I Was in the Room Where It Happened

I remember like it was yesterday.

In the summer of 2012, my friend, agent John Buzzetti, who’s head of William Morris Endeavor’s theater department, invited me and our mutual friend Blake Ross, the then editor-in-chief of Playbill, to his home in New Jersey. John is known for hosting epic getaway weekends, which include a lot of pool time, great food, and a who’s-who of the entertainment industry. That particular weekend he also invited one of his long-time clients, Lin-Manuel Miranda and his wife, Vanessa. 

On Saturday, Blake and I woke up, talked shop over coffee, and went for a dip with John, Lin and Vanessa. Then Lin disappeared. 

Later that night at dinner, Lin revealed he was actively working on his latest project: a concept album called “Hamilton Mixtape” that was most likely going to premiere at the Public Theater. He also noted he wasn’t going to be performing in it. 

After dinner wrapped, the wine kept flowing, and we started the word-guessing game Taboo. The object of the game is for a player to get someone on their team to guess the word on his or her card without using the word itself – or five additional words listed on the card.

It was my turn to give a clue and Lin, who was on my team, had to guess my Taboo word: “Michael Jordan.”

The clue that I gave him: “The end-of-Act One closer of The Full Monty,” in reference to the song “Michael Jordan’s Ball.”

No surprise: we lost that round. (Not to mention it became the ongoing joke of the weekend.)

The evening progressed and eventually we found ourselves crowding around the piano singing songs from Next to Normal.

And then Lin said, “Do you want to hear something that I’ve been working on?”

We all said “yes.”

Then, on the ivories, Lin plunked out Thomas Jefferson’s big Hamilton Act Two opener, “What’d I Miss.”

It was one of those moments where I realized, years later, I had been a witness to musical theater history. Similar to the lucky ones who got to experience the dancer tape sessions that gave birth to A Chorus Line, or even being in the room for Jonathan Larson’s Rent when it was a small rock musical playing off-Broadway on the Lower East Side.

But truth be told, that wasn’t the first time I was impressed with the genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda. I’ll never forget attending the opening night of In the Heights on Broadway. 

I had seen the show the year before, off-Broadway at a venue called 37 ARTS. I remember thinking it was a musical that had potential if the creative team did some work. Well, that they did.

When the musical opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in the spring of 2008, it was electrifying! 

The music was infectious, the story was universal, and there, standing on that stage making his Broadway debut was musical theater’s newest leader and torchbearer: Lin-Manuel Miranda.

At the time, folks in the industry were anxious to see what Lin was going to do next. He would go on to write some catchy tunes for the film-to-stage adaptation of Bring It On alongside Tom Kitt and Amanda Green, but that was nothing compared to what was eventually going to take form.

In early 2012, when Lin was the subject of a concert at Lincoln Center, I was invited to the show and interviewed him after. That night, I vividly remember Gavin Creel performing King George’s now iconic number from Hamilton: “You’ll Be Back.”

I looked at my then NY1 colleague, producer Lisa Fuhrman, right after and said: “This is amazing.”

A couple of years went by and finally Hamilton – not “Hamilton Mixtape” – was ready to be seen by New York theatergoers. And despite what Lin told me at Buzzetti’s home a few years prior, he would be playing the title character.

The rest is history.

Of course, the masterpiece that is now Hamilton would become an instant hit. It was the most talked about show off-Broadway, and when it transferred uptown that summer you could not get a ticket!

At the Hamilton opening night party on Broadway, The Roots performed as the after-show act. At one point we were all ushered outside to watch fireworks over the Hudson River, shooting off to a medley from the musical.

As a journalist, I feel so grateful to have been able to document Lin’s ongoing rise from In the Heights to Hamilton and then some. In December of 2017, I covered the West End debut of Hamilton in London, and in early 2019, I was invited with the Miranda camp as Lin brought his musical to Puerto Rico to help raise money for people on the island who were affected by the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

It’s appropriate that we at NY1 dedicate a whole episode of "On Stage" to Lin this month because, with theaters dark across the country due to the pandemic, Lin is still doing what he does best: entertaining the masses.

He brought Hamilton to the world via Disney+ just a couple weeks ago, and his new documentary on his improv hip-hop group, Freestyle Love Supreme, which recently played Broadway, is now available on Hulu.

As Lin continues to be “non-stop,” my team and I will continue to “tell [his] story,” and hopefully the viewers at home will be “satisfied” with Broadway’s “right-hand man.”

I certainly am.