Tom Price actor lands plum role

A Pilbara-born actor will star in the role of a lifetime in the Australian version of the hit US Broadway musical Hamilton. Innawonga performer Shaka Cook from Tom Price will make his professional musical theatre debut playing Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in the show that tracks the history of the US and its Founding Fathers. Cook left the Pilbara after high school and travelled to Perth to study Aboriginal Theatre at WAAPA before going on to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. He is also an alumni of the Graham (Polly) Farmer Foundation, an initiative named after the football great which is a positive, strengths-based approach that aims to support young Aboriginal people to follow their dreams. Cook’s previous roles include playing Jasper Jones in the production of Craig Silvey’s acclaimed novel of the same name and on the big screen as Officer Braydon in Top End Wedding. The Australian cast of Hamilton is highly diverse, featuring actors of African, Asian, Latino and First Nations descent. The show features a blend of hip-hop, jazz, R’n’B and Broadway tunes, with the original Hamilton production one of the most successful Broadway shows ever staged. It received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and scooped up 11 Tony Awards and a Grammy in the same year. Hamilton is set to open at the Sydney Lyric Theatre on March 17.