Marja Harmon didn’t grow up dreaming of Broadway. In fact, as a theatre and music industry student at the University of Southern California, she avoided the school’s lone annual musical.
“I just wasn’t into the material!” she asserts.
Instead, Harmon built her career from the outside in—auditioning for regional productions while still in school, landing her first national tour as Aida straight out of college, and eventually making the move to New York City.
This summer, Harmon’s name tops the playbill for the long-awaited Montreal debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit Hamilton, a hip-hop-driven musical phenomenon. Harmon portrays Angelica Schuyler—sister-in-law and confidante to the titular character, Alexander Hamilton.
And she doesn’t take the stage to play a symbol, she says, but to bring a full-bodied woman—sharp and layered—to life.
“Angelica is enigmatic, brilliant, funny, sexy,” she describes. “She’s ahead of her time. And for me, it was the first time I saw myself—a Black woman—represented in that way in theatre.”
The role demands both emotional intelligence and exacting physicality. Night after night, Harmon delivers breathless precision with commanding presence: rapping, reacting, dancing, and holding the center with powerful poise.
Offstage, her routine is designed to sustain that rhythm. Days begin quietly: bodywork, vocal rest, self-care. Then come moments of exploration.
During a short visit to Montreal while touring Hamilton in Toronto last year, Harmon discovered Little Italy and dined at Mon Lapin. The city made an impression.
“It was beautiful. Just walking around, Montreal has this magic.”
Harmon carries that sense of wonder and personal connection—of stepping outside oneself, even in the most structured setting—into her work. She believes Hamilton resonates because it doesn’t flatten its characters into heroes and villains, but instead explores human complexity with purpose and joy.
And while the political dimensions of the show are real, Harmon notes, the physical demands are just as intense.
“You’ve got to be comfortable enough with the rap and the rhythm that you can infuse it with the story, the emotion—and put it all together while in a corset!”
For more on Marja, follow her @marjaharmony. For more on Hamilton and to secure tickets, visit evenko.ca.