We Are Freestyle Love Supreme

Whatever you want to say, Meredith.

We'll sing about it.

We'll sing about it.

Wow, Meredith's pretty lucky.

Absolutely.

Mm.

‐ Who's that guy?

Taking it to the streets.

Don't do it.

Frogger, Frogger, Frogger!

‐ What?

All right, let's bring it in, then.

Mic check on three, mic check on three, ready?

One, two, three.

Mic check!

Well, I think the story we're telling is that, like,

things aren't linear. I don't know.

I mean...

Real life's not a linear narrative.

It's not this and this and this, like, ascent.

It's all these side journeys, and people move away,

and they come back, and life gets complicated.

And you...

you keep going.

There's no end point.

What's that quote? It's Orson Welles's quote

that was, "If you want to tell a story with a happy ending,

it depends on where you end the story."

LIN‐MANUEL: How are you?

Nice to meet you. LIN‐MANUEL: Nice to meet you.

Onto the stage? I would prefer

not to be last 'cause I have to get‐‐

LIN‐MANUEL: Good morning, good night.

I can't be your clown.

Great. Cody, you ready?

Yep, take it away.

Shall we move into pet peeves?

Great.

And our freestyling‐‐ how many‐‐let's go from this.

Thank you so very much. Freestyle Love Supreme.

How many of you seen us before?

Yes. Single.

Well, for those of you just joining us,

our freestyling is slightly different.

It's not the skiing or the dancing or the swimming.

Our freestyling starts with a beat.

‐

What? That's cool.

‐

Great. Let's hold there.

So, Shock, when they're ready for us,

just back up to, like, just finishing the rewind,

and then smashing the record. We can go from there, okay?

So it's rewind through‐‐ this is all rewind.

‐ Yep, start with the rewind cue.

Yep. Great, great, great. Let them work.

One sec.

Oh, that switch.

‐

Yeah, okay.

‐ Great, and continuing on, continuing on.

I think we decided to get back together

because it's probably the purest expression of joy

that any of us have ever felt in doing a show.

‐ Shall we put Lin‐Man Wiz Gal into it?

Okay. Great.

We hadn't done a run in New York really since 2004.

We'd been doing one‐offs and consistent shows

for the last 13, 14 years.

And the last couple years have been tougher

to wrangle everybody, and it just felt like

there's an opportunity for us to get together

for one more ride.

We are Freestyle Love Supreme,

but we don't love everything.

Sometimes we downright just don't like stuff.

So what are some things that you don't like?

Cold. Cold!

Yes. Camouflage.

Camouflage!

LIN‐MANUEL: I'm gonna take camouflage.

Camouflage.

So over here, U. T. K., we have‐‐

'cause you're gonna be going first, yep.

Over here, we have U. T. K.

‐ Crowds. ‐ Crowds.

In the middle, we have taxes.

And over here, we have‐‐

‐ Camouflage! Who needs it?

These are a few of your pet peeves.

There's an energy around the show that's unlike

any of the other things that we've done.

And you see a lot of elements of this energetic field

in our other work.

But I feel like it was cultivated and shaped here,

so the chance to get back together as grown‐ups,

this thing that we started as

these younger versions of ourselves...

It felt like there is a window because

apparently, you can be 40 and rapping.

Here we are, most of us on this side of 40,

or just on the other side of 40.

And it isn't something you can do always,

but it did feel like it's something we could do now.

That's twice the subject has been on my underwear

in FLS history.

I'll take camouflage.

That's just the craziest thing ever.

Oh!

You're welcome.

Um, this is the squad tonight.

Lin is gonna jump in for Day in the Life.

Just at the end, so we're not gonna tease that he's here.

‐ When Lin does stuff, the audience is gonna, like,

applaud for a long time,

so musically and whatever, let's leave room for it,

and be prepared for it.

You know, the one thing about the show

that I found to be true over the years,

you know, whether we're doing the show

for 50 people ten years ago

or whether we're doing the show now,

which is that the way that you all listen to each other

and engage with each other up there

is the real magic trick.

Everyone thinks it's the other stuff and the rhyming,

but that's actually what it is.

You know, the show has a very simple premise,

which is we are going to entertain

the hell out of you for 78 minutes,

and then, like, two minutes are not gonna be great.

Something is happening that should be acknowledged.

We're all together doing this thing again.

It's‐‐I mean, it shouldn't be. It is.

Just, like, you guys, instead of playing ping‐pong,

the beat is‐‐is Shockwave.

So it's a mind ball?

So there's no ball, okay?

But you're sort of doing freestyle

and going back and forth

and it looks like you're playing.

‐ And I‐‐I'll keep doing this.

But all we're gonna see‐‐

‐ Yes. Yes, exactly, Sherm.

We had no idea what we were getting into.

I don't think any of us would've said,

"Oh, yeah, this is the beginning

of this crazy journey,"

where a lot of the people in Freestyle Love Supreme

are shaping what the American theater looks like now.

Oh, look at Lin's boxers. That's not what I expected.

You know, there's a reason why "love"

is in the middle of the title of the show.

And it's in the middle of what makes the show...

everything that it is.