Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis have named eleven principals for Warriors, their musical version of the 1979 cult film, ahead of the first preview at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on March 9, 2027. Amber Gray, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Casey Likes head a company that brings back several voices from the show's 2024 concept album.
The casting, announced on October 20, has Gray as Ajax, Cephas Jones as Swan and Likes as Luther. Alongside them are Sasha Allen (Cyrus), Jaci Calderon (Fox), Aneesa Folds (Cleon), Julia Harriman (Mercy), Sasha Hutchings (Cowgirl), Gizel Jiménez (Rembrandt), Kenita R. Miller (Cochise) and Donald Webber Jr. (Masai). The rest of the company will be announced later.
The list redraws the gang. Ajax, Swan, Cleon and Cochise were all men's parts in Walter Hill's film, and here each goes to a woman, as does Cyrus, the respected leader whose killing at a summit in the Bronx is pinned on the Warriors and sends them on their long night's journey home to Coney Island.
There is continuity, too. Folds, Hutchings and Jiménez sang Cleon, Cowgirl and Rembrandt on the concept album that introduced the score in October 2024, and Gray, Cephas Jones and Likes also return from that recording. Several of the eleven took part in the developmental workshop held over the summer.
Much of the company has history with Miranda's work. Cephas Jones originated Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in Hamilton, Hutchings was also in that original Broadway company, Webber has played Aaron Burr on Broadway, and Harriman played Eliza on the first national tour. Gray, a Tony nominee for Hadestown, is currently in The Rocky Horror Show at Studio 54. Allen's Broadway credits include Katherine Jackson in MJ, Jiménez has played Nessarose in Wicked, and Likes won a Theatre World Award for Almost Famous before playing Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
Jenny Koons directs, with Andy Blankenbuehler as co-director and choreographer. The producers are Thomas Kail, Miranda, Luis A. Miranda Jr. and Jeffrey Seller. The design team is David Korins (sets), Dede Ayite (costumes), Natasha Katz (lighting), Jason Crystal (sound), Hana S. Kim (projections) and Nikiya Mathis (hair and wigs), with fight direction by Drew Leary. Kurt Crowley is music supervisor and shares the orchestrations with Mike Elizondo and Scott Wasserman. Casting is by Sujotta Pace of C12 Casting and Telsey & Co.
The source is the Paramount picture The Warriors, directed by Hill from a screenplay he wrote with David Shaber, and the Sol Yurick novel behind it; Skydance Products & Publishing licensed the stage rights. Miranda and Davis describe the score as drawing on the genres New York gave the world, from hip-hop and salsa to ska and metal. "It's a New York story to the bone," they said in a joint statement. "This is the sound of something being born."
The project began life as a concept album, released on October 18, 2024, with Nas as executive producer and Elizondo producing. It reached No. 1 on Billboard's compilation albums chart in its first week.
General sale opens on Thursday, October 22, at 10 a.m. ET through Broadway Direct, following presales for fans and Capital One cardholders that began on October 20. The pricing for cheaper seats has been set out unusually early: a $79 ticket ($68.25 plus a $10.75 handling fee) will be offered by lottery from January 11, 2027, and the first two rows will go by lottery at $19.79 from the first preview on March 9. Opening night is April 8, 2027. The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is at 205 West 46th Street. Further details are on the production's official website.
