Students give surprise performance
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School drama department received a standing ovation at Monday’s Tony Awards.
The crowd was full of emotion after the rousing rendition of Seasons of Love from the Broadway musical Rent by the students from the Parkland, Florida., high school as a surprise to drama teacher Melody Herzfeld, who protected her students during the school shooting in February.
After an introduction from Glee star Matthew Morrison, the students took the stage to honour Herzfeld’s win for the excellence in theatre education prize during the awards, singing the familiar refrain from the popular musical number.
‘‘Our Broadway family wants to give and say thanks to you, by sharing the stage with you and your classmates,’’ Morrison said.
One student’s moving solo during the song brought some audience members and fans on social media to tears.
One user tweeted: ‘‘I don’t know how to process this but I know I’m tearing up.
Another user was also brought to tears, tweeting: ‘‘I’ll just be in my corner quietly sobbing.’’
Yet another fan commented that Rent ‘‘is a musical about resilience ... Couldn’t be more fitting for the Parkland kids to be singing something from it.’’
The performance comes just one week after the Stoneman Douglas graduation ceremony, where graduating seniors honoured four of their slain classmates. – TNS President Donald Trump said that his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, suffered a heart attack and was being treated yesterday at a military hospital.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later told reporters that Kudlow was in ‘‘good condition’’ and ‘‘doing well’’ after suffering a ‘‘mild’’ heart attack.
Kudlow was being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland.
‘‘Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack,’’ Trump wrote from Singapore just minutes before his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, had joined Trump last week in Quebec, Canada, for what became a contentious meeting of the Group of Seven world leaders. – AP