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Coverage: 16th Annual Backstage at the Geffen

[ Written on May 22 2018 by ]

On May 19, Lin-Manuel Miranda joined Dick Van Dyke at the Backstage at the Geffen, at the Geffen Playhouse, where they were both honored. Miranda was presented the Education Impact Award.
Check out photos and videos below!

   
 

 

 


Business News posted a report of the event. Under the cut you can read the bits about Miranda.

  • Two-time Backstage at the Geffen host Aisha Tyler opened the show with a tribute to the evening’s honorees. “It is artists such as Dick and Lin-Manuel that exemplify art’s capacity to change the national and international conversation. Apart from the years of entertainment they’ve given us all, we owe them a debt of gratitude for continually teaching us how we can use our chosen art forms to change the world. And since we are all here tonight in support of the Geffen Playhouse, I think it’s fair to remind you that from the very beginning, the very first chosen art form of these two legends was theater.”
  • The show opened with a seven-minute original work created by So You Think You Can Dance’s Emmy Award-winning choreographer Mia Michaels, featuring a mashup of music from Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hamilton and In the Heights performed by 16 hip-hop, modern and Latin ballroom dancers. The performance brought the audience to its feet for the evening’s first standing ovation.
  • Emmy Award-winning comedian Billy Crystal […] most recently, experiencing the joy of live performance through his grandson, who dressed as Lin-Manuel Miranda for Halloween. When asked why he chose to be Miranda rather than Alexander Hamilton, his grandson replied, “Because Lin-Manuel wrote everything, the music, the book, the lyrics. What did Hamilton ever do?”
  • Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Regina Spektor performed a medley of “Jolly Holiday” and “Chim Chim Cher-ee” followed by her cover of “Dear Theodosia” from The Hamilton Mixtape, which she sang live for Miranda for the first time.
  • 86-year-old EGOT award-winner Rita Moreno presented Miranda with the Education Impact Award with an original rap about his influence on American theater, arts education and his dedication to relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
  • Honoree Lin-Manuel Miranda, who shared that he played Bernardo in his sixth grade production of West Side Story, accepted his award from Moreno and told the audience, “My heart is totally full and I’m totally speechless. Speechless is weird for me. That doesn’t happen often.” He paid tribute to fellow honoree Van Dyke and let the audience in on a family secret: that his son goes to bed listening to Spektor’s version of “Dear Theodosia” but believes it’s sung by his mother.
  • Accepting the award for Distinction in Theater, Dick Van Dyke, at 92-years-old, […] After lively versions of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “Step in Time,” he closed the show by inviting all of the evening’s artists, including Miranda, and guests to accompany him onstage for an impromptu sing-a-long of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”

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