Lin-Manuel Miranda To Adapt ‘The Warriors’ Into Stage Musical
Lin-Manual Miranda is set to bring The Warriors, Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel, to the stage as a musical. According to the New York Post, the playwright has been confirmed to be involved with the project. Other details surrounding the original music, actors, release date, and synopsis have yet to be revealed.
The novel and iconic film adaption follows a fictionalized New York gang of men who must traverse 30 miles from the Bronx to Coney Island, their home turf, as they fight allegations that they murdered another gang’s leader. As they attempt to head home, the men are plotted on by every gang in NYC, seeking revenge for the slain leader.
The Warriors is right in the 43-year-old’s wheelhouse, as the songwriter is known to excel at telling diverse stories — much like his own.
Lin-Manual Miranda made his on-stage debut with In The Heights, a musical he wrote as a sophomore at Wesleyan University in 1999. The musical was based on Miranda’s youth growing up in Washington Heights, “a tight-knit community where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music,” the official synopsis explains.
Eight years later, the play would make its off-Broadway premiere and be adapted to the big screen in 2021. In The Heights‘ film adaption starred Anthony Ramos, Melissa Barrera, Stephanie Beatriz, Marc Anthony, Leslie Grace, and Miranda himself.
He spoke with GQ in 2016 about his inspiration for In The Heights and how he decides how to write his musicals, which may or may not provide insight into his process for The Warriors.
“For me, the work is a safe place to put all the stuff you don’t want to put in your real life,” he said about his musicals. “I don’t want to be a crazy, manic a**hole. I don’t want to have an affair. I don’t want to have a f**king gunfight. But! There’s a part of your brain that wants to experience everything, and so work’s a safe place to explore it all. Both in the writing and in the performing.“
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