Anthony Ramos is giving insight into the reality of being a Broadway actor and how theater performers are not making that much money.
The 33-year-old actor appeared in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton in the dual roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton.
In a new interview for the SoFi podcast Richer Lives, Anthony was asked what it was like when he got his first paycheck for Hamilton.
“Yo, it was nice,” he said. “Well, no, no, actually it wasn’t because we were Off-Broadway, and I was making like $420 a week.”
Thankfully when the show moved to Broadway, his paycheck went up by a lot, but it still wasn’t huge.
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“You get paid better on Broadway, but even on Broadway it can still be tough. If you’re an ensemble member, you’re a chorus member, you’re probably making like $1,800 a week,” he said. “But they’re paying their agent, 10 percent to the agent, 10 percent to the manager, 20 percent of the top and then in New York you’re paying, 30 percent, 40 percent tax.”
Anthony continued, “You’re probably coming home with, like, $1,000 a week, maybe like $1,100 a week. Getting that first paycheck was great because I was getting paid to do something I loved, but I was still struggling in New York. It’s got to even out, somehow.”
Anthony talked about the struggles of being on Broadway and wanting to splurge.
“You can’t think, ‘Oh, I’m on Broadway! Let me just throw the bag.’ When we start to make money—people in general—we get excited, and we start spending,” Anthony said. “It’s fine to treat yourself, right? Because I think we should do that for ourselves. We should go out for a nice meal. We should buy that thing. I would [just] say don’t get irresponsible. I’m speaking from experience. I learned. I thought I was much better with money than I actually was.”
“If you’re not smart with your money, you’re beat!” he said. “You know what I’m saying? You’re beat!”
We have a more detailed breakdown of the money Broadway actors make every week.
