Hamilton and In the Heights Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda joins Billy Eichner in the latest installment of Billy on the Street, which dropped December 13. Watch the clip above.

The release comes just before the premiere of Mary Poppins Returns, in which Miranda stars as chimney sweep Jack opposite Emily Blunt in the title role. The film, a sequel to the 1964 movie musical classic, hits movie theatres December 19.

Read: HOW LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA GREETED ANGELA LANSBURY ON THE MARY POPPINS RETURNS SET

Lyft Entertainment and Funny or Die have partnered on th new web-exclusive season of Billy on the Street. Emma Stone (Cabaret, La La Land) and Tiffany Haddish are set to appear on future episodes of the current season, as announced in September.

The series aired on cable channels Fuse and truTV from 2011–2017, and featured Eichner racing through the streets of Manhattan to question random New Yorkers on a host of pop culture topics.

Born and raised in Queens, Eichner is a vocal theatre fan and often found ways to work Broadway into the show. He appeared as reporter Rob Barker in 2016’s Hairspray, Live! and will voice Timon in Disney’s photo-realistic adaptation of The Lion King, set to release July 2019.

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This story about Lin-Manuel Miranda and “Mary Poppins Returns” was taken from an interview conducted by TheWrap for the January issue of Oscar magazine.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is breaking new ground in the theater with his Broadway hit “Hamilton”, which recast the founding fathers with hip-hop music and non-white actors. But these days, the self-proclaimed New York City “Puerto Rican” is especially happy that Mary Poppins Returns director Rob Marshall cast him as the title character’s pal, a job Dick Van Dyke took on in the 1964 original film.

Miranda plays a lamp lighter named Jack, who was an apprentice to the chimney sweep, Bert, played by Van Dyke. Like its predecessor, Miranda influences a Cockney accent – but its race and background are never mentioned and never an issue.

Also read: Lin-Manuel Miranda is sick that he was sick that night Jay-Z and Beyonce watched ‘Hamilton’ (video)

“It feels meaningful, just like it felt to me when I saw Raúl Juliá as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family,” said Miranda of his casting. “This character wasn’t a Latino guy in the original Nick at Night series when I saw this show. Or seeing Rita Moreno in ‘The Electric Company’ when I was a kid.

“Not only do we play unquoted Latino roles, but we also play great roles where race is just part of it. I think it’s a step forward for representation, ”he said.

Miranda said his casting in a major Disney movie also felt like the culmination of something that began when he appeared on a hip-hop comedy troupe as a student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and did the first draft of a musical wrote that it should become Broadway Click “In the Heights”.

Also read: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ film review: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda Languish in the shadow of the giants

“I started writing ‘In the Heights’ because I really wanted to be in musicals and I didn’t see any role in what was out there,” he said. “You know, I don’t have the ballet experience to play Bernardo or Paul on ‘A Chorus Line’ – and if you were a Puerto Rican it was. So it was in canon.

“And so I started writing ‘In the Heights’ at the age of 19 because I saw no other way for me. I wrote In the Heights and Bring It On and Hamilton to open up opportunities as an actor. That these incredible talents would come to me with ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ and write these songs that fit me like a tailor-made suit – it felt like the result of all the hard work I started when I was 19. “

What can “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda not? (Photos)

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  The all-rounder Lin-Manuel Miranda has done everything from Broadway to the White House performing. Here’s a look at his accomplishments over the years.

  
  

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  During his sophomore year in college, Miranda began writing what would eventually become the Tony-winning best musical, In the Heights. What did you do when you were 20?

  
  

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  Miranda is such a big deal that he got the chance to voice the Loud Hailer during a performance of Broadway’s “Les Miserables” just because he’s a huge fan and it was a lifelong dream of his. Check that from the bucket list.

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  Miranda and the cast of “Hamilton” were not only allowed to perform in the White House, but the creator / writer / star was then able to make friends with the president himself by rapping the union’s status from cues held high by Barack Obama himself.

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  “Hamilton” became such a big deal that the Treasury Department put plans to replace Alexander Hamilton with a woman on the $ 10 bill on hold. Instead, the $ 10 father will be left without a father, while Harriet Tubman will instead replace Andrew Jackson on the $ 20 bill.

  
  

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  “Hamilton” made Grammy history because it was so popular it wanted to be the first Broadway show to appear during the music industry’s biggest awards show. Immigrants, we do the job!

  
  

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  Even Disney and JJ Abrams are huge Miranda fans. He has done cantina music for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will compose for the animated Moana, and will star in Mary Poppins with Emily Blunt. And of course to continue to play in “Hamilton”.

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  To underline how big the phenomenon “Hamilton” really is, the musical Miranda has already won a MacArthur “Genie” scholarship and the Pulitzer for Best Drama. In June it will also win the Tony Awards. And good luck buying your tickets. Still.

  
  

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  Miranda’s latest goal is to get Congress to allow Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy amid a major economic crisis. John Oliver devoted an entire section to “Last Week Tonight” and then invited Miranda, who had already spoken about the subject in DC, to come on stage and do what he does best. “Hamilton” tickets and even private performances are on the table. Paul Ryan, your move.

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The creator of “Hamilton” urges Congress to act on Puerto Rico’s economic crisis and there is a precedent that says it will succeed

The all-rounder Lin-Manuel Miranda has done everything from Broadway to the White House performing. Here’s a look at his accomplishments over the years.

The post Lin-Manuel Miranda on Why a ‘Puerto Rican Dude’ in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Is Such a Breakthrough appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

“Who would ever imagine a Mary Poppins sequel?”

That was the big question that came to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s mind when director Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca introduced him to a role on their upcoming musical, Mary Poppins Returns.

Inspired by the stories of PL Travers, the film is set about 25 years after Disney’s legendary nanny left the Banks family for the first time. After a great loss, the adult Michael (Ben Whishaw), his three children and his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) need Mary back more than ever. Miranda stars in a film as Jack, a lamp spotlight and former apprentice of Dick Van Dyke’s beloved chimney sweep Bert, who accompanies Mary and the children on their adventures.

Fortunately, from the moment Miranda heard that Emily Blunt was going to follow in Julie Andrews’ footsteps, Miranda was hooked on the idea of ​​the sequel. And then Miranda went on his own adventure, one that his family moved to London, played him to Van Dyke himself, and offered the kind of experiences beyond a theater freak’s wildest dreams.

Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) and the company of Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns.
(© Jay Maidment)

Was it a “yes” on the spot?
There was a “yes” on my mind right away, but nothing is a “yes” right away when you’re married. It was a “go home, talk to Vanessa, do we want to move to London, do we want to make this our life for a bit?” She was all-in. Then it was a “yes”.

What was the second thought that came to mind after you signed up?
“Will we have the tools for that?” That’s why Rob Marshall, who came out of the theater, was such a godsend. It was like rehearsing a Broadway show, only we had more time. You’re a theater site so I’m going to tell you all of the cool plays.

You’re welcome.
Before everyone was occupied, we did a week-long workshop in Disney’s room while Aladdin went on. It was just us and the best theater actors. We had one of the Matildas, Oona Laurence, as one of the Banks children. The late Marin Mazzie sang the role of Meryl Streep before Meryl signed up. We tested the material.

We had nine weeks of rehearsal in London and on the first day they give me and Emily a hat and stick and we just start. By rehearsing it like a Broadway show, we became a company. When we were filming, I felt totally ready.

Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda in a scene from Mary Poppins Returns.
(© Disney Enterprises, Inc.)

What did Rob do on set that you would like to incorporate into your future projects?
What I’ve seen from him is how you use theatrical principles to run a movie set. Rob works the same way I enjoy working with my staff on Hamilton. That means the best idea wins. He has a brain confidence. He has his partner John DeLuca and three employees, co-choreographer Joey Pizzi, assistant choreographer Marlon Pelayo and associate choreographer Tara Nicole Hughes. Marlon will choreograph me with me, Joey will work with the dancers, and Tara will wrestle with the kids, but they all serve Rob’s vision. When I was tick, tick … BOOM! Directed, I mentally trusted my brain as I watched Rob at work.

And then Dick Van Dyke goes on set. Was there a point where you said, “Be cool, Lin!”?
Yes, but I also know that there is no point in Dick Van Dyke’s being cool. To be honest, I went sideways. I only dealt with Broadway stuff. My first big break was Conrad Birdie in sixth grade, so I said, “How was Chita Rivera?” and talk about how much this original recording of Bye Bye Birdie meant to me. It’s just bubbly and serious and always has been. If you think I’m busy, this guy did 34 episodes of the Dick Van Dyke Show, filmed Mary Poppins on his hiatus, and he was in Bye Bye Birdie as Albert Peterson, and that role is really hard to lift. We complained about this grind.

The day he was on set was really special. It was the only day Rob really went broke. We never felt any pressure. We just felt, “This is a great movie, these songs are great, let’s just serve Rob.” In the film, Dick Van Dyke has a monologue and he finished it. We all waited for Rob to say cut, but nothing happened. It’s because Rob cried and couldn’t tell. We all lost it, of course, but Mary Poppins was Rob’s first film so it’s hard for him to direct Dick Van Dyke and come full circle from that first film.

Dick Van Dyke returns as Mr. Dawes Jr. in Mary Poppins.
(© Jay Maidment)

How did you react when you first heard the score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman?
Marc and Scott were born to write this score. Everything Marc learned about orchestrating he learned from the Mary Poppins album. It’s really visceral. When I said “yes” to the job, I showed my son the original film for the first time. The music starts and my son gasped for breath. Children don’t gasp. Old ladies in the opera gasp for air. But this boy heard these French horns and left [gasps]. It was a real gasp. That was the same reaction Marc had.

Excited to play Alexander Hamilton again and do it in Puerto Rico?
I’m really. I’ve been scared all year, and really scared. Fear that working on the theater wouldn’t survive another hurricane season, fear that the ticket site would crash – it didn’t crash – fear of all the things that are beyond my control. Now I’ll just become Hamilton and I remember that the two hours and 40 minutes that I was on stage on that show was the most fulfilling and relaxing time of my life because my only job was being Hamilton, and he needs all of my focus.

So much of your own work is focused on heritage issues and what we leave behind. How is Mary Poppins Returns contributing to this?
It’s funny because it’s not what I was thinking about when I took the job. I just thought, “I’m going to learn so much from Rob Marshall and Emily Blunt and all of these amazing people.” But it’s wild that there will be a generation who think of this as a set of two films. When I think of Mary Poppins on that fluffy white Disney VHS, I think this can sit next to it, and I’m proud of that.

Emily Mortimer, Nathanael Saleh, Pixie Davies, Julie Walters, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Joel Dawson and Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns.
(© Jay Maidment)

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Lin-Manuel Miranda has seen Mary Poppins Returns three times.

Typically, actors promoting projects around the world are on duty before and after each screening for red carpet photos and post-show chats. You might choose not to sit through your own movie more than once. But Miranda often takes his place at dazzling premieres and guild events for his new musical.

“Do people usually skip these?” he asked, shaking his head. “I worked too hard on this film not to see it.”

Of course, Miranda is no stranger to hard work. The 38-year-old theater composer spent five years practically perfecting the Tony, Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway giant “Hamilton” and appeared in the three-hour production seven times a week.

But “Mary Poppins Returns,” Disney’s musical sequel to the popular 1964 classic by Julie Andrews, is Miranda’s first major film role. The film begins and ends with its main character cycling through 1930s London with big eyes. He sings with a wide Cockney accent, he taps a nursery rhyme, he dances with hand-drawn animated animals. He cites an eight-minute tongue-twisting number that, because of its numerous elements – is typing! Torches! BMX Parkour! – 50 dancers and two weeks required to shoot in multiple locations.

Lin-Manuel Miranda shares the screen with Emily Blunt and animated friends on Mary Poppins Returns.

(Disney)

While the film’s critics are mixed (reviews ranged from “thoroughly delightful” to “bright, gaudy, and joyless”), the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. was delighted and awarded Miranda his first Golden Globe nomination for acting.

Seeing yourself on screen “felt like I’d seen ‘Hamilton’ for the first time as a spectator,” he told the Times. On stage as Hamilton, he said, “I was into this thing and trusted my staff to tell the story. I knew it was us from the audience’s reaction, but that didn’t prepare me for the first time I saw ‘Satisfied’ – holy … look at the 50 things going on here!

“That’s how I felt when I saw this film. While we were shooting these animated sequences, we were dancing on a large green staircase with nothing but imagination and confidence, ”he continued. “Actually seeing these moments unfolds in exactly the same way [director] rob [Marshall] Describing it two years ago is exciting. “

Opposite Emily Blunt, who takes on the role of the magical nanny of the Banks family, for whom Julie Andrews won an Oscar, Miranda plays a lamp-spotlight or Leerie named Jack, a character not found in PL Travers’ writings, but from Bert, the charming chimney, is derived from Sweep Dick Van Dyke starred in the original film. The new role was the brainchild of Marshall and his producer, choreographer and partner John DeLuca.

Miranda’s Jack goes on a new adventure with Mary Poppins of Blunt and the Banks family in the new sequel.

(Jay Maidment / Disney)

“They liked the idea of ​​someone who brought light and hope to the world,” explained screenwriter David Magee. Enter Miranda’s character Jack – “I called him a ‘jack of all trades’ and it stuck,” noted Magee – who trained as a chimney sweep under Bert and helps the now-grown Banks children (played by Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer). “Our story is about telling people that you can get through difficult times. So we wanted this character to be an orphan – someone who has suffered some loss but still holds onto their youthful spirit and joy.

“Basically, he was raised by Bert too, so he must have met Mary Poppins at some point. And he has inherited this enthusiasm for light and warmth and irrepressible optimism. “

While Miranda is a positive person herself – so much so that his encouraging tweets spawned a New York Times bestselling book featuring illustrator Jonny Sun – it’s hard to believe that Miranda, thanks to this role in Jack, his stage work was occupied in “Hamilton”.

He has this connection to his inner child that nobody else in the film has. I only give Rob [Marshall] infinite honor to see that in me.

Lin-Manuel Miranda on his “Mary Poppins Returns” character Jack

Miranda can’t quite believe it either. His Hamilton, he noted, has no “childlike miracle in his heart at all – he is someone whom early trauma and disastrous childhood have severed the brake lines to a sense of innocence and wonder. It’s all hectic urgency and “I have to do all of this … before I die.”

“Compare that to Jack singing ‘Under the beautiful London skies’ – it’s a gray … sky he sings about!” he laughed. “He has this connection to his inner child that nobody else in the film has. I just give endless credit to Rob for seeing this in me because it’s not what was on display at the Richard Rodgers [Theater] back then.”

Miranda and Van Dyke, who make a happy appearance in the new film, have more in common than their characters. “He switched from ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ to ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’, which was 32 episodes a year, and made ‘Mary Poppins’ … during the summer break,” he explained. “I’m not very busy compared to Dick Van Dyke when he made the first film. [On set]We have connected a lot on this level. “

Lin-Manuel Miranda

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Miranda is quite busy indeed. Ever since “Hamilton,” the hip-hop phenomenon of America’s founding fathers, went from being a hot ticket on Broadway to a must-see thing in popular culture, Miranda herself has been consistently coveted in Hollywood, in a moment new fascination for musicals.

He composed original songs for Disney’s animated hit “Moana” and will write the music for Disney’s later live-action “Little Mermaid”. He works on film, television and possible stage adaptations of the fantasy novels “The Kingkiller Chronicle”. He is executive producer on FX’s upcoming limited series about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, starring Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams. and he is part of the cast of the highly anticipated BBC series “His Dark Materials” starring James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson and “Logan” Breakout Dafne Keen.

Two film musicals with Quiara Alegría Hudes – Warner Bros. ‘The adaptation of his first Broadway show “In the Heights” and Sony’s animated adventure “Vivo” will be released in 2020. And he will make his directorial debut with an adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical work “Tick, Tick … Boom!”

With so many musical projects, Miranda used the large-scale production “Mary Poppins Returns”, which included eight weeks of rehearsal, on-site filming at several London attractions and eight lavish sound days at Shepperton Studios, as an intensive workshop in translating his favorite art form onto screen.

“It was a film school for me,” he recalled. “When a camera scans your face 50 feet tall on a screen, it’s harder to suddenly break into a song and let the audience buy it, isn’t it? Rob knows how to make that transition from language to song that we’re more likely to accept in theater because we know we’re going to a musical. When you buy a ticket to ‘Phantom of the Opera’ you say, ‘If they don’t sing, I’ll be pissed off.’ “

Miranda is encouraged by the numerous directors who try their hand at the space, including Jon M. Chu, the director of “Crazy Rich Asians,” who is directing the adaptation of “In the Heights.”

“The ambitions in some of the musical numbers from [Chu’s] ‘Step Up’ movies – I’d put them next to some music numbers from the Golden Era. ” he said. “I’m very excited to see what he’s doing with Latin American music and what he’s doing in our neighborhood. Seeing him face to face will be my sophomore year of film school. “

Lin-Manuel Miranda will next repeat his role in his hit musical “Hamilton”.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Miranda’s definition of “Zen” goes back to the lyrically demanding role that sparked his meteoric rise: He repeats his leading role in “Hamilton” for three weeks in Puerto Rico in a theater that is being rebuilt after the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

“Even in that first year when the crowd got so big it was hard to get in and out of the theater, the most relaxing hours of my day were always the show,” he said. “My only job was to play Alexander Hamilton. It’s such a difficult role that it’s like yoga: it takes all of your focus and you can’t slack off or get hit by a chair or fall off the turntable. But it’s peaceful in there, and I can use that. “

With all of his upcoming engagements, Miranda will at least take the time to see “Mary Poppins Returns” at least one more private screening in New York with his family and friends.

“Well, the 10 month old [Francisco] I will never remember it, but the 4 year old will [Sebastian] will like it, ”he said of his sons. “”[Sebastian] I shot this at a time when he was just starting to make memories, so it’s so weirdly groundbreaking in his brain. And for him, Emily Blunt is his girlfriend, the adorable lady who makes a Peppa Pig impression on the set. I am very curious how he will react. “

MORE ‘MARY POPPINS’:

REVIEW: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ and she really shouldn’t have

VIDEO: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Dick Van Dyke on ‘Mary Poppins Returns’

How “Mary Poppins Returns” star Emily Blunt and director Rob Marshall aimed to make a “Joybomb on the Soul”

ashley.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @cashleelee

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