Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend

31. Lin-Manuel Miranda

Actor, composer, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda feels great about being Conan O’Brien’s friend. Lin-Manuel and Conan sit down this week to chat about the perks of youth theatre, rhyming as a superpower, the magic of Queen & David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” and handling the immeasurable success of 'Hamilton.' Plus, Conan comes clean about a…

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• Lin-Manuel Miranda

Notes

1. ▶

   What Does Lin-Manuel Miranda Think of the David Bowie and Freddie Mercury Song, “under Pressure”

   at 27:44

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   Lin-Manuel said that the song initially made him "burst into tears" and caused him to consider it much more critically than an ordinary pop song. He concluded that the song's wild introduction, featuring Mercury's "borderline insane" vocal gymnastics, masked David Bowie's powerfully emotional reprise at the conclusion of the song. That reprise appears to continually ascend a musical scale and clarifies that Under Pressure is about caring for people going through very difficult times on the "margins of society".

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