Three hours before the show, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton” who wrote the music, the book and the lyrics for the musical hit, exploded through the doors of the Richard Rodgers Theater with a megaphone and he met with shouts and applause from a crowd gathered on 46th West Street.
He was there to lead a group of Broadway performers in a rendition of “Theme From ‘New York, New York,” the anthem popularized by Frank Sinatra, creating a kind of mood opening for the next night.
“Get a mask, get vaccinated and come see live theater!” said Miranda, who also played Alexander Hamilton in the original Broadway cast.
The appearance was not announced until four in the afternoon, when Miranda tweeted about a photo from inside the theater and announced the so-called Ham4Ham, which, before the pandemic, was a representation of members of the cast of “Hamilton” outside the theater that accompanied a lottery ticket to see the show. (There would be no free tickets today, Miranda said).
Broadway passersby and superfans rushed to the spot as soon as they saw the social media announcement.
Eva Ferreira, a ten-year-old “Hamilton” fan who has memorized almost every word in the musical, watched with her parents who had brought her to New York for her birthday.
Four teenagers, all aspiring Broadway performers, who had spent the day in class at the Steps Conservatory, ran to the theater from the subway after watching Miranda’s tweet. They stood in the crowd frightened by the group of performers, the kind they hoped to be one day.
Jessica Payne and her husband ran out of their hotel room to catch Miranda and the other artists. The spring 2020 trip was canceled due to the pandemic, so they had recently flown from Colorado to see eight Broadway shows in six days after “a year and a half of heart disorder” while the industry was on pause.
“We both cried when the plane landed,” Jessica Payne said, listing the shows the couple planned to see (“Wicked” is scheduled tonight). “We’re very happy to be here.”