'Hamilton' Star Phillipa Soo Confirms The Meaning of Eliza's Gasp At The End of the Show

From ELLE

Spoilers for Hamilton's ending below.

Those in the Hamilton hive consider themselves true members because of their ability to recite every lyric of "My Shot" and each diss in the cabinet battle between Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and Thomas Jefferson (Daveed Diggs). But as the hit Broadway musical was released on Disney+ on July 3, it was the show's unspoken final moment that had the fan base talking.

At the end of Hamilton, Alexander's widow Eliza (Phillipa Soo) sings a moving speech to the audience that summarizes her life after her husband's death. She went on to live 50 years after Alexander's fatal duel with enemy Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.), and her final decades were committed to preserving Alexander's legacy and establishing a New York City orphanage. Then, Hamilton (or Lin himself, depending on who you ask) guides Eliza up to the stage as a chorus sings, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story."

That's followed by Eliza clutching her heart and releasing a gut-wrenching gasp. The moment has inspired a ton of online debate, partly owed to the world seeing Hamilton in unprecedented numbers. But also because the gasp plays differently onscreen than it does in a sold-out theater.

Hamilton's creative team has been purposefully vague.

When Miranda and co. were asked about what Eliza's ambiguous ending means, they responded in general terms. During a 2016 interview with Wired, the Hamilton creator said about the gasp, "I think it's different for each Eliza. It's heart-stopping isn't it? I do think that it traverses time, in some way, whether that thing she's seeing is Hamilton, whether that thing she's seeing is heaven, whether that thing she's seeing is the world now. I think those are all valid and all fair. I do think she is seeing across a span of time in that moment." During the same interview, Hamilton director Thomas Kail simply said, "I'm happy that there's a dot dot dot at the end of our show as opposed to some sort of definitive statement."

Soo admitted that the way she portrays the gasp changes with each show. "To me, the moment always belongs to all of us in the entire room," she said during an interview for AOL Build in 2016. "It's a culmination of the entire experience we just had as the audience as the cast as the characters." She went on to say that, in a way, each person's interpretation of the moment is correct. "Sometimes people are like, 'Is it Eliza going into heaven? Is she seeing Alexander? Is she seeing God? What is it?' And it's kind of all of those things," the actress explained. "Sometimes, it's literally, I look out and I see the audience, and that's what it is, but I think, that idea of 'transcendence' is present in all of that. Whether it's in Eliza's mind, or in Phillipa's mind, they're both one and the same, which is beautiful about that moment."

Soo confirmed she breaks the fourth-wall as Eliza.

One popular idea about the musical's ending is that Soo, the Tony-nominated actress who plays Eliza, actually breaks the fourth wall during the gasp. In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show,” Soo seemed to confirm that thinking, per Variety. “Night to night it was different," she admitted. "But yes, the character of Eliza sees Hamilton or sees that legacy or sees that orphanage. It was an exploration for me every day because you do a show eight times a week for a year and you find new things every single time.”

When asked specifically about a fourth wall break, Soo affirmed that she would “look out and see all these beautiful faces and acknowledge that story we had all taken a ride to witness.”

Some believe the ending is evidence that Hamilton is actually about Eliza.

One compelling idea about the hit musical as it relates to the ending? That the show is actually about Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, not her husband. Kate Kennedy, who goes by the handle @bethereinfive on TikTok, proposed last week that Hamilton is not about Alexander, "otherwise it would be called Alexander Hamilton."

She went on to talk about how the musical is "all about reversals." Hamilton doesn't want to throw away his shot, but ends up losing it in the duel with Burr, for instance. In the first line of Eliza's solo "Helpless," she sings about wanting to avoid the spotlight, but at the very end of the show, Eliza literally steps into the spotlight, gasping because "She sees everybody telling her story when she devoted her life to telling everybody else’s," Kennedy proposes. "In trying to remove herself from the narrative, she becomes the narrative," much in the same way Hamilton's fate is sealed by what he originally intends to avoid.

Another Twitter user suggested that Eliza is actually recognizing the audience watching her tell Alexander's story at the end of Hamilton.

But Miranda has dispelled at least one theory.

Following the recent release of Hamilton on Disney+, a fan theory from Mallory Ellis has made the rounds online. In her reading of the ending, Alexander the character morphs into the real-life Lin as he leads Eliza to the front of the stage. She suggests that Miranda is granting the character permission to be at the forefront of the story. And the gasp is in reaction to Eliza realizing Miranda/Hamilton told her story, too.

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"It’s a lovely notion, (thank you @malloryannellis) but it breaks down the moment I’m not playing the role (how I wish you could see @JMunozActor or @JonRua, who also played Ham that first year!)," Miranda wrote in response, referencing actors Javier Muñoz and Jon Rua. Still, he stoked speculation once more, adding, "The Gasp is The Gasp is The Gasp. I love all the interpretations."

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