Freestyle Love Supreme is an improvisational hip-hop (also known as freestyle rap) comedy musical group started by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Veneziale in 2004 and directed by Thomas Kail. [1] [2] In 2022, the group completed a Broadway musical run at the Booth Theatre.
The idea for the project started during rehearsal breaks for Miranda's first Broadway musical, In the Heights . [3] During shows, the performers rap and beatbox, backed by keyboards. [4] Unlike traditional, scripted musicals, the audience is intended to be engaged and participate in the show, providing suggestions and occasionally even being brought on stage. [2] [5] Before being performed on Broadway, there were performances at Ars Nova in 2004, 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Montreal Just for Laughs Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2005, [1] [3] [6] as well as many other performances including Joe's Pub, Google Zeitgeist, Greenwich House Theater, Mo Pitkin's, and others.
Members of the group appeared in several episodes of the 2009 The Electric Company revival, on which Miranda, Sherman, Jackson, and Sullivan were regular music contributors.
The group created an 11-episode television series that aired on Pivot in 2014. Now available for a fee on Prime video and YouTube [7]
The group performed its Off-Broadway and Broadway shows in 2019–2020 in celebration of their 15th anniversary. [1]
The story of the group and musical is featured in the 2020 documentary We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, [8] directed by Andrew Fried, who began filming the group in 2005. [9] The film contains footage shot over the 15 years of the group's history. [8]
Cast members have included the following, though other members have appeared, sometimes unannounced. [3] [4] [5] The opening night performance on Broadway featured multiple guest stars. [4] [10]
The following performers have performed rap or beatboxing on the show:
The following keyboardists have accompanied the vocal artists:
Freestyle Love Supreme was performed on Broadway at the Booth Theatre from October 2, 2019, through January 12, 2020. [2] [4]
On October 7, 2021, the group began a three-month limited run back at the Booth Theatre. After four months on Broadway, the show finished the Broadway run on January 2, 2022. [12] [13]
Freestyle Love Supreme announced that they would do a National Tour, with stops in 11 cities. The tour will start on January 21, 2022, at the American Conservatory Theater, in San Francisco. [14] [15] The tour concluded at the Pasadena Playhouse, in California on August 7, 2022.
The show arrived at The Venetian Las Vegas Showroom in Las Vegas on November 10, 2022. It closed on January 29, 2023. [16] [17]
Their performances consist of freestyle "games" including: What Y'all Know, On the Fence, True, Day in a Life, Foundations of Freestyle, Pet Peeves, Home, Second Chance, Deep Dive and more.
In the Heights is a musical with concept, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican American neighborhood of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, New York City.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American songwriter, actor, filmmaker and playwright. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals In the Heights (2005), and Hamilton (2015), and the soundtracks for the animated films Moana (2016), Vivo, and Encanto. His numerous accolades include three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, five Grammy Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, an Annie Award, a MacArthur Fellowship Award, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a Pulitzer Prize.
Jill Furman is an American theatrical producer. Furman's Broadway credits include: Hamilton,,In the Heights, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Heiress, Seminar, West Side Story,The Drowsy Chaperone, Sly Fox and Fortune’s Fool. Off Broadway: Freestyle Love Supreme, On The Line and Adult Entertainment. Furman's father is the producer Roy Furman.
Thomas Kail is an American theatre director, known for directing the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, garnering the 2016 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the latter. Kail was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018.
Ars Nova is an Off-Broadway, non-profit theater in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Ars Nova develops and produces theater, comedy and music created by artists in the early stages of their careers.
Utkarsh Ambudkar, also known by his stage name UTK the INC, is an American actor, rapper, and singer. He is known for his film roles including Pitch Perfect (2012), Game Over, Man! (2018), Blindspotting (2018), Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019), The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020), Free Guy (2021), Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021), and World's Best (2023). His television roles include The Mindy Project, White Famous, Never Have I Ever, and Ghosts. He recently appeared in the Hulu limited series The Dropout (2022).
James Monroe Iglehart is an American stage actor, singer and voice actor.
Hamilton is a sung-and-rapped-through biographical musical with music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Based on the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the musical covers the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and his involvement in the American Revolution and the political history of the early United States. Composed over a seven-year period from 2008 to 2015, the music draws heavily from hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. It casts non-white actors as the Founding Fathers of the United States and other historical figures. Miranda described Hamilton as about "America then, as told by America now."
Javier Muñoz is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his performances on Broadway as Usnavi de la Vega in the 2008 musical In the Heights and as Alexander Hamilton in the 2015 musical Hamilton, in which he played the title role from July 11, 2016, until January 14, 2018.
Phillipa Anne Soo is an American actress and singer. Known for her leading roles on Broadway primarily in musicals, she has received two Grammy Awards along with nominations for a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Daveed Daniele Diggs is an American actor, rapper, and singer-songwriter. He is the vocalist of the experimental hip hop group Clipping, and in 2015, he originated the dual roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the musical Hamilton, for which he won a 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. Along with the main cast of Hamilton, he was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in the same year.
Anthony Paul Ramos Martinez is an American actor and singer. After graduating in musical theatre from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, he began working in stage musicals. In 2015, he originated the dual roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in the Broadway musical Hamilton. He received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance in the 2020 stage recording of the play.
Christopher Neal Jackson is an American actor, singer, musician, and composer. He began his career in 1995 starring in the Off-Broadway musical Time and the Wind by composer Galt MacDermot at the age of 20. He made his Broadway debut in 1997 as an ensemble member in the original Broadway cast of Disney's The Lion King. He remained with the show for several years, ultimately taking over the role of Simba. He went on to perform leading roles in several more Broadway musicals and plays, including After Midnight, Bronx Bombers, Holler If Ya Hear Me, and Memphis. He drew critical acclaim in several projects with Lin-Manuel Miranda: originating the roles of Benny in In the Heights and George Washington in the smash hit Hamilton. For the latter role he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He also collaborated with Miranda on the Disney film Moana in which he provides the singing voice of Chief Tui. His other film work includes secondary roles in After.Life and Tracers.
Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) is the cast album to the 2015 musical Hamilton. The musical is based on the 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow, with music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The recording stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Okieriete Onaodowan, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and Jonathan Groff. The ensemble features Jon Rua, Thayne Jasperson, Sydney James Harcourt, Ephraim Sykes, Ariana DeBose, and Sasha Hutchings. The musicians on the album are Alex Lacamoire, Kurt Crowley, Andres Forero, Robin Macatangay, Richard Hammond, Benny Reiner, Jonathan Dinklage, Erin Benim Mayland, Anja Wood, Mario Gotoh, and Laura Sherman. It achieved the largest first week sales for a digital cast album and is the highest-charting cast album since 1963. It was the highest-selling Broadway cast album of 2015 and peaked at number one on the Rap Albums chart, the first cast album to ever do so. After being certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2023, Hamilton became the best-selling cast album of all time.
The Hamilton Mixtape is a 2016 mixtape album featuring assorted songs from the 2015 Broadway musical Hamilton performed by various artists, as well as some deleted songs from the musical. It was widely well-received by critics.
In the Heights is a 2021 American musical drama film directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Quiara Alegría Hudes based on the stage musical of the same name by Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The film stars Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace in her film debut, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV, and Jimmy Smits. The film follows a similar plot to the musical, telling the story of a corner in the predominantly Dominican Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, where every member of the community pursues their sueñitos for a better life.
Bartlett is a comedy streaming series created by writer/director Martin Edwards and executive producer Chrissy Mazzeo. It was released on January 30, 2018 on Amazon Prime. It is now also available on YouTube, Tubi, and Plex.
Tick, Tick... Boom! is a 2021 American biographical musical film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his feature directorial debut. Written by Steven Levenson, who also serves as an executive producer, it is based on the stage musical of the same name by Jonathan Larson, a semi-autobiographical story about Larson writing a musical to enter into the theater industry. The film stars Andrew Garfield as Larson, alongside Robin de Jesús, Alexandra Shipp, Joshua Henry, Judith Light, and Vanessa Hudgens.
Bill Sherman is an American composer, producer, arranger, and orchestrator. He is known for his work on In the Heights, Hamilton, and Sesame Street.
THE ARS NOVA REVOLUTION: FROM FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME (ARS NOVA, 2004) TO HAMILTON (BROADWAY, 2015)
Special guests during the opening-night performance included Lin-Manuel Miranda, Christopher Jackson, James Monroe Iglehart, Daveed Diggs, Wayne Brady, and Ashley Pérez Flanagan.
FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME VEGAS PLAYED ITS FINAL PERFORMANCE ON JANUARY 29, 2023.