LinManuel

He wrote me a REALLY nice email after the first NPH Tony Closer rap. He really liked the Landed it/Candidate rhyme. I have that email printed and framed over my piano. It's amazing how many writers he encourages and corresponds with. I feel lucky to be among them.

It's terrifying and so so fun. I write them backstage at Radio City (or the Beacon), with Tommy Kail over my shoulder saying, "That's good, that's less so, etc." NPH is a SUPERHERO. He literally gets to run through them once, maybe twice, and then he's spitting them live. These were his idea, and I'm proud to be a part of them.

The In The Heights movie question! Here is everything I know: We had a go at Universal. It got bogged down in budget issues, it's no one's fault, but it's actually a good thing that version of the movie didn't get made. We are working with a really experienced producer on finding the right partner to make the movie. That producer is working really hard. I felt a lot of pressure to get it made while Heights was running, but now the only pressure I feel is to make it as good as possible. Chicago came out 27 years after it opened on Broadway. Hopefully sooner than that.

Alabanza had like, THREE verses that encapsulated Abuela's life. It was more of a full eulogy, and we cut it because it covered some of the same ground as Paciencia y Fe. Those are good. And the Benny/Usnavi rap at the top was more of a battle: This is what I remember off the top of my head: BENNY: USNAVI PROMISE ME YOU'LL ANSWER ME HONESTLY YOU EVER SEEN ANOTHER RAPPER AS HOT AS ME SOMETHING SOMETHING SOMETHING ODD AS ME IT'S OBVIOUS USNAVI IS THE SLOPPIEST MC...

I miss that.

That infuriates me, because I really believe that school is often the one chance to get to play roles the real world might not necessarily let you play. It's supposed to be a LEARNING experience. I'll never get cast in Oklahoma! in real life, but I got to do it in school because it's SCHOOL. My advice: Get so good that they can't ignore you. That's good advice in general. I wish you luck.