His rap during a ‘Hamilton’ sing-a-long took an unexpected turn in front of the crowd

Amanda Bledsoe thought something was up in the days leading to the early June “Hamiltunes,” the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center’s singalong of selections from the wildly popular, multiple Tony-winning “Hamilton.”

Her boyfriend, Andrew Pippin, 30, confirmed their attendance with her a time too many.

“I had my suspicions,” said Bledsoe, 30.

They were justified. Pippin had orchestrated what their friends called Bledsoe’s perfect proposal. Pippin turned the words from the opening song in “Hamilton” – based on the life of the “10-dollar founding father “ – into a paean to Bledsoe.

Bledsoe, who inspires her theater students at Mint Hill’s Rocky River High with the PBS documentary “Hamilton’s America,” could not “Say No to This.”

Pippin memorized the proposal he delivered in front of their friends and an audience of about 350 at the Levine Center for the Arts pavilion:

Listen well, and I’ll tell you about the girl that you see

Standing here in front of me, patiently but nervously.

You think she’s terrestrial, but I know that she’s heavenly.

She is such a Marvel, we should call her Stan Lee.

This is the part I compare her to superheroes.

Like the films, ‘The Avengers,’ have you seen those?

Of course, you have when $20 billion’s close to what they’ve grossed.

And just like their cast list, my love for her grows and grows.

To quote a line from “Hamilton,” Pippin “blew them all away.”

A shared obsession

The couple met in 2005 in their senior-year English class at Butler High. They lost contact when Bledsoe went to UNC Charlotte and Pippin to UNC Chapel Hill but reconnected in Charlotte in 2014.

That’s when Bledsoe also encouraged Pippin to try out for the theater company Bledsoe founded, Black and White Theatre Company, which was holding auditions for Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

Pippin, a project manager at a local software company is comfortable on stage; he performs stand-up comedy and plays music at open mic nights.

“Andrew introduced me to ‘Hamilton,’” Bledsoe said, “which is funny because I’m the theater person.”

The couple has yet to see “Hamilton” but hope to catch the show when it comes to Charlotte Oct. 10-Nov. 4. They already know all the words. Pippin knows them well enough to have rewritten them. His proposal continued:

I could write a litany – verse, prose or poetry

On all the things she means to me, and all the things she makes me be.

‘She likes the spotlight’

There were other times over the past three years where Bledsoe thought Pippin was going to propose, and he hadn’t. So despite her suspicions about Hamiltunes, she said she “tried not to get too excited.” (“I’m a typical guy,” Pippin said. “I drag my feet a little.”)

On the big night, the Blumenthal’s Becky Bereiter made sure all went smoothly. “Andrew emailed … a very detailed plan that we loved, and we just went with it,” she said.

“I don’t like to do things small,” Pippin said. “Go big or go home.”

Not every bride-to-be would revel in an on-stage proposal, but Pippin knew Bledsoe would. “She doesn’t get embarrassed,” he said. “She likes the spotlight.”

Toward the end of his rap, Pippin used a counting motif that recurs throughout the musical:

We have grown together, and it feels our love is boundary-less

Our future is unwritten, but our history comes down to this:

One, I talked to her

Two, I dated her

Three, I fell for her

Four, I lived with her

And five, I bought a dog with her!

After Bledsoe said “yes,” the couple stuck around for a few more songs. They waited for “Satisfied,” which includes the lyric: “A toast to the groom! To the bride!” But then it was time to leave and toast with friends over pizza.

When the couple marries on Jan. 5., 2019, they’ll likely play a selection from “Hamilton” at the reception at Charlotte Ballet. Said Bledsoe: “We’ll bring it full circle.”

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

This story was originally published September 18, 2018 at 4:46 PM.