"The Story of Tonight" is the fourth song from Act 1 of the musicalHamilton, based on the life ofAlexander Hamilton, which premiered onBroadway in 2015. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote both the music and lyrics to the song.

The song recounts a meeting which occurred in 1776 betweenAlexander Hamilton,John Laurens,Hercules Mulligan andMarquis de Lafayette. In the song, the four young revolutionaries declare their loyalty and fealty to the newly-startedAmerican Revolutionary War, and consume alcohol in a bar as they talk, toasting every now and then. They state that their liberty and freedom can never be taken from them, and that there will soon be more people joining theircause. They also confess that they are willing to die in the fight, which Laurenseventually did.

The song has two reprises in the first act of the musical:

The first reprise of the song is the twelfth song in Act One of the musical. It takes place following the wedding of Alexander Hamilton andElizabeth Schuyler in 1780. The group from the first rendition of the song is reunited, all of them drunk from the party and jokingly singing about the consequences of his marriage. They refer to Alexander as "the tomcat", referencing a moniker given to him byMartha Washington as a result of his promiscuous nature. Mulligan states that he is "newly not poor", as he has married into the wealthySchuyler family. Their drunken festivities are interrupted by the arrival ofAaron Burr, who had recently been promoted to the rank oflieutenant colonel. Hamilton expresses envy at Burr's command, and Burr congratulates Hamilton on his nuptials, and Laurens inquires as to Burr's own romantic status. Hamilton dismisses his friends and Burr reveals that he is unlawfully consorting withthe wife ofa British officer. Hamilton asks Burr why he is so hesitant to be with this woman if he loves her, a question that leads Burr to reveal his world-view and philosophy in the next song, "Wait for It".

A second reprise of "The Story of Tonight", titled "Tomorrow There'll Be More of Us/Laurens' Interlude" ("The Laurens Interlude" in the Off-Broadway version), occurs in the show near the end of Act One. Hamilton is working at home when his wifeEliza informs him that he has received a letter fromSouth Carolina. Hamilton puts off reading the letter, believing it to be from John Laurens. However, Eliza reveals that the letter is actually from Laurens' father. At Hamilton's request, she reads the letter aloud, delivering the news of Laurens' death in theBattle of the Combahee River, and all the black soldiers that were with him had either been killed or captured and returned to their owners. This battle had occurred because the British troops in the southern territories had not yet received word that the war had ended, meaning that Laurens had died for no reason. In most stage productions, Lafayette and Mulligan are seen in the background as they read the same letter of their friend's death, though they don't speak or sing. Laurens' father laments that his son's dream of freedom for his people as well as his plans for the first "black battalion" have died with him. As the scene plays, a ghost-like Laurens appears and interjects lines from "The Story of Tonight", suggesting that he held on to the beliefs espoused in the song to the very end. Hamilton suppresses his emotional reaction to the news, saying only that he has "so much work to do," leading directly into "Non-Stop", the act's finale number.

The song was not included on the original Broadway cast recording. Miranda explained that it was "more of a scene than a song, the only scene in the [sung-through] show", and he wanted to reserve the impact of "at least one revelation" that could be experienced more fully onstage.^[1]

The song stylistically differs from many other songs in the musical due to the absence ofhip-hop elements. Elizabeth Logan wrote that the song demonstrates the "characters' naïveté" as they are consumed with dreams of glory.^[2]

The song is referenced multiple times in the musical, most importantly in "The World Was Wide Enough", when, having been wounded in aduel inWeehawken, New Jersey, Hamilton's final words in his finalsoliloquy is "Raise a glass to freedom".

The Young Folks considered the original song to be the musical's 28th best, and its first reprise to be the 44th.^[3]

We the Kings, an Americanrock band, recorded a cover version of "The Story of Tonight" which was released as a single in 2016.^[4][5]

"Found/Tonight", amashupcharity single of "The Story of Tonight" with "You Will Be Found" fromDear Evan Hansen was released on March 19, 2018. It peaked at number 49 on theBillboard Hot 100.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon taped segments in Puerto Rico whenHamilton debuted on the island with the "And Peggy Tour" cast, including a performance of "The Story of Tonight", whereJimmy Fallon joined in as a second Alexander Hamilton next to Miranda singing aboutThe Tonight Show and ending the performance with asalsa version of Fallon'sTonight Show opening song.^[6]

• 2015 songs
• 2016 singles
• Songs from Hamilton (musical)
• We the Kings songs

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