Nonstop! Lin-Manuel Miranda on Mary Poppins Returns, Fosse/Verdon, The Little Mermaid, Tick, Tick...BOOM! and More

Lin-Manuel Miranda is having a moment. To be fair, the likable Broadway multi-hyphenate has been having a lot of moments since first bursting on the entertainment scene as the star and writer of the musical In the Heights back in 2008, but his plate feels especially full as 2018 winds down, even for him. On the latest episode of the new Broadway.com show Front Row, Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek sat down with Miranda to catch up with him on all his current and upcoming projects, starting with Mary Poppins Returns, the joyful new Disney movie musical that just put the Broadway favorite on close to 4,000 movie screens across the country.

MARY POPPINS RETURNS
Details: In the Disney sequel to the beloved 1964 original movie, Miranda makes his Hollywood leading man debut as Jack, a lamplighter in Depression-era London. Under the direction of Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods), he lives out childhood fantasies in the film, one of this year’s big Christmas film releases.
Miranda Says: “I danced with penguins so many times as a kid, but it was with my VHS copy of Mary Poppins. To get to do it in this movie has been so beyond what you would call a dream come true. This really felt like the fruit of all the hard work I’ve been doing on Broadway all these years. I started writing In the Heights when I was 19 years old. I knew I didn’t have the ballet chops to play Bernardo [in West Side Story] or Paul in A Chorus Line, and that’s what Puerto Rican dudes got, that’s what existed in the cannon. So, I started writing In the Heights because I knew I’d have to make my own way. I wanted a life in this world and I’ve written my way there.”
When: Movie theaters everywhere now. Go!

HAMILTON IN PUERTO RICO
Details: For the first time since his final bow on Broadway on July 9, 2016, Miranda will play the title role in his musical hit at the University of San Juan. Proceeds will benefit the Flamboyan Arts Fund, which strives to strengthen the arts community in the Puerto Rico.
Miranda Says: “I did In the Heights in Puerto Rico and it was the best week of my life. I knew we’d do Hamilton—it was just a matter of how soon could we get a tour there? But in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the conversation quickly became how do we help Puerto Rico? How do we leave Puerto Rico better than we found it? I thought, let’s use this piece of art to focus on artists. Artists are going to tell the story of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. I feel really proud that we’re supporting artists and arts organizations on the island with this run.”
When: Playing at Teatro UPR from January 8 through 27, 2019. Online tickets are gone, but 10,000 tickets, over 25% of all tickets available will be sold via the show's mobile app for $10 each to island residents during the run.

FOSSE/VERDON
Details: Miranda is producing an eight-episode FX series about the romance of director/choreographer Bob Fosse and star dancer Gwen Verdon. Cameras are rolling now on the show, which will star Sam Rockwell as Fosse, Michelle Williams as Verdon and a boatload of current Broadway stars playing legendary Broadway stars.
Miranda Says: “My role in this was that I love Sam Wasson’s [2013 biography Fosse] and put it in [director] Tommy Kail’s hands. And Tommy saw something in it and then we went and talked to [Fosse’s daughter] Nicole Fosse, and Nicole told us all the stories that aren’t in that book. And having her be a part of it is so meaningful. You know, you want to pay it forward. We love this industry and this world so much. And we owe such a debt to Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse, you know? To get to pay that debt at work is pretty wild. And I’m really just a producer. I get to watch dailies and go, ‘Oh my God! They were in the Kit Kat Club last week! It’s just, it’s crazy.”
When: Fosse/Verdon is expected to premiere in 2019.

IN THE HEIGHTS
Details: Filming will start on the streets of Washington Heights on director Jon M. Chu’s big screen adaptation of the 2008 Tony Award winner for Best Musical.
Miranda Says: “[Casting director] Bernie Telsey is pouring through all the auditions from our worldwide casting call. I get to see the really good stuff at the end—I’m watching a lot of videos right now. I’m actually super behind! There is a new song and Quiara’s screenplay is so smart and so great. It takes place now—it doesn’t take place whenever we wrote it. It’s really smartly updated. Anthony Ramos [the Hamilton original cast member who will play Miranda’s role of Usnavi] is such a talent and such a light. In a lot of ways he comes to the role even more naturally than I do. He’s just a star. Watching him become a star, I have a bit of the like, “I told y’all!”
When: In the Heights will land in movie theaters on June 26, 2020.

THE LITTLE MERMAID
Details: Miranda was announced to be collaborating with original composer Alan Menken on the live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, with Marshall directing. He calls himself a “super fan” of the 1989 original.
Miranda Says: “I see my role on The Little Mermaid like Rob Marshall’s role on Mary Poppins Returns. Rob was the number one fan of the original movie. It was the first movie he saw. [On Mermaid], if it doesn’t need a new song, I won’t write a new song. I have such reverence for the original. I’m really on board to protect it as it gets adapted.”
When: Project is still in planning stages; no filming or release date yet.

TICK, TICK…BOOM!
Details: Miranda is prepping to make his film directorial debut on a film adaptation of the Jonathan Larson musical Tick, Tick…BOOM!, which started as Larson’s one-man show and was adapted for off-Broadway in 2001. Miranda starred in a New York City staging at City Center Encores! in 2014.
Miranda Says: “Jonathan Larson spent his 20s writing Superbia. And everyone told him, 'There’s too many characters, it’s too weird, you’ll never get a producer…' And he said, ‘You can’t tell me a one-man show can’t get produced' and so he wrote this one-man show about turning 30 and still not being discovered as the genius that he was. After he passed away, David Auburn turned it into a great three-person show that premiered off-Broadway and I saw it my senior year of college, two months after September 11th. And it was like a message in a bottle from Jonathan. When Imagine Entertainment told me they had the film rights, I went to them and said, ‘Your search is over. Everything has been preparing me to make this movie. I know exactly how to make it. What I really love about Tick, Tick… BOOM! is that it’s not about Rent. It’s the story of an artist doubling down on his passion when everything is telling not to keep going. Against the backdrop of the HIV crisis, when we lost a generation of theater artists and Jonathan lost so many friends. He still had Rent in him even at the time when he thought Tick, Tick…BOOM! was the end of his rope. And I find that inspiring.”
When: Still in the planning stages, no filming start or release dates have been announced.

Watch the complete Front Row segment on Lin-Manuel Miranda below!