When alum Donald Webber Jr. BFA ’08 [Motown: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast), Holler If Ya Hear Me (Original Broadway Cast)] first took his place onstage as Aaron Burr in acclaimed musical Hamilton, we knew he had hit his stride. He joined the Hamilton national tour, and it would be a while before he stepped into any other role. This January and February, however, he’s taking a brief hiatus from the vice presidency to join a new original musical, Gun & Powder, at the Signature Theatre in Va.

Directed by Robert O’Hara (Broadway’s Slave Play) with music by Ross Baum and book and lyrics by Angelica Chéri, Gun & Powder will run for just under a month (Jan. 28 – Feb. 23) at the Signature. Gun & Powder stars Solea Pfeiffer and Emmy Raver-Lampman as the white-passing Clarke sisters, who fall in love with two very different men (Webber as Elijah and Dan Tracy as Jesse). The musical was previously workshopped as a chosen submission for Sigworks Lab at the Signature Theatre, as well as in residencies Goodspeed Opera, Two River Theater and the Barnett Residency. Originally, it was developed in the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program Thesis Musical Series and given the Inaugural Workshop Production of the NYU Tisch Center for New Musicals.

Gun & Powder has met much acclaim during its development; it was given the 2018 Richard Rodgers Award and chosen to be featured in the 30th annual NAMT Festival of New Musicals. The musical was also featured in the 2018 NEXT Festival at Theatre Latté Da. Select songs from the book have been presented at Lincoln Center in New York.

Following the show’s run, Webber will rejoin the cast of Hamilton in March.