For her ninth birthday, all Aubrey wanted was to see the smash-hit musical Hamilton staged in Jacksonville, Florida. But the coronavirus shutdown meant she had to miss the production and stay at home, watching the show’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in Mary Poppins Returns instead. So imagine Aubrey’s delight when she was invited to appear on John Krasinski’s new online show Some Good News, where the host not only announced he was getting her tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway at some future date, but also introduced her to Mary Poppins (well, his actor wife Emily Blunt, star of Mary Poppins Returns). Aubrey is distinctly less excited about meeting Krasinski (“I’ve never really seen The Office or whatever,” she deadpans.)

Watch from 8 mins 27 secs for Hamilton section

However, there was a big revelation to come. Miranda joined the show on Zoom, saying “I think we can top that right now”, and delivered a surprise birthday gift that has delighted musical theatre fans around the world. He plays the opening notes to the show’s first song, Alexander Hamilton, and suddenly up pops Leslie Odom Jr, who played Aaron Burr in the show, to sing his lines. Odom Jr is then joined by a string of Hamilton cast members including Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs and Anthony Ramos, performing in kitchens, studies and living rooms, along with Miranda, who delivers his part in closeup.

For Aubrey, who rates her Hamilton fandom as “a million” on a scale of 1-10, seeing her favourite song from the show performed by the cast is just too much. The episode has already had more than 800,000 views on YouTube. “Thanks for putting the band back together,” Diggs tweeted later.