Lin-Manuel Miranda, known for his shows Hamilton and In The Heights, and Eisa Davis, known for writing shows like Bulrusher and Angela’s Mixtape, came together to write a new concept album, Warriors. This album takes inspiration from the 1979 movie. It is about a gang framed for killing another gang leader, and now they have to make it across the city to make it back to their own turf. Miranda realized after his Hamilton show that writing this action-packed movie as a musical could work with some hard thinking. He came to Davis in 2022 and asked her to collaborate and write the album, even though she had never seen the movie. In August 2023, the New York Post announced that Miranda started working with Davis on a musical adaptation of Warriors. Then, in July 2024, it was reported that they were completing the studio recording.
In the original Warriors movie, the main group, “The Warriors,” were all men, and so were most of the other characters. But for the album, Miranda and Davis decided to make the main group all women. They did this because it was more interesting to write for and said that it could complicate the narrative in a complying way. The cast is a very diverse group of people who gathered to create the music. Miranda even brought in old friends to help with the vocals, such as Phillipa Soo and Jasmine Cephas-Jones, who worked with him on Hamilton as Eliza and Peggy/Miria. He also brought in Utkarsh Ambudkar, an old friend of Miranda’s who was a part of his old freestyle rap group. This cast for the Warriors is a very diverse group of talented people.
“Lin-Manuel never fails to amaze me; just when you think he’s done it all, he comes out with even more amazing music that I can’t help but enjoy,” says senior Aden Schelle.
“I’ve always loved Lin-Manuel’s work and Eisa Davis’s, of course. Knowing how Lin-Manuel’s brain works, you can just tell that this is going to be amazing work with an amazing artist. It’s going to be awesome.” says junior Charlie Windham.
Warriors will release on streaming services on Oct. 18, and can pre-order the vinyl or CD at Warriors.com. The album will have 26 tracks in total to tell the story of The Warriors. Although, it’s still not confirmed if this album will make its way to the stage or if it will strictly stay an album. Fans can only hope that it will become a stage adaptation.
