A Florida girl recently got a huge surprise for her 9th birthday.
Nine-year-old Aubrey Bauman of Winter Haven had tickets to see Hamilton here in Jacksonville, but she was heartbroken when the performance was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Aubrey’s mom, Mary Ann tweeted about it, and spoke with Melissa Ross on Thursday’s First Coast Connect:
"I had just tweeted that we weren't going to be able to go, because obviously everything was canceled, and that we were going to watch Mary Poppins Returns in bed. And then out of the blue, I heard from SGN and John about Aubrey taking part in the show, and then they brought it all together. It was just amazing.”
Mary Ann’s post caught the attention of actor John Krasinski, who along with his wife, actress Emily Blunt, reached out. They invited Aubrey onto the second episode of Some Good News, his new online show aimed at highlighting uplifting stories during these tough times.
Related: Listen to the full interview on Thursday's First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross
Once Aubrey joined the Zoom call, this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqvVL8IurMw
No, you're eyes are not deceiving you - Lin Manuel-Miranda, who created and starred in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton, joined the Zoom call, along with a number of castmates! And they performed Aubrey’s favorite song from the show, “Alexander Hamilton.”
Aubrey told Ross, “It was, like crazy exciting and I thought I was having delusions.”
The surprise quickly went viral, and Mary Ann said that it was nice to see social media working in a positive way, not just for Aubrey, but for others, as well:
“Both to make her day brighter, but then reading all the comments about how many people literally around the world had their day brightened by just watching the video is [nice], and especially now when everything going on is so crazy.”
Krasinski also promised to fly Aubrey and her family to New York to see Hamilton after the pandemic ends.
Aubrey told Ross how excited she is for that: “On a scale of one to ten, let’s take it to a million.“
Watch the full Some Good News episode here:
If you had tickets to Hamilton, click here for more information about what to do with your tickets.
Contact Heather Schatz at hschatz@wjct.org.
