pivotal diner scene) and nods to the creative powerhouses that wrote some of Broadway’s most memorable shows. A love letter to both past and present, Tick, Tick…Boom! undoubtedly strikes a chord with those who love both the historical hip-hop phenomenon and classic musical theater.
Following the autobiographical story of composer Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield), the well-reviewed Tick, Tick…Boom! centers around the struggling artist as he attempts to write a project he calls the future of American musical theater while toiling away at a mind-numbing diner job. This diner is a major set piece for the film, and is directly based on the Moondance Diner that once watched over NYC’s SoHo neighborhood. It’s also the set piece that allows the majority of the Hamilton cast to make cameos during an extended fantasy sequence in which Larson imagines the diner bursting into song in an homage to Stephen Sondheim’s pivotal musical Sunday in the Park with George.
While the sequence is populated with dozens of other musical theater cameos, it’s in this scene (and one other pivotal sequence towards the film’s climax) that original Hamilton cast members Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and even Lin-Manuel Miranda appear. Surrounded by other Broadway legends like Bernadette Peters, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Chita Rivera, the Hamilton cast helps serenade Garfield’s Larson toward bringing harmony to the chaotic diner during Sunday brunch. Here’s a breakdown of all the Hamilton cast cameos in Tick, Tick…Boom! and their roles in both Hamilton and the Netflix film.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Most notably, the film’s director and writer/star of Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda appears in this fantasy sequence as a line cook for the diner. As Larson and his fellow wait staff struggle to keep up with the Sunday rush, Miranda serves as the diner’s line cook, hurriedly preparing food for the packed restaurant. Miranda also serves as the director of Tick, Tick…Boom! as well as star and creator of his most popular musical Hamilton, where he played the titular founding father.
Phillipa Soo
Tony-nominated actress Phillipa Soo also appears in the diner sequence as one of the Moondance’s unbearably demanding patrons. In Hamilton, Soo appears as the wife of Alexander, Elizabeth “Eliza” Hamilton née Schuyler. In Tick, Tick…Boom! Soo also gets the chance to show off her vocal chops as the diner magically transforms into a musical showcase for Larson’s creative genius.
Renée Elise Goldsberry
Tony-Award-winning actress Renée Elise Goldsberry appears opposite Soo as another diner patron in the same Tick, Tick…Boom! song and sequence. She contributes to the manic energy of the diner’s over-populated and under-staffed brunch service. In Hamilton she plays the scene-stealing Angelica Schuyler, Eliza’s sister and unrequited admirer of Miranda’s Hamilton.
Christopher Jackson
Finally, Christopher Jackson appears as a member of the audience in Larson’s climactic final performance in Tick, Tick…Boom!‘s ending. Starring in Hamilton as America’s most famous founding father George Washington, Jackson makes a cameo during Larson’s emotional performance of “Louder Than Words,” Tick, Tick…Boom!’s final anthem. He appears alongside Bradley Whitford, who appears as Larson’s inspiration and mentor Stephen Sondheim, both there to cheer Larson on in the film’s final moments.
