-How you doing, bud? -I'm good.
-Yes. I want to thank you for doing "Wheel of Freestyle."
You go above and beyond when you come on our show.
You don't just talk to us. You work.
You're like, "Yeah, I'll do that extra thing."
I'm like, "Thank you for always saying yes
and doing all of this stuff."
-Every time I'm on stage with these guys,
it's like a dream come true.
It's like totally my dream to be here.
Are you kidding me? [ Cheers and applause ]
-Last time you came on the show, we did a giant opening number,
"Broadway's Back." -Yes.
-And we brought everyone back.
But then, actually, Broadway came back.
-Yeah. -Congrats.
"Hamilton" reopened in September.
-Mm-hmm. [ Cheers and applause ]
We actually -- Tonight is our 2,000th performance on Broadway.
So, thank you to everyone. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Wow! -2,000th performance today.
-That's unbelievable. -Yeah.
-And Freestyle Love Supreme was back in October.
-Yeah. -And so it's out.
-It's out. Yeah, we're playing right now.
And it's been amazing.
-By the way, congrats on the Emmy.
I didn't even get a chance to say --
You won an Emmy for "Hamilton." -Yeah.
-Yeah. Another -- -I didn't know that was a thing.
-No.
But I got to say, I respect you for just keeping your head on,
because you have 30 projects out now that are all quality stuff.
Amazing stuff.
Tonight, you're going to the premiere
of the new Disney movie "Encanto."
-Yep. -Which is in theaters
November 24th.
You did all the music for that.
And I will say --
Was it over the summer I saw somewhere, by the way?
"Moana's" soundtrack became
the number-one soundtrack of all-time.
-Yes, thank you for -- [ Cheers and applause ]
I think that's because there's nothing scary in "Moana."
So it's just, like --
For every parent, it's like, "Here, I have e-mails to return.
Like, watch 'Moana.'" [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. It's just comfort.
-"I'll be right back." -No, it's so good.
-Yeah, no, I'm really proud of it.
-Did you ever think that you'd write
a smash hit song for the Rock, for Dwayne Johnson?
[ Laughter ] -No.
What was amazing about that --
I know you have Roman Reigns on later tonight.
I got to meet him backstage, but I figured out
how he could sing because of his wrestling videos.
He was a bad guy for a while in the WWE.
And he would pull out a ukulele.
And he would go like ♪ Can't wait to get out of ♪
whatever town he was in, and they would boo him.
And so I watched a super cut of him taunting people
with a ukulele to find out his vocal range.
-Wow! -Yeah.
-And that's how you did "You're Welcome."
-Yeah. -Unbelievable.
You made your directorial debut with "Tick, tick... Boom!"
Congratulations. -Thank you very much.
-I remember talking about this.
I mean, this is years in the making.
-Yeah. -Years in the making.
I looked at your IMDB page, 'cause I just --
that's what I do to research.
-Yeah. Thank you.
-Yeah, no problem, yeah. Like I don't know you enough.
But I saw that this is not
your first director credit, weirdly enough.
-I know. -Yeah.
-So, in the early days of IMDB,
you didn't need to prove you'd made a movie.
And my friend Adam Rauscher and I made a 40-minute movie
over the course of three sleepovers...
[ Laughter ]
...in 10th grade called "Clayton's Friends."
It literally was a sleepover movie with, like, my friend.
-Can we zoom in? 'Cause I love --
"Clayton's Friends." -"Clayton's Friends."
-Yeah. -I can't get it off IMDB.
[ Laughter ]
I was 16 years old. [ Applause ]
-Nope. Forever. The rest of your life. "Clayton's Friends."
-It exists in two VHSes in the world.
-I love that it's on there. -Yeah.
-It's so good. -Yeah.
-Well, "Tick, Tick... Boom!", it's in theaters now.
-It's in theaters now.
The amazing Tariq Trotter is in "Tick, Tick... Boom!"
[ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah. Dude, they're great.
You were fantastic, by the way. -Thank you.
-Jonathan Larson.
It's a story -- It's about Jonathan Larson.
Can you tell everyone who he was?
-Yeah. Jonathan Larson is most known to the world
as the composer of "Rent," which knocked me flat
when I saw it for my 17th birthday.
I was in the back row of the Nederlander Theatre,
and it was the most contemporary musical I'd ever heard.
It was the most diverse cast I'd ever seen on Broadway.
It gave me hope that I could maybe be in a Broadway show
because it looked like the New York I actually live in.
And it was about artists sort of struggling to survive.
And I knew I wanted that life for myself.
And, you know, so I became a theater major.
I started writing musicals because I saw "Rent."
And, you know, when I was a senior in college --
now I'm a senior -- I'm a theater major. I did it.
I followed Jonathan Larson's advice.
And I saw the off-Broadway version of
"Tick, Tick... Boom!", which was directed by Scott Schwartz
and turned into an off-Broadway musical by David Auburn,
who rewrote Jonathan Larson's -- an early work of Jonathan's.
And it was autobiographical. -Yeah.
-He wrote this show about turning 30
and no one producing his work yet.
And it was like a sneak preview of my 20s.
It was like a personal message that was like, "Hey, Lin.
All those talented friends of yours are gonna get real jobs."
-Yeah. -"And they're going to grow up.
And you're going to be the only one banging your head
against the wall of your childhood dream.
And, like, do you still want to do this?
And the world may never notice anything you write.
Are you okay with that?" -"Are you okay with that?"
-And it was clarifying for me.
It was just -- I remember I had, like, a stomachache.
I staggered out of the theater.
And -- And it was -- it made me realize, like --
It made me fully commit to, you know...
-What you're doing. -...to what I'm doing.
-Yeah. I want -- -I hope it --
Oh, you're going to show people. -Well, no. I won't show a clip.
I want to show a clip from the movie,
but I want to talk more about it.
More with Lin-Manuel Miranda when we come back.