Broadway offered a Florida girl an unforgettable “casting call” as stars sang to her from their computer screens.
It was a serenade surprise for Aubrey Bauman, from Central Florida, a musical theater fan, who missed out on seeing “Hamilton” on tour.
The pandemic postponed her special moment, but little did she know, her make up gift was even better.
When her birthday present — tickets to see “Hamilton” on tour — was postponed, the 9-year-old was heartbroken, and her mom took to Twitter.
“I went into my room and screamed,” Bauman said.
Mary Ann Bauman, Aubrey’s mother, said, “I tweeted that we were supposed to be at ‘Hamilton’ that night and that we were going to stay home and watch ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ instead. I tagged Lin Manuel Miranda.”
The star of Hamilton, Miranda is in “Mary Poppins Returns,” and the tweet eventually led an appearance from John Krasinski.
Krasinksi asked Bauman, “Aubrey! You’ve had a rough week I hear? And you didn’t get to see it!? This corona thing is a real bummer isn’t it?”
Aubrey was a guest on John Krasinski’s YouTube series, “Some Good News.”
“Last night, I just started watching ‘The Office,’ so now I know he’s on ‘The Office,'” she said.
Krasinksi told Aubrey, “When this is all over, I will fly you and your mom to New York, and you will see ‘Hamilton’ on Broadway, how does that sound?”
Since Aubrey spent her birthday watching “Mary Poppins Returns,” she got to meet her in the flesh.
Emily Blunt said, “Hi, Aubrey, do you like ‘Mary Poppins Returns?'”
But the surprises kept coming.
Lin Manuel Miranda then appeared, and said, “I was in ‘Mary Poppins’ too!”
Mary Ann said, “That’s when I saw her almost jump out of her seat.”
Miranda said, “Hi, Aubrey. How are you? I am so sorry you didn’t get to see ‘Hamilton.’ I am so glad to meet you.”
“I never thought I’d see him face to face. I felt I was dreaming, and I couldn’t even talk,” she said.
Miranda played a snippet of a song from the musical for Aubrey.
Aubrey said, “That’s my favorite song from ‘Hamilton.'”
It was a personal performance, one Aubrey will remember forever.
The entire cast joined in to perform the rest of the number.
They sang, “In New York you can be a new man. New York. Just you wait. Alexander Hamilton.”
Stunned, Aubrey said, “Am I having delusions? This is not real. It was just like so exciting.”
Over 8 million views later, the clip has become the talk of the internet.
Mary Ann said, “Seeing so many comments with people saying, I needed that today, I needed that happiness.”
Even a former first lady enjoyed it.
“I’ve only seen her speechless twice in my life. The first time was that call. The second time was last night when I told her Michelle Obama had seen it and commented on it,” Mary Ann said.
It turns out Aubrey’s birthday gift ended up giving everyone much-needed happiness and joy.
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