Video: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis 'Open' to Broadway Future for WARRIORS

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis visited the Today Show on Wednesday to discuss their concept album, Warriors, released last week. Rather than a musical for the stage (such as In the Heights or Hamilton,) Warriors was written specifically as a concept album.

"A concept album is any songs that tell a story," Miranda explained on the show. "Green Day's American Idiot is a great example of a concept album." He went on to call Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar their "North Star" when working on Warriors. 

Renowned musicians such as Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, and Nas all lend their vocals to the album. Miranda says that "it was a mental shift" for the artists to play characters that sing these music and lyrics, rather than their own. 

"You guys aren't playing yourselves. You're playing the borough of Brooklyn and Queens- you are the voice of that...It was an amazing act of trust for [them]," Miranda shared.

As for whether the show will come to Broadway, the writers say that it is a possibility down the line. "First of all, we've been so thrilled and overwhelmed by the response to the album... Most people are saying 'I can see the whole story in our heads' which was our goal. And then the second question is: 'And when can we see it for real?' We're obviously both theatre artists [and] we're open to that. We'll see what the next steps are." 

The new album is available now. Watch BroadwayWorld's interview with Miranda and Davis HERE.

About Warriors

Inspired by the 1979 Paramount Pictures cult film, “The Warriors,” based on the Sol Yurick novel of the same name, WARRIORS is an immersive listening experience that follows a fictitious New York City gang from Coney Island to the Bronx and back when they are framed for the murder of a respected gang leader.

Executive produced by GRAMMY® Award-winning rap icon, New York City’s own Nas and produced by 3x GRAMMY® Award-winning musician Mike Elizondo, the project showcases a star-studded cast of iconic voices including as THE FIVE BOROUGHS: Busta Rhymes (Brooklyn), Ghostface Killah and RZA (Staten Island) Chris Rivers (The Bronx), Cam’ron (Manhattan), and Nas (Queens); THE GRAMERCY RIFFS: Ms. Lauryn Hill (Cyrus) and Colman Domingo (Masai); THE WARRIORS: Kenita Miller (Cochise), Sasha Hutchings (Cowgirl), Phillipa Soo (Fox), Aneesa Folds (Cleon), Amber Gray (Ajax), Gizel Jiménez (Rembrandt), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Swan), and Julia Harriman (Mercy); NEW YORK’S FINEST: Original “The Warriors” cast members James Remar (Barnes) and David Patrick Kelly (Victor); THE HURRICANES: Billy Porter (Granger), Michaela Jaé (Yaya), and Mykal Kilgore (Élan); THE ORPHANS: Utkarsh Ambudkar (Sully) and Casey Likes (Jesse); THE TURNBULL ACs: Marc Anthony (Tato), Luis Figueroa (Miguel), and Flaco Navaja (Jesús); THE ROGUES: Kim Dracula (Luther) and Alex Bonniello (Cropsy); THE BIZZIES: Stephen Sanchez (Cal), Joshua Henry (Wanya), Timothy Hughes (Lance), and Daniel Jikal (Joon); and Shenseea (DJ Lynne Pen).