It's a long way from Hamilton Heights to 17 Cherry Tree Lane, but Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, will definitely be making the trip. Miranda is confirmed to co-star in a Disney sequel to the 1964 motion picture Mary Poppins, according to a report in Variety. The movie, which is currently titled Mary Poppins Returns, will open Christmas Day, 2018.
The Hairspray songwriting team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman will compose an original musical score.
The earlier film helped make movie stars of Broadway favorites Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, but Miranda will not be playing the dancing chimney sweep Bert, as Van Dyke did. The Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner has been cast in the role of Jack, a lamplighter, in the movie based on other books in P.L. Travers' series of books on the adventures of the magical nanny.
As previously reported, Emily Blunt, who played the Baker's Wife in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, will play the magical nanny Mary Poppins.
Continuing the Into the Woods connection, the director and producing team behind Disney’s hit film version of the Sondheim musical will reunite for the Poppins sequel: director Rob Marshall and producers Marshall, John DeLuca and Marc Platt. David Magee will write the screenplay, based on the Poppins novels of P.L. Travers.
Set 20 years after the events depicted in the classic 1964 film, the film will feature a new score composed by Hairspray Tony winners Shaiman and Wittman. No word on whether Tony-winning composer-lyricist Miranda will be contributing any songs. Miranda is already on the Disney payroll writing music for the company's Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the upcoming animated feature Moana.
The new Poppins story, according to the Hollywood Reporter, is “set in Depression-era London and revolves around a now-grown Michael Banks, who has children of his own. In tough times, big sister Jane returns and soon after, their beloved Mary Poppins comes back to help.”
Updated May 31, 2016
