Last week, John Krasinski (The Office, Jack Ryan) started a new YouTube series called Some Good News, looking to highlight some of the positive things happening in the world in an effort to distract people a little bit from the doom and gloom of the coronavirus pandemic.
This week, he hoped to make a little girl’s dream come true (you can watch the entire show above). When 9-year-old Aubrey didn’t get her wish to spend her birthday seeing Hamilton because the theater world is now dark, she watched Mary Poppins Returns instead since Lin-Manuel Miranda stars.
Krasinski called Aubrey on Zoom and offered to fly her and her mom to New York to see Hamilton once the whole coronavirus thing is over. Then he introduced her to a special guest, Mary Poppins herself (Krasinski’s wife Emily Blunt)!
As they chatted about her favorite character and the acting couple jokingly downplayed Miranda’s role in the film, the Broadway favorite “Zoom-bombed” into the conversation about 10 minutes in — and Aubrey was speechless.
Miranda heard about Krasinski’s generous offer but said he could top that right now, and the Zoom call suddenly got a lot fuller, as the entire original Broadway cast of Hamilton joined the call and serenaded Aubrey with the show’s opening number, Alexander Hamilton—which just happened to be Aubrey’s favorite song!
Joining Miranda were Jasmine Cephas Jones, Phillipa Soo, Andrew Chapelle, Ariana DeBose, Thayne Jasperson, Sydney James Harcourt, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Okieriete Onaodowan, Ephraim Sykes, Javier Muñoz, Carleigh Bettiol, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Austin Smith, Betsy Struxness, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Jon Rua, Leslie Odom, Jr., Sasha Hutchings, Neil Haskell, Stephanie Klemons, Morgan Marcell, Christopher Jackson, and Seth Stewart.
With all Broadway theaters being closed since March 12, and fans desperate for some musical distractions, this was just the latest act of theater performers trying to make their fans happy. Judging by the million-plus views of the video so far, this certainly not only made Aubrey’s day but countless others.
Seth Rudetsky, host of SiriusXM Broadway, is also providing some theater love to Broadway fans by offering a daily live-streamed concert series with special guests that raises support for The Actors Fund during this troubling time. Recent guests have included Kristin Chenoweth, the cast of TV show Frasier and Randy Rainbow. For theater fans around the world, this is good news indeed.
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