Tag: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Movies, Streaming, Theatre

Official Trailer for Netflix’s ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ Has Arrived

Lauren Lola

Years before Jonathan Larson’s hit rock musical, Rent, exploded in the theatre world, he was a struggling, up-and-coming composer, making ends meet by working at a local diner in New York, while the AIDS epidemic was raging on and taking lives of people he knew. All this and more was documented in an autobiographical musical he wrote called tick, tick… BOOM!, which originally premiered Off-Broadway in 2001, five years following his untimely death.

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Animation, Movies

How the Magical Casita in ‘Encanto’ is a New Kind of Disney Castle

Michael Lee

Encanto follows three generations of family, of which everyone but Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) has magical powers. Despite being ordinary and spending her entire life trying to measure up to the rest of the Madrigals, Mirabel discovers that the magic that defines her family’s legacy is in danger and that she may be the only one who can save it and them.

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Animation, Interview, Movies

‘Encanto’ Directors Talk Representation and Working with Lin-Manuel Miranda

Michael Lee

Walt Disney Animation Studios gave a group of selected journalists their first look at their upcoming musical, Encanto. The film centers on the Madrigals, a magical family who live in an enchanted casita in the mountains of Colombia. At the age of five, the home gifts a Madrigal child a unique magical power, who then uses it to help the family and neighboring town. Everyone except, Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz). However, she when she discovers that the magic is in danger, she sets off on a journey to save it from being extinguished.

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Animation, Interview, Movies

How Colombian Culture, Music, and Dance Tell a Magical Story in ‘Encanto’

Michael Lee

Making an animated film at Walt Disney Animation Studios is a tremendous undertaking. It takes years of development, not to mention countless rewrites to perfect the script, numerous in-house screenings, and so much more. Encanto, Disney’s 60th animated feature, brings music and dance together to tell the story of Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), a Colombian teenager facing the fact that she is the only one who doesn’t have any magical abilities in her family. But when she discovers that magic is in danger, she sets off on a journey to save it.

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Animation, Movies, Streaming

Netflix Has Released the Official Trailer for ‘Vivo’

Sophia Soto

Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo will release globally August 6 on Netflix. The animated film includes the voices of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldaña, Juan de Marcos, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Rooker, Nicole Byer, Ynairaly Simo, and Gloria Estefan. As we get closer to the premiere, Netflix just dropped the official trailer and poster for Vivo, only adding to fans excitement about the movie.

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DC Comics, Television1 Comment

Jordan Fisher on ‘The Flash’ and Waving Through the Speed Force

Keith Chow

When you’re running through the Speed Force, and there’s nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?

That’s one of the questions I didn’t ask the Dear Evan Hansen star Jordan Fisher when he sat down with me over Zoom to talk about his heavily hyped debut as Impulse on The Flash.

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Cognitive Dissonance, Movies4 Comments

The ‘Heights’ of Anxiety and the Color Line: Racial Ambiguity in a Culture of Absolutes

Lara Stapleton

I once heard the great political philosopher and activist Angela Davis argue that Americans are so obsessed with race as an identifying feature that when we meet racially ambiguous people, we are anxious until we know on which side of the color line they fall. Upon hearing this, I was relieved by the articulation of something I had suspected was at the heart of my experience. It was like experiencing great art, that rush of adrenaline that comes with recognizing what we’ve known all along presented as fantastically new.

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Animation, Movies

Get Excited for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ New Original Film ‘Encanto’

Sophia Soto

Walt Disney Animation Studios has just released the teaser trailer, new posters, and cast for Encanto. The film will open in theaters on November 24 and tell “the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto.”

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Marvel

Hard NOC Life 222: ‘Loki’ and the Multiverse of Mad Segues

Hard NOC Media

This week on Hard NOC Life, Britney and Dominic break down episode 2 of Loki. And go on many tangents. From Spider-Man to Game of Thrones to Ms. Marvel and eventually back to Loki.

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Movies, Streaming, Theatre

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Directorial Debut ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ Releases Teaser Trailer

Laura Sirikul

When people think of Jonathan Larson, the first thing to come out is the Tony Award-winning musical Rent. But, Larson had done many musicals before that, one of which, is based on his life called tick, tick… BOOM!

Performed in 1990 Off-Broadway as a one-man show, tick, tick… BOOM! was an autobiographical rock monologue about his experience feeling rejected because of what he considered a failure for his musical, Superbia. After Larson’s death in 1996, it was reworked into a stage musical by playwright David Auburn and musical director Stephen Oremus. Now, making his feature directorial debut, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda takes the story from stage to the big screen.

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Interview, Movies1 Comment

NOC Interview: Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Making of ‘In The Heights’

Keith Chow

Now that In the Heights is officially in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, what better time than now to re-up my convo with Lin-Manuel Miranda, originally recorded for the Hard NOC Life podcast.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies

Hard NOC Life 220: Issa Rae is Spider-Woman

Hard NOC Media

This week on Hard NOC Life, Britney basks in the glory of her favorite superhero, Spider-Woman, finally getting shine as the crew — aka Keith and Dominic — break down news of Issa Rae’s casting in the Spider-Verse sequel, plus sneak peeks at Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Michael Keaton in The Flash.

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Interview, Movies

NOC Exclusive Interviews with ‘In The Heights’ Director Jon M. Chu and the Cast

Laura Sirikul

For our review of the film, click here.

The anticipated release of WB’s In the Heights is set to release this week, but the long-lasting impact of the film will affect many BIPOC, especially those from the Latinx community, for a lifetime.

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Movies, Theatre

Light’s Up on the Opening Number from ‘In the Heights’

Keith Chow

Warner Bros. has moved up the opening of Jon M. Chu’s big screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights, a day early. So it won’t be long now!

To hold you over until Thursday night, Chu and Miranda went to social media to announce they’re releasing the first eight minutes of the movie — essentially, the entire opening number — even earlier.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies2 Comments

Hard NOC Life 219: Lin-Manuel Miranda! + The ‘Eternals’ Trailer Reaction

Hard NOC Media

On a new Hard NOC Life, Keith finally talks to Lin-Manuel Miranda about adapting his first musical, In the Heights, for the big screen. But before that, he is joined by Dominic, Britney, and Shawn to break down the Eternals trailer.

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Movies, Reviews, Theatre

‘In the Heights’ Captures the Beauty of Washington Heights and the Community Behind It

Laura Sirikul

It seems like only yesterday when national treasure and lyricist genius Lin-Manuel Miranda graced the Richard Rodgers Theatre as Usnavi in the Broadway production of In the Heights. Now, 13 years later, the Tony Award-winning musical is finally premiering on the big screen next month. 

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Interview, Music, Streaming, Television

NOC Interview: Renée Elise Goldsberry Discusses Her New Peacock Original Comedy, ‘Girls5eva’

Sophia Soto

Renée Elise Goldsberry steals the show in Peacock’s newest comedy Girls5eva, which premieres on Thursday, May 6. The best part is all eight episodes will drop at once! And trust me, you won’t want to stop watching. In the female-led series, the actress and singer is joined by Sara Bareilles, Paula Pell, and Busy Philipps.

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Movies, Theatre

Watch the Trailer for Roadside Attractions’ ‘Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It’

Sophia Soto

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It comes out in theaters on June 18. The documentary about the acting legend, which has a total runtime of 89 minutes, features George Chakiris, Héctor Elizondo, Gloria Estefan, Tom Fontana, Morgan Freeman, Mitzi Gaynor, Whoopi Goldberg, Norman Lear, Eva Longoria, Justina Machado, Terrence McNally, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Karen Olivo.

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Books, Hard N.O.C. Life, Theatre

Hard NOC Life 212: Mandy Gonzalez is ‘Fearless’

Hard NOC Media

In the first of two episodes of Hard NOC Life releasing this week, Keith sits down with Broadway superstar and now, children’s book author, Mandy Gonzalez to talk about her new middle grade novel, Fearless. They also talk about her career — from originating the role of Nina for In the Heights to replacing Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica in Hamilton — and why being fearless has helped her cope while Broadway is shut down.

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