North Myrtle Beach native makes it to Broadway. Here’s his message to local rising stars
A North Myrtle Beach High graduate says it was luck that landed his first gig in a Broadway show after years of auditions, hard work and constant practicing.
Aaron Burr wasn’t expecting the phone call he randomly received from friend Luke Hawkins, asking if Burr could replace him in “Harry Connick, Jr.: A Celebration of Cole Porter” due to Hawkins breaking his leg.
“I didn’t believe him,” Burr said. “I never imagined if it happened, that it would happen like this. I never imagined my first performance on Broadway would be rising up on stage to do a duet with Harry Connick Jr.”
But it was true — the 26-year-old is now playing a few roles in the show, including a gatekeeper, police officer and his biggest role: a tap-dancing Cole Porter. In his duet with Connick, the two rise together from below the stage at the end of the show.
Connick wrote the show dedicated to Porter, who was a composer and songwriter famous for the song “Anything Goes” and others that were featured on Broadway, and it is full of Porter’s songs, piano playing and choreography. Porter had a horseback riding incident and lost his legs. Burr said being able to dance as Porter, who was disabled after the incident, is a “physical representation of his music.”
The show is about halfway through its time on the big stage — it is running eight times a week for three weeks.
Throughout his career, Burr said he has made it to the end of auditions to be on Broadway, but never was given the parts. However, he has performed in Chicago shows after those shows left Broadway. Burr has toured internationally with Tap Dogs and also worked at the Alabama Theatre. And after seven years in New York, he said he finally was lucky enough to land his current role.
Burr, who attended North Myrtle Beach High and the Academy of Arts, Science and Technology and graduated in 2011, said his message to local students dreaming of making it big one day: “If I made it and I’m a kid from North Myrtle Beach, there’s no reason another kid from North Myrtle Beach couldn’t make it … .”
What’s next for Burr’s career is not certain, but he is hopeful.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen from this, but I do think only positive things could come from this,” he said.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach native makes it to Broadway. Here’s his message to local rising stars."
