A quartet of Broadway’s hottest stars joined James Corden for his latest “Carpool Karaoke” on The Late Late Show. Corden is prepping for his debut as host of the 2016 Tony Awards on June 12.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Audra McDonald, Jane Krakowski and Jesse Tyler Ferguson crammed into the car with Corden to help him get to the Tonys. The fun started immediately when the host turned on the first song of the drive, “Seasons of Love” from Rent, and everyone reacted with a long “awww.”
“Hang on. Hang on, wait. That was the most Broadway response to hearing an opening of a song,” Corden said, laughing.
“Carpool Karaoke” has become Corden’s most popular segment since he started hosting The Late Late Show in March 2015. On his first drive, he invited Mariah Carey who almost made the late-night host sing solo for the entire car trip.
Corden told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show:
She came out and said, ‘Oh, I’m not singing today,’ and she went, ‘We’ll just drive around and have a chat.’ I went, ‘Oh, right. It’s just, we call it Carpool Karaoke, so without that…’ And then I thought, I’ve just gotta go. I’ve just gotta jump into it. Even if this bit is just me singing to Mariah Carey, it’s still on the show. It may not be the recurring bit that we hope it is, but it’s still probably on the show.
Carey made the excuse that she was up all night, but she soon gave in and belted out her biggest hits like “Always Be My Baby,” “Vision of Love,” “Thirsty,” and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Fantasy.” A number of superstars followed including Adele, Elton John, Carrie Underwood, Stevie Wonder and Justin Bieber.
CBS also gave Corden a primetime special for “Carpool Karaoke” featuring Jennifer Lopez. The Late Late Show‘s YouTube channel surpassed one billion views in late April thanks to the Carpools with Adele and Bieber, who have so far accumulated 107 million and 78 million views, respectively.
While in New York preparing for his Tony’s gig, Corden stopped by his CBS battery mate’s show, Stephen Colbert, and talked about the inspiration behind “Carpool Karaoke.” It all began with George Michael.
@JKCorden explains his genius inspiration behind #CarpoolKaraoke on #LSSC