Selected audience cheered ‘Hamilton’ big Grammy win live from New York City

‘Hamilton’ blows the Grammy night away

The cast of the Broadway smash hit "Hamilton" took the stage for a rousing performance of their opening number. The cast won the Grammy Award for best musical theater album.

When the Recording Academy announced that the cast of the Broadway hit show “Hamilton” would be performing at Monday night’s Grammy Awards, many fans rejoiced because it would probably be the closest they would get to actually seeing it live.

Tickets to the freshman show are so hard to get that Stephen Colbert, standing outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York, introduced the number quipping that the soonest he could secure a seat for the show was a Sunday matinee in 2018.

The insanely talented cast led by star and writer Lin-Manuel Miranda did not disappoint for the cameras, putting on an electrifying performance of their opening number to a live audience in New York.

Family and friends of the cast as well as a select group of the press were invited to be the live taping of the show.

The excitement was palpable among guest attendees who braved snow and cold to line up outside of the Richard Rogers Theater several hours before the Grammys ceremony even began.

Inside, the excitement just grew when Colbert entered the theater after his introduction outside — the cheers for him echoed those expected for the cast.

“To be in this room where it happens (every night) is so exciting,” he told the audience before doing a dry run of the words he would be saying ahead of the performance. “‘Broadway!’ There is only one way to say that word.”

“Prepare to witness something truly special,” Colbert said during the live shot — and he was right.

Leslie Odom, Jr.’s (in the role of Aaron Burr) began like he does every night: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean, by providence impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

When Miranda first appeared, the cheering was so deafening that whatever he said after went totally unheard.

“Thank you for coming!” is all we heard Miranda to the audience after the performance.

Some 10 minutes later – in which Kendrik Lamar’s performance was piped through the speakers – Miranda and the cast went back on stage to receive the award for best musical theater album.

His rapped acceptance speech nearly broke the Internet.

“We write music, we write lyrics to tell a story. Whether you’re King Kendrick or Jeanine Tesori,” he said. “This frantic Hispanic is non-stop… the cast unstoppable, band is unbeatable, inimitable, inevitable, always inspiring me to pull through.”

After the cameras cut back to Los Angeles, it was just a party on stage. Cast member Anthony Ramos – who plays John Laurens and Philip Hamilton and was holding a Puerto Rican flag – took the award, put his arms up and just said: “This is crazy! Yo ma, this is for you!”

The audience did not want the party to end and chanted for Miranda and the cast to do another song.

His response? “Lights up in Washington Heights!”

Up next for the cast of “Hamilton” are the Tony Awards this summer, where they are expected to win everything.

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