The film features several actors with major stage credits, including Max von Sydow, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson, alongside original star Carrie Fisher.
Lupita Nyong’o, who stars in the hit Off-Broadway drama Eclipsed, which will open on Broadway early in 2016, plays Maz, a pirate who hangs out at a seedy dive bar. See her interview about her roles.
That bar, however, has some of the best music in the galaxy because while John Williams has returned with his distinctive orchestra underscoring that has distinguished the previous six films in the franchise, director J.J. Abrams handed over the scoring of the bar sequence to Hamilton and In the Heights composer Lin-Manuel Miranda.
In an appearance on the NBC-TV talk show "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon," Abrams revealed that he collaborated with Miranda on music for an updated version of the iconic cantina scene from the very first "Star Wars" movie.
Adam Driver, who appeared on Broadway in Man and Boy, Mrs. Warren's Profession and the hit HBO series "Girls," is joined by fellow "Star Wars" newcomers Oscar Isaac (We Live Here), Domhnall Gleeson (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Now or Later), John Boyega (Six Parties at U.K.'s National Theatre), Andy Serkis (Hurlyburly in the West End), Max von Sydow (Night of the Tribades, Duet for One) and Daisy Ridley (great-neice of British playwright and actor Arnold Ridley). Fisher starred on Broadway in her autobiographical solo show Wishful Drinking.
Fans of both the series and of Broadway had fun creating mashups of stills from the classic "Star Wars" films with quotes from Miranda's Hamilton. Check out the best of them here.
Members of the film's cast appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," and performed an a capella arrangement of Williams' themes from the film. They were joined by the band The Roots, members of which served as producers of the cast album of Hamilton:
