NPH makes references to two Broadway productions. The first is the musical Leap of Faith, which follows a con-man posing as a pastor as he causes havoc in a small Texas town. This production was far from a success; it closed after 20 performances and lost its entire $14 million investment.

The second production is a revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, a popular rock opera which looks at the last week of Jesus' life and involves a lot of contemporary philosophy and ideas.

Neil Patrick Harris lists off a few famous female actors:

• Judith Light, a TV actress who won a Tony that night for her performance in Other Desert Cities

• Judy Kaye, an actress who won a Tony for her performance in Nice Work If You Can Get It.

• Tracie Bennett, the actress who played Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow, a musical about Garland’s final year of life. Although nominated for the role, Bennett did not receive a Tony Award.

Audra McDonald is a prolific theater actress who received her fifth Tony Award for playing Bess in a musical adaptation of Porgy and Bess. tying her with Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury for the most performance wins. Two years later, McDonald came back and won another Tony, breaking the tie between the trio, and becoming a record.

Clybourne Park was written by Bruce Norris as a response to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and depicts events in the same neighborhood that occur before and after Hansbury’s classic play. Park mainly focuses on the issues surrounding racially gentrified housing and communities.

Hugh Jackman received a Special Tony Award for his contributions to the Broadway community, both as a performer and humanitarian (he has also hosted the awards show three times). His wife Deborra-Lee Furness actually presented him with the award (she faked a bathroom break to sneak backstage before the presentation).

Once is a was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and received eight, including Best Musical.

While Best Original Score is mentioned in the verse, Once was not actually nominated in this category: the award went to Alan Menken and Jack Feldman for the stage adaption of Newsies.

A reference to the myth of William Tell, wherein he was asked to prove his archery skills by shooting an apple off his son’s head.

Though he is in doubt from all the things unsaid and unknown. he still trying to trust the subject. It also refers to relieving someone of his own doubts.

Beck thinks people that hype up drama to the point that they think their troubles should make the Virgin Mary cry is stupid. He’s pointing out why surviving trauma doesn’t automatically guarantee nirvana, or salvation, because traumatic drama is just bullshit and isn’t traumatic or deserving of something as grandiose as the escape of nirvana.

In Buddhism nirvana is freedom from a cycle of reincarnation and suffering. This is done through ridding yourself of passion, hatred, and self indulgence. These people Beck is talking about can’t achieve nirvana or freedom because they are overly dramatic and worry about things that don’t matter

Scientology claims that these traumatic incidents, along with each spirit/thetan’s personal history, are recorded in complete detail on the “time track,” sometimes called the “whole track,” which for each person is many trillions of years in length. Scientology proposes that through a process called “auditing” that uses techniques developed by Hubbard (often assisted by a device called the E-Meter), an individual can be guided to find and “discharge” these hidden traumas, thus escaping the suffering and limitations imposed by the past.