If you’ve ever been in a musical or play, you’ve probably had that pre-show nightmare where you’re forced to go on without knowing any of your lines or blocking. Chances are though, you’ve never come as close to living that nightmare as Erin Ramirez has.
Ramirez officially joined the touring cast of “Hamilton” last October, taking on the ensemble role of Woman 5 and understudying all three Schuyler sisters. Her “Hamilton” journey started on Oct. 16 in New York City, where she was fitted for costumes and began work on her first track – the Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds role. That week, she worked on her own with a music supervisor and a dance supervisor, later joining the company in Chicago on Oct. 23.
That first full week of rehearsal wasn’t quite as intensive as Ramirez thought it might be, but she wasn’t worried. Her debut date wasn’t until Dec. 8, so she had plenty of time to learn everything.
“I was told, once you get your boots on the ground on the tour, they’re going to really go over everything with you,” she said. “You’re going to have opportunities to do this stuff hundreds of times before you actually are going to perform it.”
Ramirez finished learning the blocking for the show on the evening of Oct. 28. The next morning, she was planning on heading over to the theater to watch the matinee performance – a friend was making their debut, and she wanted to be supportive. But around 11:30 a.m., she got a call from the stage manager. Turns out, there had been a COVID outbreak among some members of the cast. That in combination with some vacation and personal days had created the perfect storm.
“We’re in a bit of a sticky situation,” Ramirez remembered the stage manager saying. “I’m calling to ask if there’s any way you would be willing to possibly do an emergency Peggy debut today for the matinee.”
She was shocked. She had only had a few rehearsals, pretty much all on her own. She hadn’t yet stepped foot on the stage or the famous turntable that gives “Hamilton” so much of its incredible visuals and choreography. But she immediately went into adrenaline mode. Before she was in “Hamilton,” Ramirez was an alternate in the national tour of “Six,” a musical retelling of the wives of King Henry VIII. She covered three queens, and had to be ready to do any of them at any given moment. She knew that would be able to take on this challenge just as successfully – she just didn’t know how quite yet.
“I learned through [“Six”] that a lot of the time, when something feels impossible, it doesn’t mean that it is,” Ramirez said. “A lot of the time, if you’re just looking at the next thing in front of you, you can find yourself at the end of something you never thought you could do.”
The matinee started at 2 p.m., so there was no time to lose. She got to the theater as quickly as possible, where the wardrobe supervisor cobbled together costumes for her (her costumes and wigs had not yet arrived in Chicago). Then, Ramirez had an emergency rehearsal with the other Schuyler sisters, the dance captains, and other members of the ensemble, focusing on Peggy/Maria’s key moments.
“I remember everyone just sort of holding their breath listening to me to hear if this was something I was ready to do,” Ramirez said. “I just kept hearing people be like, ‘I would have said no.’”
Even if they would have said no, they weren’t about to let Ramirez do this without moral support. If you’ve ever seen “Hamilton,” you know that even when characters like Peggy Schuyler aren’t the center of attention, they might still be still on stage – entering from different levels, doing choreography in the background of a number, always on the move. Ramirez said she felt keyed into her role when it came to the bigger numbers, but she was a little more worried about those smaller moments. Luckily, she had some help – the actress playing Angelica Schuyler that day was a standby who covers Peggy/Maria as well.
“She was able to help me number by number,” Ramirez said. “She said she felt like she did two tracks that way, which I so appreciate.”
Every member of the cast was helpful in their own way. If they weren’t giving Ramirez advice, they were serving as her personal hype team for the show.
“There was this challenge in front of me, but I didn’t feel an added challenge of getting along with the company, or impressing the company at all, because I could feel them all on my team,” she said.
Of course, not everything went perfectly. Ramirez’s dress ripped at one point, she missed some entrances, she tripped. But nothing went wrong that anyone would actually notice, and those imperfections were minor compared to what she was able to accomplish.
“I didn’t have the capacity to be stressed. I didn’t have the brain power to think about how crazy of a situation this was,” Ramirez said. “I was just like, okay – what’s the next thing in front of me?”
Since that fateful day, Ramirez has had the opportunity to play Peggy/Maria with a full slate of rehearsals under her belt and her own costumes and wigs. You can see Ramirez and the rest of the cast in “Hamilton” at the Fox Theatre from Jan. 30 – Feb. 25.
