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hamiltoncast-prince5.jpg

The 'Hamilton' Cast Just Gave a Joyous, Perfect Live Tribute to Prince

By Vivian Kane | Videos | April 21, 2016 |

By Vivian Kane | Videos | April 21, 2016 |



This has been— to settle for an understatement— a hard day for a lot of us. Prince played such an important role in shaping so many of our lives and— it doesn’t feel even slightly hyperbolic to say— shaping the world. He was a huge tower in our cultural landscape, and many of us have found ourselves devastated by his loss. And yet Prince was one of those incredible, rare people, who in their passing, they still manage to offer us joy and solace in the work they’ve left behind.

With that manner of coping and celebrating in mind, at the end of Thursday night’s performance of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda led the cast in the perfect kind of tribute: the kind that involved dancing your ass off to Prince’s music.

(Note: While Hamilton bootlegs and recording or otherwise using a phone in the theatre leads straight to the very special hell, this seems to be something totally different. From the sheer number of phones you can see out, and the number of them that Miranda himself has retweeted, I don’t know if he said so directly, but these videos seem to have his blessing.)

Here they are, dancing their hearts out to “Let’s Go Crazy,” which looks totally impromptu, but musical director Alex Lacamoire spent all day orchestrating it.

There are a few different views up, including this one from some terrible person (yes, I’m jealous) in the front row. Bless them for also taking a moment to show us the audience’s ecstasy.

And from the wings:

Thank you, Lin. Thank you, Prince. Thank you everyone who finds the strength to combat their sadness with joy. It’s really is the best way to get through this thing called life.