Upon the conclusion of curtain calls, the Hamilton cast recreated the finale of the older show’s opening number, arraying itself in a line across the stage of the Newman Theater, holding their real-life resume photos in front of their faces and singing, “Who am I anyway/Am I my resume?...”
Led by their composer/star Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Hamiltonians then performed “What I Did for Love” in its entirety for the Chorus Liners, who had been invited to attend that evening.
The guests were then invited up onto the stage where they mingled with their hosts, wept, hugged and sang another brief reprise of What I Did for Love as Public Theater Executive Director Oskar Eustis unveiled a plaque that will be installed in the lobby of the Public marking it as the birthplace of the long-running musical about the lives of Broadway dancers.
Eustis spoke without notes from the stage, linking the two musical and putting them in a larger perspective. "This is one of the most moving nights that I have ever spent in the theatre," he said. "I am so grateful to look at these artists on this stage, because forty years ago A Chorus Line reinvented the American musical. What Chorus Line did was, it it said, 'Let's for a moment take the spotlight off the star of the show and let's turn the spotlight on the people who are making the show work, who actually built it, who devote their lives to it. Let's not just turn the spotlight on them, let's actually ask them their story. Let's find out who they are. Let's find out how they got here.' And let's say, 'You know what? That's the real show.' They did that and they changed the nature of the American musical theatre. But they also gave it to a country, to a city, that was bankrupt. A city, a country, where unemployment was running rampant, where inflation was going crazy. Where people were looking for a job. And Chorus Line held out the idea to them that they deserved to have a job that recognized their dream of who they are. . .a job that that didn’t negate themselves, but embraced themselves. And that dream was embraced by this country. It was an extraordinary thing that Chorus Line did--not just for the theatre, but for America. And I tell you, it's what Hamilton is doing too.
