Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis wrote a concept album about ‘The Warriors’

By Gabe Friedman

Eisa Davis and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Photo by Jimmy Fontaine)

In the 1979 cult classic “The Warriors,” members of a street gang from Coney Island are framed for the murder of a rival gang member the Bronx and must travel 30 miles across the city to get back to their Brooklyn stronghold.

At the time, the studio hated it. Critics panned it. Crowds were warmer to it, though, and gradually “The Warriors” became a cult staple, widely regarded as a New York masterpiece.

Now it’s getting the “Hamilton” treatment.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and his longtime screenwriter and actress friend Eisa Davis have announced that they’ve recorded a concept album based on the Walter Hill film that Atlantic Records will release on October 18. Brooklyn-born rapper Nas executive produced the 26-song effort that “features a star-studded cast of voices set to be revealed in the coming weeks,” according to a statement.

“We’ve spent the past three years musicalizing the Warriors’ journey home, from the South Bronx to Coney Island,” Miranda and Davis said in a statement. “Along the way we’ve gotten to work with a lot of our favorite artists, and we’ll be announcing their roles on the album in the weeks ahead. We can’t wait to share these songs with you on October 18th.”

It’s an edgy endeavor for the Manhattanite Miranda, who besides “Hamilton” and his other acclaimed musical “In the Heights” has in recent years composed the soundtrack for multiple Disney blockbusters and acted in films such as “Mary Poppins Returns.” Davis has written and acted in multiple plays and screenplays, including “Bulrusher,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 2007.

There are no plans as of now to turn this project into a stage musical, but the rumors are still swirling.

Sol Yurick, a Bronx native, published the novel that the film was based on in 1965. “The Warriors” was based on the “Anabasis,” a series of stories by the Ancient Greek soldier Xenophon. Filmmaker Walter Hill was tapped by Paramount to lead the movie adaptation in a collaboration that quickly became tense.

“I didn’t want to make something about race — I wanted to make it about class,” Hill told Brooklyn Magazine in an interview earlier this year. “[Murdered gang leader] Cyrus’ big speech is about the dispossessed who were facing income inequality, which is also a big issue these days. That’s the underlying theory of who these kids were and the film accepted their values.”

Brooklyn Magazine will be hosting a free screening of “The Warriors” on the beach in Coney Island on Thursday, August 8, in partnership with Paramount+. Click here for more details and to RSVP and secure free popcorn. Showtime is at sunset, but there will be a DJ and free beach chairs (while supplies last) starting at 6 p.m.