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'Hamilton' star Christopher Jackson messes up national anthem at Mets' season opener

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones03/26/26brianjones_93

Christopher Jackson, the Broadway star known for playing George Washington in the musical Hamilton, made an error while singing the national anthem during the New York Mets’ season opener. As Jackson was performing the “Star Spangled Banner,” he lost track of the lyrics.

Instead of saying “O’er the ramparts we watched,” Jackson paused before repeating the “What so proudly we hailed” line. Jackson recovered quickly and said, “were so gallantly streaming” lyrics later before finishing the song.

Jackson’s mishap during the national anthem did not prevent the Mets from getting off to a hot start. In the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Mets scored five runs against reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes.

The Mets are looking to bounce back after missing the playoffs last year. They finished the 2025 season with an 83-79 record, which was good enough for second place in the NL East. However, the Mets were 13 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL East lead and did not qualify for the postseason as a wild-card team.

More on the Mets and Christopher Jackson

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com recently made a bold 2026 prediction on the Mets. “There will be no NL East drama this year. No Game 162 theatrics to determine whether the Mets will make the playoffs,” DiComo wrote. “As the Phillies slowly age out of relevance and the Braves deal with myriad pitching injuries, the Mets will lock up the division by mid-September.”

DiComo also revealed what needs to go right for the Mets. “The rotation must be better than a year ago, when the Mets featured one of the league’s top starting staffs in April and May before collapsing in June (and never coming close to recovering),” he wrote. “Freddy Peralta is here now to stabilize things, but Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga still represent major what-ifs for the Mets.”

Christopher Jackson won a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for his role in Hamilton in 2016. The 50-year-old has also appeared in multiple TV shows such as Sesame Street, Bull, The Good Wife, and, most recently, And Just Like That… On the film side, Jackson voiced a role in Disney’s Moana and has appeared in In the Heights, World’s Best, and Tick, Tick… Boom!