Girl From the North Country's Austin Scott on Doing a '180 from Hamilton' & Singing Bob Dylan's "Hurricane"

Austin Scott has had a busy two years. In 2018, he joined the Hamilton National Tour as Alexander Hamilton. Scott soon made his Broadway debut taking over the title role in the Broadway production, only to depart the following year to join the Broadway company of Conor McPherson's Girl From the North Country. Having retreated to Burlington, Vermont to wait out the quarantine, Scott checked in with Broadway.com's Beth Stevens to talk about going from one leading role to another, his double life in high school and more.

Girl From the North Country opened on March 5, and little did we know that it would be the last Broadway production to officially open during the 2019-2020 season before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the Great White Way. "We got so lucky," Scott said in a recent episode of #LiveatFive: Home Edition. "We also got to do our cast recording. We recorded Sunday and Monday the week of the shutdown. We wrapped up in the studio, had maybe three days of performances, and then shut down. The cast—we all have a big group text. We all got together for a Zoom meeting and had a virtual listening party. We were texting each other loving messages throughout. I didn't do the show off-Broadway like most of the cast, and they were the most welcoming. Immediaitely like family."

Before taking on the role of Joe Scott (no relation, by the way), Scott was not throwing away his shot as Alexander Hamilton. "[Girl] is really a different show from Hamilton," he said. "It's a complete 180, which is why I wanted to do it. Joe has a very different energy than Hamilton and it's been fun to go from singing "My Shot" to "Hurricane," which is the true story of this boxer who is wrongfully convicted of a murder. I did do some boxing training for the role, I wanted my body to understand and feel the culture of that. It's the hardest workout I've ever done, but it really helped when I got on stage with our fight choreographer. I'm so thankful for the performances we were able to do and that audiences were able to see our show."

Although it may seem like Scott burst on to the theater scene out of nowhere, he's been preparing for his time in the spotlight since high school. "Only in my last year did I do a high school show," he said. "I was on the varsity improv team (yes, that's a thing) and the basketball team, I was the captain of both by my junior year, so it was an interesting mix." Scott fully committed to living out his Troy Bolton lifestyle by auditioning for the spring musical and nabbing a leading role. "The show was Beauty and the Beast, and I played Gaston. Now I get to work with Marc Kudisch, who played it on Broadway, and I'm just like, 'Wow.' It's a dream come true. I can't wait to get back."

Watch Scott share his audition stories and dream roles in the full episode below!