Carlos Valdes to Star in Hulu’s Musical Romantic Comedy Series “Up Here”

Carlos Valdes is movin’ on up (here)

The 33-year-old Colombian-American actor and singer will star in Hulu’s musical romantic comedy series Up Here alongside Mae Whitman.

Carlos ValdesValdes will portray Miguel, who is described as sensitive and thoughtful, with an artistic sensibility and a romantic streak. Miguel has always struggled with the feeling that he doesn’t quite belong. But after a cataclysmic breakup, Miguel has decided to reinvent himself, burying his feelings and ditching a promising career as a video game concept artist for the lucrative world of investment banking, determined never to get hurt again.

Written by Steven Levenson, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez and directed by Thomas Kail, Up Here is set in New York City in the waning days of 1999. It follows the extraordinary story of one ordinary couple, Lindsay (Whitman) and Miguel, as they fall in love and discover that the single greatest obstacle to finding happiness together might just be themselves – and the treacherous world of memories, obsessions, fears, and fantasies that lives inside their heads.

Anderson-Lopez and Lopez will pen original songs for the series.

Production on the show, which has an eight-episode straight-to-series order, is set to begin this summer in New York. 20th Television is the studio, producing with Kail’s Old 320 Sycamore Productions.

Valdes most recently appeared in the Starz Watergate drama Gaslit as FBI agent Paul Magallanes. Before that, he had a seven-season run as Cisco Ramon on The Flash and numerous other Arrowverse shows including Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl.

He made his Broadway debut in 2013 in the Tony Award-winning musical Once.

Hulu Gives Series Order to Danielle Sanchez-Witzel’s Musical Romantic Comedy Series “Up Here”

Things are looking good for Danielle Sanchez-Witzel up here

Hulu has given an eight-episode series order to Up Here, a musical romantic comedy from the Mexican American comedy writer/producer, Steven Levenson, director Thomas Kail, and the Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.

Danielle Sanchez-Witzel20th Century Television and Kail’s Old 320 Sycamore Productions co-produce the series, which is casting with production set to begin this summer in New York.

Kail will direct Up Here, written by Levenson, Sanchez-Witzel, Anderson-Lopez and Lopez. Anderson-Lopez and Lopez will also pen original songs for the series. The quintet executive produces with Jennifer Todd.

Up Here is a musical romantic comedy set in New York City in the waning days of 1999, following the extraordinary story of one ordinary couple as they fall in love and discover that the single greatest obstacle to finding happiness together might just be themselves – and the treacherous world of memories, obsessions, fears, and fantasies that lives inside their heads.

The project falls under the overall deal Kail and Todd signed with 20th TV in 2020 to develop for all platforms under Kail’s Old 320 Sycamore Pictures banner.

For Sanchez-Witzel, currently under a deal with Netflix, Up Here stems from the overall deal she had at 20th Century Television where she served as showrunner on the praised comedy The Carmichael Show

Lin-Manuel Miranda to Perform in Four of This Week’s “Freestyle Love Supreme” Shows

Lin-Manuel Miranda is ready to freestyle

The 41-year-old Puerto Rican multi-hyphenate will be appearing in Broadway’s Freestyle Love Supreme this week.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Miranda, a co-creator of the improvisational hip-hop revue, will be performing in the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday shows at 7:00 pm.

He’ll also appear in the Friday show at 5:00 pm.

Those newly added Miranda appearances at the Booth Theatre join his previously announced appearance on Monday, December 20 at 7:00 pm.

This past weekend, Freestyle Love Supreme, co-created by Miranda, Thomas Kail, and Anthony Veneziale, canceled its Saturday performances due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases, producers announced.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Freestyle Love Supreme” to Receive Special Tony Award

Lin-Manuel Miranda is receiving some extra Love

A special Tony Award will be presented in September to Freestyle Love Supreme, the Broadway show about the hip-hop improv troupe founded by the 41-year-old Puerto Rican actor, singer, songwriter, rapper, producer, and playwright, Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale,

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Special Tony Awards are presented to outstanding productions, artists and organizations who do not fall into any of the competitive categories.

In a joint statement, Heather Hitchens, CEO and President of the American Theatre Wing and Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League, said that the Freestyle Love Supreme “take(s) theatre to the next level, delivering outside-of-the-box presentations that have gone beyond the stage and brought theatre into the homes of millions of people around the world.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Freestyle Love Supreme

Freestyle Love Supreme was developed in the basement of The Drama Bookshop in 2004 and slowly worked its way to Broadway’s Booth Theatre in 2019.

Directed by Kail, the acclaimed show features a comedic improvisational musical structure, and a rotating cast.

Freestyle Love Supreme will return to Broadway for a strictly limited engagement at the Booth on Thursday, October 7 through Sunday, January 2, 2022.

The 74th Annual Tony Awards, presented by the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, will be a two-hour, streaming-only ceremony on Sunday, September 26, available on ViacomCBSParamount+ platform and followed immediately by a special two-hour CBS broadcast special called The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Freestyle Love Supreme” Returning to Broadway in October

Lin-Manuel Miranda is bringing the (freestyle) Love to Great White Way…

Freestyle Love Supreme, the improvisational rap musical revue co-created by the 41-year-old Puerto Rican actor, singer, songwriter, rapper, producer, and playwright, is returning to Broadway’s Booth Theatre for a strictly limited three-month engagement in October, producers announced today.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

“If live theater is coming back, so is FLS,” said Miranda, who co-created the show with Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale. “Our most important collaborator is the audience, and we can’t wait to get back in the Booth.”

The limited engagement begins Thursday, October 7, and runs through Sunday, January 2, 2022.

“We are thrilled to be back on Broadway and part of this theatrical community we love so much,” said Kail, who directs. “The immediacy of our show, with its content driven by audience suggestion, makes it one of the rare shows that can speak to whatever is happening in the moment.”

The production’s core performers will include Andrew Bancroft AKA Jelly Donut, Tarik Davis AKA Tardis Hardaway, Aneesa Folds AKA Young Nees, Arthur Lewis AKA Arthur the Geniuses, Kaila Mullady AKA Kaiser Rözé, Chris Sullivan AKA Shockwave and Anthony Veneziale AKA Two-Touch.

As with the original 2019-2020 Broadway production, the revival will include spontaneous, unannounced special guests which “may include” Miranda, Christopher Jackson, Daveed Diggs, James Monroe Iglehart, Wayne Brady, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Bill Sherman, Utkarsh Ambudkar and others.

Hamilton creator Miranda has been much in the spotlight lately, with the film adaptation of his In The Heights opening last week, his feature directorial debut tick, tick… Boom! arriving this Fall and his partly-owned The Drama Bookshop bookstore opening earlier this month in Manhattan’s theater district.

Prior to its purchase by Miranda, Kail and producers Jeffrey Seller and James L. Nederlander, the Book Shop, in a nearby location, had long been theater district institution and gathering place but was threatened with closure by rising rents and financial difficulties. Miranda, Kail and Veneziale began writing Freestyle Love Supreme more than 17 years ago in the basement of the old Book Shop, a history chronicled in the 2020 documentary We Are Freestyle Love Supreme.

Freestyle Love Supreme is produced on Broadway by Kail, Miranda, Jenny and Jon Steingart, and Jill Furman.

Lin-Manuel Miranda & His Hamilton Cast Mates to Reunite for Joe Biden Presidential Campaign Fundraiser

Lin-Manuel Miranda is doing his bidding for Biden…

The 40-year-old Puerto Rican Tony Award-winning composer, lyricist, actor, singer/rapper, producer and playwright and the original cast of his hit musical Hamilton will reunite this week for a fundraiser for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, the latest pop culture themed virtual event.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's final Hamilton curtain call

The campaign announced that among those participating will be Miranda, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, Javier Muñoz, Leslie Odom, Jr., Okieriete Onaodowa and Phillipa Soo. Director Thomas Kail will moderate a Q&A, and it will be followed by a special performance.

The event will take place at 9:00 pm ET on Friday, October 16 with no ticket amount. Proceeds will go to the Biden Victory Fund.

The cast of Hamilton also performed in 2016 for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Democrats have been drawing on cast reunions as a way to raise small-dollar contributions. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has hosted recent virtual reunions of the cast of The Princess Bride and Veep.

HBO Max is debuting a West Wing reunion on October 15 to benefit When We All Vote, the get-out-the-vote effort led by Michelle Obama.

Trailer Released for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “We Are Freestyle Love Supreme” Documentary

Lin-Manuel Miranda is freestylin’…

The official trailer has been released for We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, the documentary about the 40-year-old’s improv hip-hop project.

Lin-Manuel Miranda 

Before Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musicals Hamilton and In The Heights, the Mary Poppins Returns star, Christopher JacksonThomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale, among others, traded off-the-cuff rhymes the way Second City actors swapped jokes in their improv hip-hop group.

Created by Miranda, Kail and Veneziale in the summer of 2005, its beginnings on sidewalks and a small performing space at New York’s Drama Book Shop, the show would make the rounds Off Broadway, ever-changing, before landing on Broadway for an acclaimed and commercial successful run last year.

The show’s long journey is chronicled in filmmaker Andrew Fried’s documentaryWe Are Freestyle Love Supreme, premiering on Hulu on Friday, June 5. Fried’s camera captures the group reuniting for a series of shows in New York City that led to the Broadway engagement.

Appearing in the doc, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, are Miranda, Veneziale, Jackson, Kail, Arthur LewisUtkarsh AmbudkarChris SullivanBill ShermanJames Monroe Iglehart and Andrew Bancroft.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “We Are Freestyle Love Supreme” Headed to Hulu in June

Lin-Manuel Miranda love supreme is headed to Hulu

The Andrew Fried-directed documentary We Are Freestyle Love Supreme produced by the 40-year-old Hamiltoncreator and Broadway star has found a home at Hulu and will hit the streamer on June 5.

Lin-Manuel Miranda 

The documentary made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festivalearlier this year and highlights the 15-year journey of the hip-hop improvisational group founded by Miranda, Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale

The group called Freestyle Love Supreme was formed long before Miranda’s Hamiltonand In The Heightsmusicals hit Broadway

Fried began chronicling the group in the summer of 2005, documenting the early days of Freestyle Love Supreme beatboxing and rapping on the sidewalks. 

Fast forward 14 years later and Fried brings us to a reunion with a series of shows in New York City that led to a triumphant run on Broadway.

In addition to Miranda, Kail and Veneziale, the doc features Arthur LewisChristopher JacksonUtkarsh AmbudkarChris SullivanBill Sherman,James Monroe Iglehartand Andrew Bancroft.

Disney Bringing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hit Broadway Musical “Hamilton” to the Big Screen

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadwayhit is heading to the big screen. 

Disney will release a feature film of the original Tony Award-winning stage musical Hamilton, created by the 40-year-old Puerto Rican composer/lyricist, actor and creator, in the U.S. and Canada on October 15, 2021.

Hamilton

The studio is teaming with Miranda, Jeffrey Sellerand Thomas Kail on the project, which is billed as a “leap forward in the art of ‘live capture.’” It explains the live capture method as “combining the best elements of live theater and film,” resulting in “a cinematic stage performance that is a wholly new way to experience Hamilton.”

Producers for this version of Hamilton include Miranda, Seller and Kail, who also directs. 

The film was shot in June 2016 at the Richard Rodgers Theatreand reports began circulatingin 2018 that bidders were circling the film version of the stage production. Studios had to pledge not to release it until at least 2020.

The original Broadway cast of the record-smashing show will appear in the new film. Cast members include Miranda as Alexander HamiltonDaveed Diggsas Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas JeffersonRenée Elise Goldsberryas Angelica Schuyler; and Leslie Odom, Jr.as Aaron Burr. Also due to star are Christopher Jacksonas George WashingtonJonathan Groffas King GeorgePhillipa Sooas Eliza Hamilton; and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria ReynoldsOkieriete Onaodowanas Hercules Mulligan/James Madison; and Anthony Ramosas John Laurens/Philip Hamilton.

“Lin-Manuel Miranda created an unforgettable theater experience and a true cultural phenomenon, and it was for good reason that Hamiltonwas hailed as an astonishing work of art. All who saw it with the original cast will never forget that singular experience,” Disney CEO Bob Igersaid. “And we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to share this same Broadway experience with millions of people around the world.”

Miranda, who starred in an update of Mary Poppinsin 2018, affirmed his connection with Disney. “I fell in love with musical storytelling growing up with the legendary Howard AshmanAlan MenkenDisney collaborations – The Little MermaidBeauty and The BeastAladdin,” he said. “I’m so proud of what Tommy Kail has been able to capture in this filmed version of Hamilton – a live theatrical experience that feels just as immediate in your local movie theater. We’re excited to partner with Disney to bring the original Broadway company of Hamilton to the largest audience possible.”

Kail added, “We are thrilled for fans of the show, and new audiences across the world, to experience what it was like on stage – and in the audience – when we shot this. … We wanted to give everyone the same seat, which is what this film can provide.”

According to sources, Disney beat out other suitors and paid $75 million for worldwide rights to the show that won 11 Tony Awards in 2016, as well as the Pulitzer Prizefor Drama. Disney won the deal with a commitment for a wide global theatrical release for the 2 hour, 40 minute movie, which was shot two weeks before the original cast left.

Lin-Manuel Miranda to Reopen Broadway’s The Drama Book Shop in March

Lin-Manuel Miranda is all booked up…

The 39-year-old Puerto Rican composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright and producer’s latest venture, The Drama Book Shop, is set to open its doors in March.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Considered Broadway’s favorite bookstore — The Drama Book Shop — was evicted from its longtime Theater District home in January. So Miranda and three Hamilton colleagues — director Thomas Kail, lead producer Jeffrey Seller and theater owner/impresario James L. Nederlander — collectively bought the store and, with considerable help and guidance from Julie Menin, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Commissioner, found a new location, where they’ll keep the operation running.

The Drama Book Shop will reopen its doors in March at its new location — 266 West 39th Street — just a block south of the previous one.

Stuffed with scripts, librettos, monologues and any other books about or needed by the theater community, the independent bookstore had been a district mainstay for more than 100 years (though not in the same location). 

Drama Book Shop

“The Drama Book Shop is the heart and soul of the New York theater community,” Miranda said in a statement. “It’s been an oasis in midtown for a century of storytellers and theater fans alike — a safe space to gather, to learn and to find great books and music.”

The Hamilton creator continued: “I found my collaborators there. I wrote drafts of In the Heights there. Freestyle Love Supreme was born there. I made sure the first book-signing of Hamilton: The Revolution was held there. The Drama Book Shop is home.”

Kail explained why the place meant so much to him. “I was in the Drama Book Shop most days of the week from December 2001 until May 2005. My career started there. My life in New York City started there. I am proud to be part of this group that will reintroduce this vital source of inspiration for our city and present countless others the same opportunity that it provided me and so many others.”

The design for the new store was overseen by creative director David Korins, aiming for atmosphere “inspired by European cafés of the last century and their role in the exchange and celebration of ideas.”

A specific opening date will be announced soon. 

Said Miranda: “To the next generation of dramatists, actors, directors, composers, choreographers, designers, and theater enthusiasts: the stage is set…Come in. Discover. Enjoy.”