Tracy Morgan & Lin-Manuel Miranda Revive “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” Rap At “30 Rock” Reunion
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Tracy Morgan performed “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” with Lin-Manuel Miranda for the 30 Rock cast’s 20th anniversary reunion.
The pair closed Sunday night’s show at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, backed by musicians and dancers, The Hollywood Reporter reported. The performance capped a night of sketches and cast appearances that raised money for Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Earlier, Jack McBrayer tested Morgan and Tina Fey on lines from old episodes, with the pair trying to fill in the blanks. Morgan’s answers prompted Fey to ask, “did you even watch the program?”
The song began as a short joke about Morgan’s character, Tracy Jordan, and his attempt to make a novelty hit. It ran in the 2007 episode “Jack Gets in the Game” before the writers made a full version.
Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, helped write and voice the longer track. Writers Robert Carlock and Tami Sagher discussed his role with LAist in 2018. Glover filled in for Morgan at the mic and added spoken ad-libs, Sagher said.
“Some of the vocal on the long version of Tracy is actually Donald doing a pretty amazing Tracy impression,” Carlock said.
Sagher said Jeff Richmond, who wrote music for the show, wanted to turn the bit into a full song. She wrote a first draft, and Carlock urged her to have Jordan lose his train of thought as he went along.
Radio City billed the reunion as “never-to-be-televised.” THR reported that Fey asked fans not to film the show because the cast and crew weren’t recording it either.
