Lin-Manuel Miranda has found his eight. Today, Miranda and 5000 Broadway Productions unveiled the full ensemble for “Octet,” his forthcoming film adaptation of Dave Malloy’s acclaimed chamber musical, with Jonathan Groff, Paul-Jordan Jansen, Gaten Matarazzo, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Amanda Seyfried, Phillipa Soo, Tramell Tillman, and Rachel Zegler set to lead the film. Per the announcement, the cast will play Henry, Ed, Toby, Paula, Jessica, Karly, Marvin, and Velma, respectively.
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Miranda is not starting from scratch with the whole ensemble, either: Jonathan Groff and Phillipa Soo both worked with him on “Hamilton,” where they originated King George III and Eliza Hamilton, giving “Octet” at least a small built-in reunion inside the larger cast.
It is a strong, eclectic lineup for a piece that was never built to coast on name recognition alone. Malloy’s musical, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2019, centers on eight internet-obsessed people who gather in a church basement, lock their phones away, and try to confront their digital dependency through an a cappella score built on confession, harmony, and rupture. The material has always been prickly and formally unusual, less interested in tidy uplift than in the ugly, compulsive static of modern online life. Miranda has been circling it for years, making the adaptation a major passion project.
Vogue reported that he emphasized both solo and ensemble choral experience in assembling the film’s performers, which helps explain a roster that moves comfortably between screen acting, Broadway muscle, and vocal precision.
This is Miranda’s second feature as a director following 2021’s “tick, tick…BOOM!,” and the project has been moving quickly since 5000 Broadway Productions announced earlier this month that he would take the film on. Malloy is adapting his own book for the screen and will also executive produce, while Julie Oh, John Skidmore, and Luis A. Miranda Jr. are producing.
No release date has been announced yet. But with the ensemble now set and rehearsals underway, “Octet” has moved out of the abstract development stage and into something much more tangible. For a musical about people trying to break the feedback loop, that is a promisingly strange place to start.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
