Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Boca native in ‘Hamilton’
You may have to squint a bit to find her onstage, but the uber-popular musical “Hamilton” has a Boca Raton native in the cast.
Abby Jaros, who is in the show at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts through Jan. 20, gives people trying to spot her a little help.
“I’m in the ensemble,” Jaros says in a telephone interview. “I look like myself pretty much, I’m just in costume. I’m always the dancer with the brown curly hair.”
Jaros is a stage name by the way. School mates at Boca Raton Community High School or the University of Central Florida might remember her as the only child of Jash and Terri Jaroszewicz.
is more to know about the 26-year-old actor.
The road to the stage
“I graduated [high school] in 2011,” Jaros says. “I was pretty much into drama the whole time.”
Jaros says she got into theater as a member of the drama club, appearing in productions such as “My Fair Lady” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
“I did my first musical my freshman year and that’s when it clicked. It was ‘Pajama Game.’ I was one of the ‘Steam Heat’ dancers. It just opened up all this whole new world that I was curious about.
“I hadn’t really done any acting or singing until then. I had done dancing in the studio since I was 5. And [theater] was as close as I could get to dance in high school.”
She was also involved in the Cappies (Critics’ Awards Program), which celebrates theater achievements in Broward and Palm Beach county high schools. She went to UCF with a scholarship from the Carbonell Awards, South Florida’s version of the Tony Awards.
“I got a BFA in musical theater and a dance minor,” she says. “I think I got a lot of my acting chops from UCF. I got to work on a lot of plays. They taught me to act through song and dance as well as just acting itself. I got to dip my toes in it in high school, but at UCF I learned how in-depth an actor’s brain must work to portray a character. It just blew my mind.”
That set her sights on Broadway.
“I graduated a semester early in the fall of 2014. Audition season [in New York] is in January … and so I got to go when it was season. I got a really nice jump onto things.”
Her first big job was in a touring production of “JoHere seph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
The call of Broadway
“I think the first Broadway show I saw on Broadway was ‘42nd Street.’ I was there in New York for the nationals for dance. I wasn’t really into [seeing a Broadway show]. But then that curtain rose and there were all those feet tap dancing. I think my parents must have witnessed my eyes, they must have just lit up. I sat up in my seat. They probably thought, ‘Oh no. She’s got the bug.’”
Fast-forward to Jaros leaving to pursue her dreams in Manhattan.
“I remember sitting on my bed with my parents and giving them the look like, Am I doing the right thing?” she recalls. “And I’ll never forget my dad saying, ‘Abby, if not you, who?’”
Jaros has been touring with “Hamilton” for nearly a year.
“I consider my home base to be New York City right now,” Jaros says. “I really don’t have a home right now because I’m on this tour so I gave up my apartment.”
It’s a small world
Jaros remembers seeing Broadway national tours such as “Mary Poppins” and “Book of Mormon” at the Broward Center when she was growing up. But it was catching Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In The Heights” that is particularly meaningful to her now.
“Mindy Clarke [her high school drama teacher] took us to see ‘In The Heights,’ and I guess I saw some cast members in that show that are in ‘Hamilton,’ which is crazy because I’m working with them now. I saw a Hamilton in that cast, Joseph Morales [who plays the titular lead in the tour now in Fort Lauderdale]. That’s kind of crazy.”
Hosting #EduHam
Officially the education outreach for “Hamilton” is called the Hamilton Education Program, but everyone tends to shorten that to the hashtag-able #EduHam. Here in South Florida, that program kicks into high gear on Wednesday, Jan. 16, when students and teachers from 32 local high school get to see a matinee of “Hamilton.” But before that, the students also will have a Q-and-A with the cast members and a few students will perform.
As South Florida’s own, Jaros will emcee the day’s proceedings.
“It’s my first time hosting it. I’ve watched my cast mates host them, so I have some idea. I’m very excited about it. I’m just going to bring myself to it. Once I get out there, I’ll get comfortable.”