Casual reminder that he is still elitist af. Theater is not accessible. Past theater is even less accessible. The day he releases an official DVD is the day people stop posting bootlegs.
its not being elitist..wtf. you go to ANY theater show, ANY caliber of talent and the rules still fucking apply. if you knew anything about theater, the material is copy written and its illegal to film ANY theater show where the material is distributed by a licensing company. donât come for Linâs life because he respects the craft of theater. as any true theater person would know..its about respect. you dont even have to be a âtrue theater personâ its fucking common sense. and never mind the disruption it causes the actors and other audience members (LOTS of disruption), its fucking ILLEGAL. so fuck you for thinking anything about Lin when itâs much bigger than him
Side note to @hamiltonandfluff: If you actually believe the day an official DVD is released is the day people stop posting bootlegs, then⌠you believe at least one manifestly untrue thing. The day an official DVD is released is the day posting of bootleg goes up by at least an order of magnitude, maybe two.
Original âHamiltonâ Star Anthony Ramos on His Final Bow, Performing Post-Election & Working With Spike Lee (Billboard):
On Sunday (Nov. 20), actor Anthony Ramos wrapped his epic run in the smash Broadway show and Lin Manuel-Mirandaâs cultural juggernaut Hamilton. Since auditioning when the production was merely in its workshop phase, Ramos has enjoyed a front-row seat to theater history playing the dual roles of John Laurens and Phillip Hamilton, two characters that creator Miranda evolved and wrote with him in mind.
As one of the last original cast members to leave the production (only Jasmine Cephas-Jones and Okieriete Onaodowan from the original line-up remain), Ramos is now off to star in the highly anticipated upcoming Netflix series Sheâs Gotta Have It from Spike Lee.
While the show made headlines this past weekend following actor Brandon Victor Dixonâs message to vice president-elect Mike Pence, who saw the musical with his family on Friday (Nov. 18), Ramos, who spoke with Billboard before the incident, reminisces on Hamiltonâs stratospheric ascent into pop culture, the mood at the Richard Rodgers Theater post-election and meeting President Barack Obama.
How does it feel to be wrapping up your time with Hamilton?
A little surreal, but it feels great, man. I donât regret anything. You know when you leave things and sometimes you say to yourself, âMan, I wish I could have done more?â I donât feel that way. I feel like Iâve done everything I could, and it feels great. Thereâs no better time for me to leave than now. I left it all out on stage at the Rogers theater and Iâm ready to move on. It feels really good. Bittersweet, honestly.
As one of the last remaining cast members, youâve experienced othersâ final shows, including Lin-Manuel Miranda. What has it been like seeing everyone leave and a new cast takeover?
It feels different when Iâm on-stage now because being a part of the original company, youâve built something with a group of people for an extended amount of time. When those people start to fall off and new people replace them to maintain it, it becomes less about the building and more about the maintenance.
What Iâm trying to say is that while Iâm meeting new family, thereâs nothing like the family that youâve actually built the thing with and were in the trenches with. The people that are closest to your heart are always the people who were with you when you had nothing. Itâs the people who were there when you were planting the seeds and they had their hands in the soil with you. We were all working for 400 dollars a week at the Public Theater and sharing a space downstairs together, so we grew to love each other. That dynamic for me as an original company member is special to me. Thereâs still so much love in the building, but the vibe is different.
Take me back to your very first show at the Public Theater. What was the mood like? At the time, did it feel special or just another gig?
Itâs always been special, never just another gig. The only thing that was going through my mind [during that first curtain call] was, âThank God I got through that shit. How did that happen just now?â I literally didnât even know where I was supposed to stand in some scenes but we got through it. The first thing I said was, âThank you, Jesusâ before we did the first bow.
Describe your most memorable show.
Wow, I have to think about this. I have two. One was the show we did for President Obama. We were all so excited. Getting to perform for the leader of the free world was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The energy in the room was different. You felt a presence.
There was something unique about that night, to be on stage and let it all loose for the president. We got to perform this musical about revolution, immigrants, and our founders for the leader of our country. Afterwards he shook my hand and said, âYoung man, you are extremely talented.â I was like, âDude. Wow, bro. Thank you.â The other show was the matinee after the election.
What was that like? The country was in an interesting place that afternoon.
Obviously, there were a lot of emotions. Our company members have been pretty vocal about where we stood in this election. We had a meeting before the matinee and there were tears. We shared words and checked in with each other. There was a lot of anger and frustration. The one conclusion we came to was that you donât answer anger with more anger. You answer anger with love. You answer anger with selflessness. The answer to anger is always the opposite thing of anger.
This election has sparked a new level of attentiveness and awareness not only in the United States, but in the world. What we were talking about was that weâre blessed to do this show, and we canât take it for granted. People are coming to see this show for a little piece of hope, and we try to be aware that this isnât just a show. For the people coming into this theater each night, their lives are vulnerable, fragile and precious, and we have to handle with care. Not only of the people in the theater, but who we come in contact with in person and in life, period. We took all of that into that matinee, which became one of my most memorable performances.
If you would have told me my most memorable performance would have happened two years into my run, I would have been like, âYeah, right,â but Iâd say it was even more special than opening night. The audience is always a part of the show but the audience was never more a part of the show than that day. The most special moment for me in my entire Hamilton run was the moment I came downstage and turned to the three guys and sang, âRaise a glass to freedom, something they can never take away no matter what they tell youâ and the audience roared at that line and clapped. That had never happened before. That right there was the moment I said, âEverythingâs going to be alright and weâre all in this together, no matter who the president is, and we can never forget that.â
Unlike any other show, Hamilton has had the most incredible array of luminaries and icons coming to experience it. Beyond President Obama, who are some visitors who have stood out to you?
Laurence Fishburne hugged me like he knew me forever. I remember when we were at the Public Theater, Busta Rhymes gave us a 30-minute speech about how our show motivated him and made him rethink what he wants his next album to be like. That was an incredible moment. And Marc Anthony! Iâd blast his salsa albums with my mom. He gave me a huge hug and said, âKid, Iâm so proud of you.â That moment was particularly special to me. I think those moments all stood out to me the most.
âThe process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue. And this will be thought no inconsiderable recommendation of the Constitution, by those who are able to estimate the share which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration. Though we cannot acquiesce in the political heresy of the poet who says: âFor forms of government let fools contest That which is best administered is best,â yet we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.â
âToward the end of my run in the Broadway company, you know, it got a little scary outside the theater. I was negotiating secret exits the last month of the run. It was unsafe for me to do the stage door. It wasnât that good fans turned bad or anything like that. Itâs just that when people feel like time is finite to see someone, the urgency is what makes it scary. You know, âWe have to get that selfie now.â âWe have to get this autograph right now,â as opposed to life being long.â
[âŚ]
âListen, here are my lessons, my takeaways from the showâs success. One, I had my idea for it during my first vacation from âIn the Heights,â so vacationâs important. Two, ‘Hamiltonâ was an idea that everyone said was crazy and yet here we are. So it gave me a confidence in my instincts.â
Confidence in instincts? Well, sure, I say. But this is not an ordinary level of success. âHamiltonâ is something else entirely.
âYou know what? My answer to you on all of this is actually embedded in the show. I cannot worry about how the world perceives the show. I can worry about the quality of the production, the words being spoken and sung. But I have written a show where everybody is grappling with their legacy. Look at (Alexander) Hamiltonâs legacy. A guy who did an enormous amount in his short lifetime. But you also saw it get buried. His enemies all succeeded him. There was a period when he was the bastard of American history. He falls in and out of favor. Jefferson falls in and out of favor. All I can control is the work itself. There will be times when ‘Hamiltonâ is hailed. There will be times when ‘Hamiltonâ is pilloried.â
Those will have to be different, unfamiliar times.
âThe wind will do with it as it does. All you can do is throw the kite in the air.â
â
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âHamiltonâsâ Lin-Manuel Miranda and the terrifying urgency of fame (Chicago Tribune)
The Bullet, an ensemble member with nothing to separate her from the rest but a poof of curls at the top of her head, morphs not only into a Greek Chorus member, but into a signal of death approaching until she eventually (historical spoiler alert:) approaches Hamilton at the end of the show as an embodiment of the shot that killed him.
At the start, the Bullet is indistinguishable from her fellow ensemble members. Most of the ensemble steps into the spotlight a couple times, though, as everything from named historical figures like Samuel Seabury and James Reynolds to small speaking roles, and the Bullet is no different. After âYouâll Be Back,â she steps forward for the first time as a spy receiving a letter, only to have her neck snapped by a redcoat and become the first death of the revolution. However, unlike the rest of the ensemble, who return to the anonymous chorus until their next role, the Bullet never seems to leave that first moment behind. Her next appearance as a singular character is in âStay Alive,â when she becomes the actual Bullet for the first time as she passes Hamilton by at the sound of the gunshot at the top of the song, and from that moment on, every second she is allowed the audienceâs full or even partial attention, she becomes a harbinger of death.
Though her connection to death is most apparent in Act II, she is absolutely present and aware of his role as the Bullet from the beginning. When asked about playing the Bullet in an interview with âThe Great Discontent,â Ariana DeBose, the original Bullet, said, âI always know Iâm aiming for himâeven if the rest of the ensemble members donât. So even if Iâm just a lady in a ball gown at a party, thereâs still a part of my character that knows that that moment is going to come.â Even when the spotlight is not on her, every moment the Bullet is onstage has significance. Whether itâs in âMy Shot,â when the ensemble unfreezes one by one as Hamilton moves toward them during his first recitation of the âI imagine death so much it feels more like a memoryâ monologue and the Bullet is the last one to move, her hand still outstretched toward Hamilton as he steps in front of her, or itâs in âTen Duel Commandments,â when the ensemble lines up between Hamilton and Burr, singing, âPick a place to die where itâs high and dry,â and the Bullet places herself directly at Hamiltonâs side, the connection between them is already being formed. Knowing that the Bullet is fully aware of the final meeting she and Hamilton are hurtling toward makes the short moment in âTen Duel Commandmentsâ when Hamilton looks at her lining up beside him, the only time he ever seems to truly see her before his final moments, and the pair stand side by side for numbers six and seven of the Commandments, moving through the choreography in sync, feel hugely significant in a way it never would otherwise.
Several songs later, during âYorktown,â she kills a redcoat with Laurens in South Carolina. They celebrate for a brief moment before she returns to the ensemble, and the show moves on. It until three songs later that the audience and Hamilton learn that Laurens was shot and killed in South Carolina not long after the fighting ended. It is a short and easily dismissed interaction, but this is the first moment that her actions are entwined in someoneâs death. This quick look the Bullet and Laurens share in âYorktownâ begins to feel like Laurens sealing his fate with a handshake in retrospect.
This quick tie the Bullet forms with a person as they are about to die becomes extremely important in the second act, when she really steps into her role as the Bullet. Her spoken lines, though few, are particularly significant, as every one of them eventually leads to someone getting shot â namely, Philip and Hamilton. In âBlow Us All Away,â she tells Philip exactly where to find George Eaker, the man who will kill him, singing, âI saw him just up Broadway, couple of blocks. He was going to see a play.â Philip follows her directions and challenges him to the duel that will kill him. Her only other spoken line is as one of Burrâs supporters in “The Election of 1800,â when she says, âI canât believe weâre here with himâ and flashes Burr a large, hopeful smile. Burr leaves the exchange with a fist pump, believing he has the election in the bag, only to have that hope ripped away when Hamiltonâs support of Jefferson leads to him losing the presidency and challenging Hamilton to the duel the whole show has been foreshadowing. At the start of âYour Obedient Servant,â when Burr actually challenges Hamilton, the Bullet actually pulls Burrâs desk onto the stage and hands him his quill so that he can begin his fateful letters, edging his toward the battlefield. Every action she takes ensures that Hamilton meets her one last time.
Once she has successfully gotten the pair to pull their guns on each otherâs, she appears for a final time as the actual bullet, slowly approaching Hamilton throughout the entirety of his final monologue and coming dangerously close to him as he moves, scatter-brained, across the stage. Halfway through, he steps right in her path, turns back and stumbles out of the way, and as he frantically repeats, âRise up, rise up, rise up,â she lunges for him, only to be pulled back by another ensemble member as Eliza steps in her path. Once Hamilton has been shot, she joins the ensemble once again, satisfied that the path sheâs been on since the beginning has come to an end.
â
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The Piece Of Foreshadowing In âHamiltonâ That Everyone Misses (Odyssey Online)
Leslie Odom Jr. opens up on leaving âHamilton,â his love for jazz (CBS):
Do you have any tracks [on your album] you connect with the most?
I love âAutumn Leavesâ because I loved that for a really long time. I heard many versions of that tune that I just revere, so I wasnât sure if weâd be able to find an arrangement of it that felt like it would be honest or like we were saying something new, so when we did, when we found that arrangement that felt fresh and vital. I was very happy about that.
I also loved our version of âNobody Knows When Youâre Down and Outâ because itâs certainly a high point in my career, but I remember so well a couple of years ago when the phone wasnât ringing, when I wasnât getting to talk to nice people like you about my art, so I keep those times close, even in a time like this. I remember the tough times so I enjoy singing that one as well.
How is life after âHamiltonâ? Do you miss it?
I donât have to miss it because itâs around every single day. I get stopped on the street a couple times a day. I still get to have conversations about it. I sing the songs in my concerts, so itâs still around, but I did that show about 400 times, so my body needed a break and creatively, I was ready to move onto the next challenge.
Life is great after âHamilton.â The first couple days youâre trying to process, âWas it all a dream?â Everything was the same and nothing was the same. Everything in my life had just shifted slightly, so itâs taking some getting used to. Itâs all good, nothing bad, but before âHamilton,â nobody stopped me on the train or the street so itâs taking a little getting used to the new friends that I have because of this show.
Iâll go to introduce myself to a hero of mine, somebody Iâve looked up to and theyâll already know who I am. That is totally strange. Theyâre like, âOh, Iâve seen you twice,â and Iâm like, âWhat? Youâve seen me in what?â
How did it feel to be part of a momentous Tony Awards night when black actors took home all musical acting awards?
That night I didnât notice it. I donât know if Iâve ever had a longer night. By the end of that day Iâd been up for something like 17 or 18 hours because I had to get up at 5:30 and then I had a matinee and then we had red carpet and during the Tonys we had several performances â even after I won, I had a performance after that.
So that night I didnât really notice much of anything, but afterward, Iâll say â looking at that picture of me and Renee [Elise Goldsberry], Daveed [Diggs] and Cynthia [Erivo] â I can imagine what it would have meant to me as a young teenager, when I first fell in love with the theater, what that picture would have meant to me at 14, 15 years old. Iâm proud to be a part of that image. Iâm proud to be part of that moment in time. Â
Did you know âHamiltonâ was going to be special when you auditioned?
I knew that it was special. I didnât know it was going to be successful. I never knew people would connect to it the way they have. I had no crystal ball so I couldnât see Grammy and Tony Awards, but I knew the piece of writing was rare and incredibly special. I knew what Lin [Manuel Miranda] had put down on paper, the road map heâd given people.
If we did our jobs right, I knew we could show the world something theyâd never seen before, but at every turn thereâs a chance to get things wrong so you donât know if youâre going to take the right steps. From the start it was such an unlikely success. It was such a far-fetched idea and when I was trying to describe it, no one understood what I was talking about â lots of question marks.
Do you catch yourself singing âHamiltonâ songs at home?
I really donât and I think thatâs a good thing. I was obsessed with the show before anybody heard the show. We all were. I was filled with inspiration and passion for that show for years before the world knew about it, when I heard early demos and we were part of the development. There was a fire, a desire to say something on that stage and you know, I think I really said it 400 times. I would think if there were still some part of me, that I needed to be there, that felt like I still had more to say, then I would still be there, but I think I said it, Â so I left that show for the next generation of performers to pick it up and carry it forward.
HAMILTON â I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory, whenâs it gonna get me? In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me? If I see it cominâ, do I run or do I let it be? Is it like a beat without a melody? See, I never thought Iâd live past twenty, where I come from some get half as many. Ask anybody why we livinâ fast and we laugh, reach for a flask. We have to make this moment last, thatâs plenty. Scratch that, this is not a moment, itâs the movement. Where all the hungriest brothers with something to prove went? Foes oppose us, we take an honest stand. We roll like Moses, claiminâ our promised land. And? If we win our independence? Is that a guarantee of freedom for our descendants? Or will the blood we shed begin an endless cycle of vengeance and death with no defendants?I know the action in the street is excitinâ but Jesus, between all the bleedinâ ân fightinâ Iâve been readinâ ân writinâ. We need to handle our financial situation. Are we a nation of states? Whatâs the state of our nation? Iâm past patiently waitinâ. Iâm passionately smashinâ every expectation. Every actionâs an act of creation! Iâm laughinâ in the face of casualties and sorrow. For the first time, Iâm thinkinâ past tomorrow!
Alright, so I just recently listened to this and holy shit, I cannot believe that this was not posted anywhere else??? God this is a work of art and hereâs why:
âThis bitch is askinâ for someone to bring him to task, Somebody gimme some dirt on this asshole so we can at last unmask himâ Â Damn TJeffs!!!! I just love how angry this dude gets!!!!
âHe likes taxes so much, can we enact an asshole tax?â Okay, straight up, JMads whole verse is incredible. He starts of talking about how A.Ham and him started off as colleagues and worked together for the same issues, however, after working with him for a while, he realizes that A.Ham is wildly dangerous and seems to get his way most of the time, hence the title of the song. This is why I low-key always thought that JMads hates A.Ham slightly more than TJeffs.
âLetâs lower his stack in the eyes of the nation. With misinformation, first we diminish him, then we finish him!â Â Honestly, one of the great parts of the song. The rumors they spread! WHAT A DAMN MESS!!!!!
âI HEAR HEâS GEORGE WASHINGTONâS ILLEGITIMATE SON!â My damn senior quote!!!!!!!!! I literally shouted the first time I heard this, OMG!!! HOW WAS THIS NOT PART OF THE PLAY HOLY SHIT
âHe wants to abolish slavery.â âThat oneâs actually true.â Â âNOâ
I especially love how it is mostly a TJeffs and JMads song. Like no one else is it, but our favorite Southern Mother-Fucking Democratic-Republicans! Â This such a great song and I seriously think this is one of the greatest songs ever produced in the entire musical.
I know there are wonderful things that got lost on the way to the final version. Listening to those in isolation I can totally appreciate the sense of loss.
When I think about what it was that made Hamilton so amazing, itâs that they held themselves to such a high standard. They kept honing, refining, killing their darlings, burning things away in the crucible of their zeal. They kept pushing to make it as good as it could possibly be â and then to make it even better. That included taking things â really good things â away so that what was left could shine out more clearly.
Depending on when you ask me, this could easily be my favorite song in the show. I love its giddy over-the-top energy, its emotional arc. I love this version, too. But it got better.
Iâd assumed (without following it too closely) that they were going to put the original cast on film before he left. And then there was that comment in the Leslie Odom, Jr. BTS video the other day where the visiting star mentioned that sheâd been able to sit in an available seat next to a camera filming the performance. So thatâs clearly in the works. Iâm so glad that even if I donât get to see the original cast live, Iâll be able to experience it at one remove on video.
One of the enduring curiosities of parenthood is that you have no idea what moments will endure. I can vaguely remember, so many times, doing something with Elizabeth â holding her when she was just a child or taking her to her first something or other or having one of those important heart-to-heart talks â and thinking: âOh, Iâll never forget this exact moment.â
And Iâve forgotten them. The details are lost. Oh, Iâm sure theyâre in my mind somewhere, and maybe they will emerge at some point, but right now they are gone. Her first day of school? Her first ballgame? Her first full-throated laugh? The unforgettable time that she ⌠what did she do again? Gone.
Meanwhile, other moments, silly things, pointless things, they stand out, like something red in a fog of white. A bad pun she said once. The time I helped her study for a fairly meaningless quiz. That soccer game when she stood around talking to a friend even as the ball rolled by her time and again.
So, while itâs fresh in my mind now, I cannot imagine forgetting any detail of sitting with Elizabeth while we watched Hamilton. But I will forget. I will forget the details of this difficult but hopeful year. I will forget the size of eyes as she stared at the stage and tried to memorize it. I will forget because the years pile on, and memories cloud as they bump into each other, and I barely remember where I was yesterday.
But she will remember. Thatâs the thing. She will remember every detail. She will remember it the way I remember what it was like inside Cleveland Municipal Stadium with those stupid steel beams blocking every view of the field and the wind howling off of the Lake and the smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke. She will remember every little thing about that theater, about that stage, about Linâs voice, about my jacket being around her shoulders, about Burrâs unplanned little laugh when watching King George dance, about that night.
As we walked out into New York, the echo of the show still ringing, she held on to me tight, and she stumbled because she was still inside the dream. She leaned up and kissed me on the cheek.
âAre you going to start crying again?â I asked her.
âNo,â she said, but she did, just a little, and she clung to me tighter, and I leaned down and sang in her ear:
âTheyâll tell the story of tonight.â
She smiled and wiped away her tear. âTheyâll tell the story of tonight,â she sang back.
When morning arrived, Elizabeth was as groggy and grumpy as any 14-year-old who wakes up in the morning, and when I told her that we had something to show her, she was as skeptical as any 14-year-old would be. Show what? Some educational video? A lame adult meme that isnât at all hip with the kids (Elizabeth and our other daughter Katie have started saying again and again that Iâm just not âhip with the kidsâ).
When I handed her the iPad, she looked blankly at it, and you could see her mind working around it.
Hey, this is a tweet from Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Hey, he mentions someone named Elizabeth.
Hey, wait, that Elizabeth is actually me.
And then she just started bawling. It was the most overwhelmed with emotion I think Iâve ever seen her, including when her favorite Harry Potter character died (no spoilers). She just cried and cried, and she didnât try to stop, and we didnât try to stop her. I talk about never really knowing what you will remember and what you will forget, and thatâs true. Iâm pretty sure I wonât forget that.
Heyooo! Â So Iâm not planning to finish it, currently. Â Have a bunch of other projects on the plate first. Â But hey, when things slow down (and I go see HAMILTON at the PANTAGES THEATER in LA this September, whaaaaat) then Iâll probably be unable to focus on anything BUT Hamilton boards.
One of the enduring curiosities of parenthood is that you have no idea what moments will endure. I can vaguely remember, so many times, doing something with Elizabeth â holding her when she was just a child or taking her to her first something or other or having one of those important heart-to-heart talks â and thinking: âOh, Iâll never forget this exact moment.â
And Iâve forgotten them. The details are lost. Oh, Iâm sure theyâre in my mind somewhere, and maybe they will emerge at some point, but right now they are gone. Her first day of school? Her first ballgame? Her first full-throated laugh? The unforgettable time that she ⌠what did she do again? Gone.
Meanwhile, other moments, silly things, pointless things, they stand out, like something red in a fog of white. A bad pun she said once. The time I helped her study for a fairly meaningless quiz. That soccer game when she stood around talking to a friend even as the ball rolled by her time and again.
So, while itâs fresh in my mind now, I cannot imagine forgetting any detail of sitting with Elizabeth while we watched Hamilton. But I will forget. I will forget the details of this difficult but hopeful year. I will forget the size of eyes as she stared at the stage and tried to memorize it. I will forget because the years pile on, and memories cloud as they bump into each other, and I barely remember where I was yesterday.
But she will remember. Thatâs the thing. She will remember every detail. She will remember it the way I remember what it was like inside Cleveland Municipal Stadium with those stupid steel beams blocking every view of the field and the wind howling off of the Lake and the smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke. She will remember every little thing about that theater, about that stage, about Linâs voice, about my jacket being around her shoulders, about Burrâs unplanned little laugh when watching King George dance, about that night.
As we walked out into New York, the echo of the show still ringing, she held on to me tight, and she stumbled because she was still inside the dream. She leaned up and kissed me on the cheek.
âAre you going to start crying again?â I asked her.
âNo,â she said, but she did, just a little, and she clung to me tighter, and I leaned down and sang in her ear:
âTheyâll tell the story of tonight.â
She smiled and wiped away her tear. âTheyâll tell the story of tonight,â she sang back.