Newburgh Graduate Starring in Broadway Smash ‘Hamilton’

A Newburgh Free Academy graduate landed a leading role on a hit Broadway play.

2002 NFA graduate Lexi Lawson was selected to take over for Phillipa Soo in the role of Eliza in Hamilton. The role of Eliza, the wife of Alexander Hamilton, is billed as the leading female role in the play.

This will mark Lawson’s first Broadway play. She’s previously held the leading role of Vanessa in the national tour of the Tony-winning Best Musical In The Heights. She also played Mimi in a tour of Rent.

Lawson’s first performance is scheduled for Monday.

Hamilton has been a smash hit on Broadway. The play won 11 Tony Awards last month, including Best Musical, Score, Book of a Musical, Direction of a Musical, Choreography and Orchestrations.

The show has been playing in front of sold out audiences since it began last summer. It’s sold out for months in advance, earning $86 million to date, according to the Hollywood reporter.

Hamilton is based on Ron Chernow's biography of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War. The show mixes jazz, blues, rap, R&B and Broadway, according to Broadway World.