After Saturday night’s horrific terror attack at a club in Orlando, FL, it was hard to maintain a smile at last night’s Tony Awards. For one man, even as he accepted his award for Best Original Score, the excitement was overcome by pain. Lin Manuel-Miranda, the mastermind behind Broadway’s biggest hit, Hamilton, left not a dry eye in the audience when instead of a speech, he read a sonnet he’d written in honor of victims of the Orlando shooting. The sonnet reads:
My wife’s the reason anything gets done
She nudges me towards promise by degrees
She is a perfect symphony of one,
Our son is her most beautiful reprise
We chase the melodies that seem to find us
Until they’re finished songs and start to play
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day
This show is proof that history remembers
We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger
We rise and fall and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love lasts long
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love
Cannot be killed or swept aside,
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story
Now fill the world with music love and pride
Although the words are strong enough on paper, there is nothing stronger than seeing the emotion in Lin’s face as he preaches that “love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love.” It’s also important to know that his anger and frustration didn’t just end with a speech. When ‘Hamilton’ performed later on in the evening they left out every single gun prop from the song. Now, that is a statement.