Odds and Ends: Lin-Manuel Miranda Reveals Octet Film Cast, Jon Cryer Joins Spelling Bee & More

Here's a quick roundup of stories you might have missed.

Octet Set

Have we died and gone to musical theater heaven? Hamilton multi-hyphenate Lin-Manuel Miranda has announced the stacked cast for his forthcoming film adaptation of Dave Malloy’s chamber musical Octet. The eight cast members are: Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!, Les Miserables) as Jessica, Olivier winner Rachel Zegler (Evita West End, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story) as Velma, Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary, Dreamgirls on Broadway) as Paula, Phillipa Soo (Hamilton, Camelot) as Karly, Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things, Dear Evan Hansen) as Toby, Tony winner Jonathan Groff (Just In Time, Merrily We Roll Along) as Henry, Emmy winner Tramell Tillman (Severance) as Marvin and Paul-Jordan Jansen (Sweeney Todd) as Ed. Originally staged off-Broadway in 2019, Octet interrogates the digital age through the testimonies of eight internet addicts who meet in a church basement. Miranda and Malloy, who will be penning the film’s screenplay, have been working on the project for six years. This is Miranda’s second feature film as a director, having helmed a 2021 adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM!, which earned Andrew Garfield an Oscar nomination.

Cryer and the Bee

Emmy winner Jon Cryer is joining the off-Broadway cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at New World Stages. Cryer will take over the role of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in the celebrated revival on May 11, succeeding Jason Kravits, who will play his final performance in the role on May 10. Cryer began his career on Broadway in Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy, which was followed by his breakout role as Duckie in the 1986 Brat Pack classic Pretty in Pink. From 2003 through 2015, Cryer starred on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. Twice extended, Spelling Bee is set to run through September 6.

Just In TIME100

TIME magazine unveiled their 2026 TIME100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Newly-announced Octet star and Broadway dreamboat Jonathan Groff graced the prestigious list. He received a write-up by his idol, the highly-decorated theater vet Sutton Foster. Groff was last seen on Broadway as Bobby Darin in the smash hit biomusical Just In Time. Cabaret Tony winner and Traitors host-with-the-most Alan Cumming was also featured, with an accompanying appraisal from Comeback queen Lisa Kudrow. The campaign to get Marla Mindelle on next year’s list begins now.

A.R.T. Pop

Get thee to Boston. American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, led by Artistic Director Diane Paulus, announced today the first three titles of its 47th season. Paulus (who helms the off-Broadway Phantom revamp, Masquerade) directs the first show of the season, Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist play Rhinoceros, wherein the protagonist transforms into a tusk-baring mammal in a chilling commentary on societal conformity. Rhinoceros runs August 12 through September 20. Next on the agenda is 1972, A Rock Opera, an original musical about a covert network of women who fight hell and high water to provide reproductive freedom to those in need. The show will run October 27 through November 22 under the direction of Jessie Nelson, who co-wrote the show’s libretto with Boston-based rock musician Chadwick Stokes. Stokes will also provide the music and lyrics. The third show to be announced is Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s Mexodus, currently playing off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre. David Mendizábal, who also directed the off-Broadway endeavor, is returning for the show’s Boston outing. As innovative as it is historically revealing, Mexodus uses live-looping to tell the untold story of how the Underground Railroad ran south by crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico. The A.R.T. staging of Mexodus will run December 4 through January 10, 2027. Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Waitress, the 2012 revival of Pippin and Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 are just a handful of productions to receive pre-Broadway tryouts at A.R.T.

P.S.

Music legend Phil Collins, who wrote the score for Disney’s animated hit turned Broadway spectacle Tarzan, has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Before he was a hitmaker, Collins was a child actor, performing as the Artful Dodger in a West End production of Oliver! Once a thespian, always a thespian. Congrats Phil! We’re sending you a fruit basket.