Thayne Jasperson will be away from Hamilton for a while after tearing his bicep tendon and rotator cuff during a performance and going under the knife. The 45-year-old said Wednesday, June 10, that the injury happened while he was doing a lift in the musical’s Act II opener, “What’d I Miss.”
He shared the news from a hospital bed on Instagram, posting footage of himself in a gown and blue hairnet, along with a scan of the torn tendon. “So bad news, I tore my bicep tendon and rotator cuff, had to get surgery, and I'll be out of Hamilton for a while,” he wrote, adding that he was “so bummed” to miss seeing audiences at the show but would be back “to screeeaaam at the rabble.”
The injury matters because Jasperson is not just another member of the cast. He is the only original cast member still performing in Hamilton, a show he has stayed with since it opened on Broadway in February 2015. That long run has made him one of the production’s most durable fixtures, even as the musical has become a fixture of its own.
That is also what gives this leave its sharp edge. Last year, Jasperson said he did not plan to leave the stage anytime soon, saying he could not walk away before the Tonys, then the Grammys, then the Disney+ filming, then the wave of visitors that kept coming. He also said, “I always tell Lin [Manuel Miranda], ‘You wrote too good of a show… I can’t leave.’”
For now, the question is not whether he wants to come back. It is how long recovery takes. Jasperson said he plans to return after he gets better, but he gave no timeline, and that leaves Hamilton without the one original cast member who has remained with it from the start.
