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Zach Berg , zberg@press-citizen.com Published 10:37 a.m. CT March 28, 2017 | Updated 1:09 p.m. CT March 28, 2017

Leslie Odom Jr. performs for guests at Hancher Auditorium on Monday, March 27, 2017. Odom starred as Aaron Burr in the Broadway production of "Hamilton."(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)Buy Photo

Leslie Odom Jr., the singer who won last year's Best Actor in a Musical Tony for his role as Aaron Burr in "Hamilton," put on a show for Iowa City on Monday night.

The marquee star of this year's University of Iowa Lecture Committee's series of spring speakers, Odom did much more than lecture when he took the stage of Hancher Auditorium to a nearly filled auditorium built for 1,800 people.

He sang songs from his self-titled album, talked about how education got him to Broadway and addressed the controversy of the "Hamilton" cast addressing Vice President-elect Mike Pence from the stage after he had left the show.He even sang threesongs from the Broadway smash "Hamilton" that launched him into stardom.

Odom was met withraucous cheers and two standing ovations.

Leslie Odom Jr. performs for guests at Hancher Auditorium on Monday, March 27, 2017. Odom starred as Aaron Burr in the Broadway production of "Hamilton."(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

"There's no me in 'Hamilton,' no Burr in 'Hamilton,' and thus no awards or fun speaking opportunities in Iowawithout the genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda," Odom said of the show's creator and the actor who played the titular role in the production that mixesrap and show tunes to tell the story of the original U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.

"Lin gave us a perfect piece of text, a perfect work of drama. It had everything: pathos and drama, joy and humor," Odom said.

RELATED: When 'Hamilton' is coming to Des Moines

During the final portion of the night, Odomwas read audience questions bySarah Tortora, chair of the UI Lecture Committee.He was asked what political statements the show makes in today's political environment.

With the question, Odom tackled the November 2016 incident when Pence attended a "Hamilton" production in New York City. Pence was addressed by Brandon Dixon, who played Vice President Aaron Burr after Odom left the show, during a curtain call.

'Hamilton' actor Brandon Victor Dixon delivered a message to US Vice President-elect Mike Pence calling on him to "uphold American values." AP

The event drew much ire from then-President-elect Donald Trump, who tweeted the following day that the "Hamilton" cast "was very rude last night to a very good man" and that they had "harassed" Pence.

"I honestly don't think I would have (given the speech) and here's why:Because I think 'Hamilton,' I think that three-hour experience is all you have to say, Odom said Monday night.I believe, truly, that if the material is performed with the generosity of spirit that it was intended to be perform with, there's no curtain call speech needed, there's nothing left to say."

"What I hate more than anything is for the show to become a partisan show, for the show to become something only one kind of person would see, because it is so beautiful and that is not the spirit in which it was created," Odom said.

Leslie Odom Jr. performs for guests at Hancher Auditorium on Monday, March 27, 2017. Odom starred as Aaron Burr in the Broadway production of "Hamilton."(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Most of the evening was lighthearted and introspective as Odom weaved back and forth between singing songs from "Hamilton" and "Rent,"the first Broadway show he performed in, at the age of 17. From "Hamilton," he sang the show's jazzy showstopper "The Room Where it Happened" and its sorrowful ballad "Wait for it."

"I think this is the place to be tonight, isn't it," Chuck Swanson, Hancher Auditorium's executive director, said before Odomand his band started to play.

When Odomwasn't singing in front of his five-member supporting band, he moved to stage right where a simple podium stood and told about his rise to Broadway stardom. How in a kindergarten Black History Month production in which he played Martin Luther King Jr., he bounded onto the staged and shouted his lines without any fright.

He talked of his days at Carnegie Mellon University as a theater major, and how he had to spend an entire semester studying a black howler monkey named Quinton at the Pittsburgh Zoo for a project where he had to turn animal characteristics into human traits for a production.

Leslie Odom Jr. performs for guests at Hancher Auditorium on Monday, March 27, 2017. Odom starred as Aaron Burr in the Broadway production of "Hamilton."(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

For an audience made up largely of University of Iowa students, Odomeven gave them advice when it comes to following their dreams post college.

"There's going to come a moment where you have to reckon with why on earth you've chosen this path. That's true for anything worth having, by the way," Odom said."I have come up with the answer: Its about connection. That's why I do it, that's why I love it. I am addicted to the connection with the audience, I am addicted to the people I'm on stage with. It's a very special presence that I can feel from doing this."

But it was the stories about "Hamilton" itself, the stories that partially explained why a Broadway show with a multiracial cast performing as the Founding Fathers went from an idea to a phenomena that sold millions of records and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, that got the audience most excited.

Sarah Tortora, chair of the University of Iowa Lecture Committee, introduces Leslie Odom Jr. at Hancher Auditorium on Monday, March 27, 2017. Odom starred as Aaron Burr in the Broadway production of "Hamilton."(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Odom recalled seeing a sung production of "Hamilton" in its earliest stages in a theater of 150 seats inPoughkeepsie, N.Y., in 2013, three years before it came to Broadway. He remembered by the fourth song called "The Story of Tonight" that he had fallen for the musical.

"I had never seen four men of color, on a stage, singing a song about brotherhood and friendship in my life. For me, that was the revolution," Odomsaid.

"I just hope ('Hamilton') reminds you of where we've come from and where we are and the potential for where we can go. That's all I hope it does."

Reach Zach Berg at 319-887-5412, zberg@press-citizen.com, or follow him on Twitter at @ZacharyBerg.

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'Hamilton' star sings, talks Mike Pence in Iowa City - Iowa City Press Citizen