It was a warm summer afternoon in the Manhattan neighborhood, Inwood. A small seven year old boy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, was sitting at the dinner table completing his homework. His mother was in the kitchen preparing for dinner, his father was on his way home from work, and his sister was doing whatever girls do in their room. However, schoolwork is boring and the house was too quiet to work in, the only source of noise being pencil on paper and his mother preparing food.
Mother must have noticed him spacing out because after a few seconds of Lin-Manuel staring at nothing she said, “The house is feeling awfully quiet don’t you think? Why don’t we listen to some of our records?”
The little boy looks up and nods his head furiously, jumping out of his seat to grab their record player and setting it on the table. “Lin,” his mother exclaimed from the kitchen, “this time can you choose the record? My hands are a little busy right now.”.
Walking over to the shelves the little boy raised his hands to grab the wide variety of records stored in a big folder. Closing his eyes he flipped through the records, and grabbed a random one. He looked away after opening his eyes so he didn’t see the record. Lin always does this when picking music. He loves the surprise, and it helps him explore new genres of music.
After putting the record into the player, music began to fill the house. Instruments and lyrics blended together, creating a beautiful song that seemed to dance in the room. Lin did not bother looking at the title, he instead sat down to thoroughly enjoy the song. After a few minutes passed his mother remembered something and told Lin, “Make sure to finish your homework, we’re traveling this school break!”.
Afterwards Lin begrudgingly finished his homework, ate dinner, and got ready for bed. He double-checked that all of his homework was done and sat down. The moon was high in the sky, signalling he should go to sleep. However, he wasn’t tired, so he started to pack up for the trip.
In the morning, Lin groggily got ready for school. He was dreading going back to school, but the knowledge of a surprise afterwards put a little pep in his step. “Good morning Luz.” Lin said as he walked past the kitchen, his sister was already eating breakfast.
The surprise got Lin very excited, maybe a little too excited. Because after he got on the bus, school zoomed by. Clock hands turned faster than pinwheels on a windy day. The next thing he knew Lin was exiting the school, and driving to the airport with his family. “Mom, where are we going again?” Luz asks as they go through security.
“We’re going to London.” their mother says as they head to their plane.
The plane ride was long, but for Lin it felt like centuries. He could barely sit still in his seat, he was so excited. Finally the agonizingly long plane ride was over, and his family was in and out of their hotel. Then, the group of four were walking into a large building with the words Sondheim Theater on the front of the building. While his mother and father were talking about their plans in the theater Lin purposely did not listen to their conversation. He wanted whatever was behind those doors to be a complete surprise. The only thing he saw were the words Les Miserables standing large and proud on a poster above the theater doors.
As his family found their seats the lights dimmed, indicating that the musical had begun. During the musical Lin found out the protagonist’s name is Jean Valjean and the setting is somewhere near France. Lin puts his full attention to the stage, what’s happening, who’s singing, the stage design, everything and anything he can. Since he was not able to tear his eyes away from the stage, he was not able to get any of the song names on the pamphlet given. Not that it mattered much, he loved all the songs he heard. The lyrics expressed the story and character’s emotions so smoothly. Lin was so immersed in the musical he almost forgot he was in a theater.
After the best few hours of his life the musical ended, an upbeat song played in the background as all the characters in the cast joined hands and bowed. People in the crowded audience, including Lin, were clapping and applauding the actors .
His family spent a few more days in London, mostly sightseeing and eating different kinds of food Lin couldn’t pronounce. He was enjoying every second of this trip, mostly likely because he is still in post-musical euphoria. The next thing he knew he was walking onto the plane to Manhattan.
He wasn’t that sad to be leaving London, it might be because he had to leave the records in his house, unable to bring the record player across the sea. Sadly, Lin probably would not be hearing those beautiful records until tomorrow, it was far too late in the night to be jamming to a record in the living room.
However, Lin has been laying down in bed for a while with no luck falling asleep, the musical Les Miserables was still playing like a tape in his mind. The way that the stage design, songs, acting, dialog, and even lights brought the whole story together was so satisfying and amazing.
“I wonder if I’ll be able to do that when I grow up” Lin said as he fell asleep, dreaming about stories and songs he could make in the morning.