My Hopeful Prediction for Daveed Diggs As He Departs Hamilton in NYC

Today is Daveed Diggs' last day with the cast of Hamilton in the New York production. Here's my hopeful prediction:

Daveed will take several months off, and then join the cast for Hamilton's run in San Francisco and LA next Spring and Summer.

Daveed is Miles' favorite person in the show. Daveed's dual parts (General Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson) have captivated Miles he listens for the nuances in each of Daveed's lines: the funny ways Daveed pronounces certain words (like whiskey), the way he punctuates his line to the State of Virginia by blowing a kiss, and his dazzling raps among other distinctly Diggsian touches. When Miles and his friend Ari audiotaped themselves doing the first Hamilton and Jefferson rap battle from the show, Miles played Jefferson.

It turns out we have a connection with Daveed Diggs through James Lick Middle School. Until 2012 or so, Daveed was teaching a Spoken Word afterschool program at the school, and although he and Miles didn't overlap, we knew that the teacher who had been Daveed's main contact at the school, had also been a favorite teacher of Miles. (Miss Hacker had sent me a picture of herself backstage with Daveed taken last summer - with Vice President Joe Biden in the background!)

On our second night hanging at the stage door at the Richard Rogers, Daveed Diggs came out and proceeded to make his way through the gauntlet of fans, signing several hundred autographs. Miles had left his $2 bill in the hotel room so we weren't seeking an autograph but he inched through the crowd and as Daveed got close Miles said  "I'm from James Lick Middle School!" Daveed stopped.  He looked at Miles, smiled his giant smile, and running his hand through his bushy locks, said "You're from James Lick? Shiiit!"

"I graduated Tuesday," Miles told him. "Miss Hacker was my 7th grade English teacher."

The interaction seemed to connect Daveed back to the Bay Area for a moment bringing in a sense of familiarity, a kid from James Lick? "What? you know Miss Hacker?  Say hi to her for me! Where are you going to High School?" Daveed took a break from the intensity of signing and chatted with Miles while the throngs of people around us waited and wondered.

Later that week we remembered the $2 bill and inched through the crowd again for the signature.

See Daveed Diggs, as super Dapper Dude in this Esquire article from May.  http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a45240/daveed-diggs-profile-hamilton/