Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Next Hollywood Musical Is Another Underrated Off-Broadway Darling
Actually, aca-n believe it.
It’s been a few years since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut brought a lesser-known musical to the screen with tick, tick…BOOM!, and the next movie he’s making is equally good news for theatre nerds. Miranda is directing an adaptation of Dave Malloy’s Octet, an a capella musical about the internet (derogatory).
This is the official description of the musical per a press release.
Eight internet-obsessed people meet in a church basement and lock their phones in a box. This groundbreaking musical from Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812) follows an octet of people struggling with digital dependency, charting their compulsions using only the analog vibrancy of their own voices. With witty lyrics, shimmering harmonies, and virtuosic solos, Octet sings of connection, redemption, hope—and how we can be truly present with each other.
Malloy will adapt his own book for the screen. As a fan of his work, I’m personally very excited for Malloy’s brain to be unleashed on the general public. Octet premiered in the summer of 2019 at the Signature Theatre off-Broadway, directed by Annie Tippe, in those unsuspecting pristine months before our collective doom-scrolling addiction got about a billion times worse. There have been a handful of professional productions since at cities including Berkeley, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about Octet since I saw Annie Tippe’s premiere production,” Miranda said in the press release. “Dave Malloy’s score is versatile, brilliant and grows more relevant with each passing year. It won’t leave me alone so here we are.”
In the same press release, Malloy teased that “our cast is completely ridiculous.” Miranda revealed via Instagram Stories that the “full cast” would be revealed soon. Tantalizing! There’s already a pretty strong rumor going around that Rachel Zegler is involved, thanks to a recent quote about missing a call from Miranda and the musical’s title appearing in a photo dump on social media among other potential clues. Rumors! Speculation! Allegedly! We don’t know for certain who will play any of the eight characters.
The members of Octet‘s octet as described by yours truly:
Paula: The group leader whose phone addiction is creating distance between her and her husband.
Jessica: A stereotypical “Karen” whose public outburst went viral.
Henry: A guy who is addicted to a Candy Crush-like game on his phone.
Karly: A single woman who’s getting negative satisfaction from dating apps.
Ed: A single man whose loneliness draws him towards incel/manosphere spaces.
Toby: A leftist who’s hyper aware of how digital media manipulates us.
Marvin: A skeptic, forum-addicted dad who may or may not have met God.
Velma: A former member of some toxic online communities who still believes in the World Wide Web.
Feel free to start speculating or doing some dream-casting of your own. You can listen to the Original Cast Recording of Octet on Spotify or wherever you prefer. Since this is an a capella musical, the “completely ridiculous” cast really needs to be able to sing. (Or, at bare minimum, they need have the wizards who turned Andrew Garfield into Jonathan Larson on speed dial.) The afore-mentioned harmonies gotta hit!
This is just such a cool creative move. Octet is a funny, heartbreaking and profound gem. It’s going to be so interesting to see how it gets translated cinematically. It goes to some oddly specific and downright freaky places as the group escapes the “monster” online for the peace of the “forest” IRL. More weird adaptations, please! Especially stage to screen. There are so many good musicals and plays that deserve more widespread attention than they’re able to get for logistical reasons alone.
If Miranda wants to keep using his clout in Hollywood to adapt chamber musicals, overlooked musicals, IYKYK musicals, deep cut musicals, cult classic musicals, jellicle musicals… be my friggin’ guest.
(featured image: Macall Polay/Netflix)
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