Warriors (Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis album)
[3][5] In August 2023, New York Post was the first media outlet to report Miranda was working on a stage musical adaptation of Sol Yurick's novel The Warriors.[9] In December 2024, in an interview with The New York Times following the release of Mufasa: The Lion King, Miranda said he and Davis were planning to start discussions about a stage adaptation in early 2025.[5] Michael Paulson, a theater reporter at The New York Times, lists the album's genres as "rap and hip-hop, salsa and merengue, ska and sounds from ballroom culture, R&B and funk".At the party, Time Out unveiled a digital magazine cover that includes a photograph of Miranda and Davis in the subway car that was used in the 1979 film and is now housed in New York Transit Museum."[21] DJ Lynne Pen broadcasts to the gangs across New York City's five boroughs, announcing a gathering at Van Cortlandt Park organized by Cyrus of the Gramercy Riffs ("Survive the Night").The Warriors, an all-women gang from Coney Island, meet to travel uptown; they follow Cyrus's instructions to leave their weapons at home ("Roll Call").Believing their innocence, the House of Hurricanes decide not to attack the Warriors and instead warn them running away makes them look guilty, and that they will need to fight on the streets to survive ("Quiet Girls").The Warriors, without Swan and Mercy, arrive at Union Square, where they encounter the Bizzies, a cardigan-wearing, all-male gang ("Cardigans") who claim to be sympathetic to their plight and offer them shelter at their East Village apartment.Swan and Mercy reunite with the rest of the Warriors at Union Square Station, but an encounter with police interrupts their attempt to board a train to Coney Island.Fox, the group's youngest member, distracts the police captain by instigating a fight on the platform, preventing him from telling the conductor to stop the train.Cleon reunites with the Warriors, and the group expresses their hope Cyrus's dream will be fulfilled one day and the city's streets will be at peace ("Finale Part III: When We All Come Home Alive").Logan Culwell-Block, writing for Playbill, commented this might be especially helpful because some aspects of the Warriors story, such as the fight sequences and numerous location changes, are not things musicals on traditional proscenium stages are known for doing well.It gives examples like the line "I be like, 'Warriors, come out and play' ", rapped by Ol' Dirty Bastard on Wu-Tang Clan's debut album, and the video for California Love by 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre, starting with "Can you dig it?"[23] Lin-Manuel Miranda describes producer Mike Elizondo as his and Eisa Davis's "third collaborator"; they spent two weeks at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee, recording the album.In reference to the album's gender flip, Financial Times's reviewer Ludovic Hunter-Tilney asks whether the 1979 "macho flick" The Warriors has been "put in a wokehold"; they conclude it has been, but to good effect.Hunter-Tilney said the role of the radio DJ—"an ancient Greek chorus in the film"—is less-well used in Warriors, but praised "droll embellishments" like "the cringy ska-pop sung by dweebish loser gang the Orphans".[27] Chris Wiegand of The Guardian noted "one of the album's joys is its unexpected pairings, especially how musical theatre stars are matched with acts from other genres", citing Alex Boniello's and Kim Dracula's duet on "Going Down" in particular.Wiegand also noted the "poignant yearning" of Julia Harriman's performance on "Call Me Mercy" as a highlight that gives the character a larger role than in the film, where she is "reduced to a love interest".He gives examples of the Warriors' easy acceptance of Swan's and Mercy's "queer love", and the fact the story features only a single gun, which "doesn't feel like it has anything to do with gang life now".[23] Similarly, Slate said Miranda benefits from the second-hand credibility these artists bring because his version of hip-hop "smacks of corniness to those who aren't already musical-theater fans".According to Jenkins, Miranda is "plagued by" "occasional G-rated schmaltz", and tends toward an "overbearing maximalism and good-intentioned liberalism", which can sometimes "wring an uplifting takeaway from an objectively bleak situation".