last night on late night

Lin-Manuel Miranda Gets You Ready for Broadway With a Big, Splashy Tonight Show Number

Broadway won’t be returning until September, but director John M. Chu’s adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights arrives in theaters and on HBO Max this Thursday, so hopefully that’ll get you through the summer. But what will get you through Thursday?! Well, you can watch the first eight minutes of In the Heights on YouTube for the twelfth time, or you can enjoy Miranda’s valentine of a musical number “Broadway’s Back” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which finds the pair welcoming back shows like Phantom of the Opera, Six, Chicago, Dear Evan Hansen, West Side Story, Moulin Rouge, Aladdin, Wicked, Hamilton, Book of Mormon, and Come From Away.

“I miss drinking wine out of sippy cups/And a $20 snack,” sings Miranda. “A night at the theater, my favorite kind of date/I even miss the people who always show up late.” Joining them is Miranda’s In the Heights costars Jimmy Smits and Olga Merediz, Late Show’s own Melania Trump Laura Benanti, Kristin Chenoweth, Christopher Jackson, and Phylicia Rashad, not to mention two dozen professional dancers who haven’t had a chance to perform for a live studio audience for 15 months. Look at them go! Can we please fit 15 months worth of dance numbers into the next three months before Broadway officially opens again? Can we at least try?

Lin-Manuel and Fallon Get You Ready for Broadway’s Return