Billboard on Broadway Podcast: Alex Lacamoire on Shaping the Sound of ‘Hamilton,’ ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ & More
Alex Lacamoire might be best known as one of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s closest collaborators, but he’s a musical jack-of-all-trades who’s been working on Broadway for years, starting out on musicals like Avenue Q and Wicked before becoming a go-to orchestrator, arranger, music director and supervisor (and, often, energetic leader of the pit orchestra), most notably for Miranda’s In the Heights and Hamilton. Following his recent third Tony win for his Dear Evan Hansen orchestrations, Lacamoire stopped by the Billboard on Broadway podcast to chat about his career and recent work.
Though Lacamoire’s arrangements contribute significantly to the ultimate sound of any show he works on, “I never really think of what I do as co-composing,” he says. “My forte is enhancing something that’s already there, working with the materials provided — that’s the clay.” He finds his job flows easiest when he’s able to work on a project from the get-go: “I actually enjoy it most at the very beginning — that’s when you get to see the show really form and really be inside of it.”
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In his conversation with host Rebecca Milzoff, Lacamoire discusses the differences in his process working with Miranda versus the team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul; his formative early experiences working on Batboy: The Musical and Wicked; how growing up a classic rock fan influenced him; and the unusual degree of fame he earned from his appearances in Hamilton’s #Ham4Ham sidewalk performances.
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