Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis have co-written “Warriors,” a concept album inspired by the 1979 cult hit “The Warriors,” based on Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel of the same name.
The 26-track album, executive produced by Nas, executive produced by Mike Elizondo and featuring a star-studded cast, will be released on October 18 via Atlantic Records.
“We’ve spent the last three years scoring the Warriors’ journey back from the South Bronx to Coney Island,” Miranda and Davis said in a joint statement. “Along the way we’ve been able to work with many of our favorite artists and will be announcing their roles on the album in the coming weeks.”
Headlines about Miranda's participation in an adaptation of “Warriors” First appeared last yearwith speculation that the project was a stage show. That “Warriors” is in fact a concept album, as It was first reported last monthIt’s actually a return to form for Miranda, who initially envisioned his Broadway blockbuster “Hamilton” as a concept album.
“Warriors” follows a fictional New York City gang from Coney Island to the Bronx and back as they are framed for the murder of a respected gang leader.
Tom McKitterick, from left, Marcelino Sánchez, David Harris, Terry Michos, Michael Beck, Brian Tyler and Deborah Van Valkenburgh in “The Warriors” in 1979.
(Silver Screen Collection via Getty Images)
Yurick wrote the novel as a contemporary take on Xenophon’s “Anabasis,” the famous war expedition of 10,000 soldiers in ancient Greece. The novelist had said he wanted to counter romantic depictions of gang life in popular titles like “West Side Story,” and instead based his writing on his experiences meeting young gang members while working as a social investigator for New York City’s welfare department.
“I wanted to show that street gangs, universally seen as a symptom of social dysfunction, gave the poor a structure of loyalty and a sense of community,” wrote the Guardian’s Eric Homberger in Yurick's obituary in 2013“They weren’t sick or bad, just poor.”
While the Paramount Pictures film, adapted by David Shaber and director Walter Hill, received negative reviews upon its release (The Times review called it “a perceptive, stylized and shallow depiction of gang warfare that panders to angry young audiences”), the film has since become a cult classic (it's even been quoted by The Wu-Tang Clan and adapted into a video game).
Publications have reviewed the film with more positive comments: “The film is like a visual rock and is full of energy,” Pauline Kael wrote In tThe New Yorker in 2014“Mixing wry humor, good music and beautifully photographed suspense, it is one of the best of 1979.” wrote Time Out in 2015.
In addition to “Hamilton,” Miranda created the musical “In the Heights” and collaborated on Broadway productions of “New York, New York” and “West Side Story.” He also wrote original songs for the Disney films “Moana,” “Encanto” and the upcoming “Mufasa: The Lion King.”
Davis wrote the plays “Angela's Mixtape,” “The History of Light” and “Bulrusher,” the latter of which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. She is also a television writer (Netflix's “She's Gotta Have It”) and actress (Broadway's “Passing Strange”).
