Previewing We Are Freestyle Love Supreme

Sometimes it seems like some celebrities just enter the public consciousness just fully formed with a blank slate before then. Lin Manuel Miranda just arrived as the Hamilton dude. Sure the theaters nerds probably remember him from In the Heights but there was a time Miranda was on stage even before that production. But his first off Broadway show was not even a musical but an improve comedy hip-hop show. And the thing about Freestyle Love Supreme, Miranda was not even the founder of the troupe or even the main star, but just a guy in the show.

But Lin-Manuel is definitely the reason there is a documentary called We Are Freestyle Love Supreme about the show even though watching it, you can easily forget he was a part of the group. And it is not like the other members went on to be big stars. Christopher Jackson, the original George Washington in Hamilton was a late addition and so was Utkarsh Ambudkar whom you may have seen in a few things including being one of the Treblemakers in Pitch Perfect but has not had that breakout moment yet. Miranda also mentions in the doc that he met Daveed Diggs through the show but never elaborates on the story. The others members are just college buddies that recruited Miranda because of their mutual love of hip-hop.

The documentary does devolves a little into Behind the Music tropes of having darker moments. There are hints of jealousy when Hamilton takes up a lot of three of the member’s time (director Thomas Kail being the third), the leader of the group moves to the west coast after getting married, and things get the darkest when Ambudkar tells the tale of hard drinking ruined his shot of being Aaron Burr in the original run of Hamilton. As Miranda says early in the doc quoting Orsen Wells, ”If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story. “

But the story of Freestyle Love Supreme does not stop there; instead the group gets back together for a string of shows in 2019. Besides those small bumps, the documentary is overwhelmingly positive and the love the guys have for each other and performing. Improv shows can usually be a tough watch and comedy-hip-hop improv is downright cringy especially with a name like Freestyle Love Supreme, but the love these guys have for each other and for their show may be worth checking out if they ever do another reunion show down the line, and not just because Lin-Manuel Miranda would likely show up.

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme premieres tomorrow on Hulu.