John Krasinski reunites the original cast of Hamilton to the delight of one 9-year-old kid
Aux Features Hamilton
We’re already on record as being in favor of John Krasinki’s good-news-only YouTube series. Remember this cool interview with Steve Carell? That was a week/27 years ago. So how, when one is John Krasinski and is (as he says in the video) already exhausted from home-schooling his kids, do you top a first episode like that?
Well, you ask your wife to help you pull off a massive flex and call in the entire original cast of Hamilton, that’s how.
The second episode is as charming as the first, featuring more encouraging stories about people being decent and kind (in this edition, the focus is largely on teachers and parents). Krasinki also gets a new theme song from one viewer and showcases a few “copyright infringers” who delivered Some Good News broadcasts of their own. (Also, De Niro does the weather.)
But the main event is Krasinki’s Zoom call with nine-year-old Aubrey, who was meant to see Hamilton this week and watched Mary Poppins Returns instead. She’s clearly already processed whatever sad feelings that missed chance may have stirred up and just wanted to watch Lin-Manuel Miranda do something, so she dialed up MPR. Krasinski then brings out wife (and Mary Poppins herself) Emily Blunt, who pretends to take issue with Aubrey’s Miranda fandom.
The Blunt-Krasinki household then promises Aubrey that they’ll fly her to New York to see the show and then promptly make that gift an afterthought, when Lin-Manuel Miranda Zoom-bombs the call and brings Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Ramos (star of the will-come-out-eventually In The Heights), Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, Okieriete Onaodowan, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and the rest of the ensemble (it’s a lot of people). It even includes Jonathan Groff who, since he played King George in Hamilton, is basically just in the chorus here.
It is very charming and cool and they’re all extremely dreamy. We’ve cued the segment up here, but if it doesn’t work, skip to around 11:20:
Who else can do a Zoom concert? Can we get Victor Garber to assemble the Playwrights Horizons cast of Assassins? Could Rachel Leigh Cook pull together a Josie and the Pussycats performance? Can we even stop the cast of Glee from doing this kind of thing?
Anyway, we look forward to seeing how Krasinki will top this in his next episode. Maybe he and Blunt can stage a live trailer for the delayed A Quiet Place 2? Surely they have some sort of basement- or shed-like structure and a bathtub.
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29 Comments
I teared up for the little girl, but it was really for me. Pure joy, when we need it most.
That was incredible, but my favorite part is still, in the credits, “SNG Logo Designed by Hazel & Violet Krasinski.”
Totally cried happy tears this morning watching it. I would like to be best friends with Emily Blunt.
lol You have a sad fucking life.
Get in line. Take a number!
Actually, as a Canadian, Emily and I are part of the Commonwealth, so we’re practically related. Sorry.
Canadian here as well, AND grew up in England. We’re practically acquaintances.
Blimey!
I’ll take Steve.
Holy shit you are a fucking loser.
I had finally broken myself of the habit but now I’m going to be listening to the Hamilton soundtrack over and over again for the next two weeks. Also, on a side note, internet has gotten so impressive, all those people streaming together at once, no one freezing or delayed. If the musical number wasn’t already impressive (and it was) that’s something to marvel at on its own.
It’s entirely likely that the final version of the video was edited together to be synchronized properly and that when they were actually doing this at the time it didn’t flow quite as perfectly.
Well if I’m able to stay awake long enough to catch him, I‘ll make sure to ask Santa about it this Christmas.
Once some time has passed, I’d love to get the scoop on how they actually put this together. I’m guessing they just shipped a click track to all of the singers? Sadly there’s not a teleconference product on god’s earth that’s low-latency enough to support multipart vocal harmonies.
My guess is they got everyone set up in advance with what they’d need to record their local audio and video, then executed an “as good as we possible given the circumstances” performance for the little girl, followed by a stitching-together of the segments and audio recordings by someone who definitely knows his shit. It’s one of those times when a high degree of specialized expertise makes something look effortless when it was anything but.
Hamilton sucks. Anyone who likes it is a racist.
Still putting out those hot takes.
LAFAYETTE
Also, if anyone hasn’t seen Mary Poppins Returns, please do. It is so enjoyable. With the exception of maaaaaybe the one with Meryl Streep, every song is so wonderful and fun. I saw it four times in theaters, once with an entire row of theater nerds singing along. (The theater was nearly empty anyway, so don’t bitch at me.)So much fun. Emily was a wonderful Mary Poppins, and Lin-Manuel’s character’s terrible Cockney accent fit right in with Dick van Dyke’s.
l’m taking this horse by the reins making redcoats redder with bloodstains.
LAFAYETTE
And I’m never gonna stop until I make em drop and burn em up and scatter their remains, ah
LAFAYETTE
LAFAYETTE
Watch me enGAGing em, esCAPing em, enRAGing em, I // go to France for more FUNDS // and come back with more…
LAFAYETTE
This made my heart grow seven sizes. Krasinski and Blunt, and of course, Miranda and crew, get all the love.
I know Lin Manuel has said he doesn’t want to release a original cast video of Hamilton until the show has ran longer and in more places but I kinda hope if this shelter-in-place goes on much longer it would be a cool thing to drop for all of us to see.
It is out of Lin Manuel’s hands. The rights to the video of the original cast recording were sold awhile ago and earlier this year they announced that it will be coming to movie theaters on October 15, 2021.