Lin-Manuel Miranda Announces New Freestyle Hip-Hop Broadway Show
Photos by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc., Matt Winkelmeyer/GettyLin-Manuel Miranda is a man of many talents. He’s a composer, lyricist, actor, playwright and TV producer who’s helmed major projects from the unprecedented knockout hit Hamilton to the Broadway mainstay In the Heights.
But did you know Miranda is also one of the co-creators of the hip-hop collective Freestyle Love Supreme? And did you know he’s bringing the group’s improvisational shows to Broadway?
Oh, it is ON. We are @FreestyleLove? and we’re coming back – but this time to Broadway! Catch the crew (and some special guests) at the Booth Theatre for 16 weeks only beginning September 13. Tickets go on sale July 9. Leggo! https://t.co/0QlA6zOa29pic.twitter.com/UxbPLhbXXT
— Freestyle Love Supreme (@freestylelove) June 19, 2019
Fresh off the heels of a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run, Freestyle Love Supreme’s show is set to begin previews in September and run until January at the famed Booth Theater.
Nodding to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Freestyle Love Supreme pulls from jazz, soul, blues and hip-hop.
Pumped with high energy, Freestyle Love Supreme’s 85-minute shows meld hip-hop and improvisational theater with vocals backed up with music from keyboards and beats.
But if you decide to grab some tickets, make sure you put your phone away when you get to the theater. Freestyle Love Supreme is a phone-free experience.
Miranda announced the Broadway run Tuesday night on The Tonight Show, promising that he’ll be performing at the shows and suggesting that legendary freestyler and lead MC of The Roots, Black Thought, may show up, as well.
Freestyle Love Supreme. On Broadway. This fall.#FLShttps://t.co/EMXwAcry0L
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) June 19, 2019
First launching in 2004, Freestyle Love Supreme have performed around the world and even had a short-lived TV show and, of course, their most recent off-Broadway run. Hamilton has brought along some old friends, including Hamilton stars Christopher Jackson and Daveed Diggs, for the ride.
Freestyle Love Supreme will bring on Andrew Bancroft, Arthur Lewis, Bill Sheman, Chris Sullivan, Anthony Veneziale and Utkarsh Ambudkar, with surprise special guests that Miranda has teased as including himself, James Monroe Inglehart, Wayne Brady, Ashley Pérez Flanagan and more.
Miranda, Veneziale and director Thomas Kail started Freestyle Love Supreme as a six-piece set of rotating performers who launch into off-the-cuff songs, comedic bits and full musical numbers while taking cues from the audience.
Ever the multi-tasker, Miranda is also hard at work on the film adaptation of his Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights. So we’ll have a lot of Lin-Manuel Miranda content to look forward to.
If you’re in doubt about Miranda’s freestyle skills, check out his credentials in this “Wheel of Freestyle” video from The Tonight Show below.