Source : @Variety
NEW YORK — Lin-Manuel Miranda has unveiled the cast for “Warriors”, his next Broadway musical, which arrives a decade after “Hamilton” became a pop culture sensation, Variety reported on Tuesday (Oct 20).
The production will star Jaci Calderon, Aneesa Folds, Amber Gray, Julia Harriman, Sasha Hutchings, Gizel Jiménez, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Kenita R. Miller, Sasha Allen, Casey Likes and Donald Webber Jr. Several of them either worked on earlier iterations of “Warriors” or appeared in Miranda’s previous shows, “Hamilton” and “In the Heights”. Further cast members will be announced at a later date.
“Warriors” will begin previews at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway on March 9 next year, ahead of an official opening night on April 8. According to the show’s official website, tickets go on sale this month.
The musical features a book, music and lyrics by co-writers Miranda and Eisa Davis. It is based on Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel and Paramount’s 1979 action film “The Warriors”, directed and co-written by Walter Hill, and follows a fictional New York gang that must fight its way from the Bronx back to its home turf of Coney Island after being framed for the murder of a respected gang leader, Cyrus. The film itself is not a musical, although it features songs by Barry De Vorzon, Joe Walsh and Arnold McCuller.
“We’re having the time of our lives making ‘Warriors’. It’s a rollercoaster like the Coney Island Cyclone, with all the action of Walter Hill’s classic film,” Miranda and Davis said in a joint statement. “It’s a New York story to the bone, with music steeped in all the genres that were born and revolutionised here, from hip-hop to salsa to ska and metal and everything in between. It’s an edge-of-your-seat journey from Brooklyn to the Bronx and back again. It’s a dream of a more peaceful city where we all come home alive. This is the sound of something being born.”
The stage show began life as a 26-song concept album, released by Atlantic Records on October 18, 2024, executive produced by Grammy-winning rapper Nas and produced by musician Mike Elizondo. The recording featured the voices of Ms. Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Marc Anthony, Billy Porter, Ghostface Killah, RZA, Colman Domingo, Cam’ron and Kim Dracula. As reported by The Associated Press at the time, the album departed from the film in notable ways: Hill voiced Cyrus, while the Warriors gang were all reimagined as women, with Kenita Miller, Sasha Hutchings, Phillipa Soo and Aneesa Folds among the performers.
The album marked Miranda’s first full musical since “Hamilton”. He told The New York Times in 2024 that he first watched the cult film when he was four years old, and that he had spent more than two years working with Davis, a playwright and performer, to bring it to music. “You write the things that won’t leave you alone, and this won’t leave me alone,” he said.
On Broadway, “Warriors” will be directed by Jenny Koons and co-directed and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, the Tony winner who worked with Miranda on “In the Heights” and “Hamilton”. Producers include “Hamilton” director Thomas Kail, Miranda and his father, Luis A. Miranda Jr., and Jeffrey Seller. The creative team includes scenic designer David Korins, costume designer Dede Ayite, lighting designer Natasha Katz, sound designer Jason Crystal, projection designer Hana S. Kim and fight director Drew Leary, with music supervision by Kurt Crowley and orchestrations by Crowley, Elizondo and Scott Wasserman.
Miranda’s “Hamilton”, which opened on Broadway in 2015, won 11 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, while “In the Heights”, his first Broadway musical, won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2008. The musical is licensed for the stage by Paramount Products and Experiences.
The original Variety post can be viewed on X: https://x.com/Variety/status/2112521787292414425.
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