Freestyling the lyrics to the closing number of the 2013 Tony Awards

Neil Patrick Harris closed out his hosting duties on the 2013 Tony Awards on Sunday night with a freestyle rap and backing melodies from five-time Tony winner Audra McDonald.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail, Tony winners themselves for In The Heights and also erstwhile founding members of Freestyle Love Supreme, once again were called in for deadline duty to provide the lyrics for NPH.

Today on Twitter, Miranda allowed us behind the scenes with an early lyric sheet, writing: “The dummy lyrics I wrote for the closing # before any winners happened. We needed something for orchestrations.”

2013tonys-closingnumber-lyrics

And here is the finished product. Roll it!

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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