Nicholas was just so excited, he started doing more videos, he knew it all, he knew the music inside and out, backwards and forwards, all of it, haha! Of course, he had never seen it at that point, but he had studied the synopsis, he gets very intense and obsessive when he is inspired, so he wanted to make sure he understood what was going on in the songs and who was singing what to whom, you know. I was impressed with it, and I'm just really happy that other people were too, it is always nice to hear it from someone else, especially when that someone else is Lin! Straight to the top."
I discussed with her the power of being inspired, how the hope of theatre is to change us, enrich us, In The Heights certainly did with Nicholas, I asked how it took the next step now that it was clear the videos were reaching people, most of all the Broadway cast itself, "Nicholas and Lin started an online friendship, Christopher Jackson too, and I think they saw he really did have a love and passion for musical theatre, so there was a correspondence that continued, we finally had planned to go to New York, we saved over the summer, and Thanksgiving seemed perfect because school was out, so of course we'd be seeing In The Heights. Nicholas wrote Lin and Chris that he'd be coming to see the show and had hoped to meet the guys at most at the stage door, something like that, but Lin had another "idea", an idea for a new You Tube video, and of course Nicholas couldn't say ‘yes" fast enough, Lin wanted to make sure he was up for it, but you know he was "born up for it!" 
Her voice rises as she details the events leading up to the night of the show, "we went up there to New York, and Nicholas was embraced and supported in a way I never imagined he could be by the cast and crew of the show, and it was absolutely amazing, it was like I told Lin, he peered into my son's imagination and created a reality from that and that is a gift that there is no 'thank you' for, words just seem hollow. What he has done for my son is just beyond words, he gave Nicholas the power to believe that dreams do come true. Just by taking him in, and putting him up on that stage, letting him experience all that around him, but it is just to me a small part of it, because every moment off-stage mattered too, they way they interacted with him, the way they supported him and spoke to him, everybody made him believe in himself and whatever he wanted to do on that stage he could do. That is an amazing gift".
I tell her that I think that Nicholas inspired them too, Lin-Manuel Miranda had the music of In The Heights in his head since he was an inspired young man, not much older than Nicholas, there is a sense that not only were the cast members inspiring the budding Broadway performer, but he was also inspiring them, by reminding each actor how much they dreamed of the very moment they were giving him by embracing his dream as their own. For isn't that one of the dreams of why we do it, to inspire and touch someone else to create? The very heart of In The Heights is the belief in the simple inspirations that surround us everyday in our lives.
My next question to his mother was what happened at the moment that final note was sung by her son for the video, something that is a thrill to watch on the video as the lights fade, "At the end of the final take the cast began to clap for Nicholas, they completely encircled him and the cast kept clapping for him, they wrapped around him and clapped and clapped and clapped. The look on Nicholas' face at that point, the fact he was soaking up all that support, he was soaking up all the faith they had in him, at that moment the look on his face seemed like he could believe in his own dreams, he could go where he wanted to go, it was the most wonderful transformation, because in the beginning he was scared, but by that final moment,-that final take with them all around him, he was transformed." What a gift, a truly priceless gift.
Isn't that what we all see when we watch the video, we see that pure joy on his face, the joy every one of us wants with our art, why we do it, a life in the theatre? I reveal my personal inspiration to her and Nicholas about Michael Crawford, when my dreams of the theatre really became a fairly unstoppable force, it was after seeing him in The Phantom of the Opera, his power and grace in the role was unlike anything I had ever seen on a stage, much like Nicholas being transported to Washington Heights by Lin's joyous score, I was pulled deeply into the "Music of the Night" by an actor who seemed to open up his soul as he sang. Imagine my shock when I received a letter back after I had sent one of my own to him in those early days at the Majestic and soon after was invited backstage to meet the man behind the mask himself! Theresa herself is a fan of Michael Crawford, adding he inspires everybody!
Years later Mr. Crawford continues to be a source of guidance for me, just as I'm certain Lin-Manuel Miranda will continue to be for Nicholas, as a matter of fact it is Nicholas himself that best sums it up when I speak to him about his musical theatre adventure "In The Heights", "I really feel that now that everything is out there, I feel that I can make a difference, I feel that dreams can come true, you can do what you want to do, if you work hard, you can do anything if you believe in yourself." I share with him how much those final moments of the video meant, how emotional it was to watch his dream come true. For every person who dreams of standing on a stage, somewhere , anywhere, for every person who actually does stand on a stage eight times a week, and for every person that cheers them on as they do, Nicholas reminded us why we dream it and do it and live it. Because we love it and need it. That kind of passion will see us through the rough patches, just as it brought a little boy from New Orleans to the stage of the Richard Rodgers Theatre. I think the best way to end this little story is with Lin-Manuel's lyrics for the final moments of the show that inspired Nicholas Dayton to dream big;
"You hear that music in the air? Take the train to the top of the world, and I'm there, I'm Home!"
Video Shot and Edited by Craig Brockman
Interview by Eddie Varley
