MY MUST LIST
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA
BONUS
Mister Rogers’
Neighborhood
Can I make a request from the uni-
verse? I’ve watched my children fall
in love with Mister Rogers, but I can
only find it on demand once a week.
It’s crazy. They fell in love with it via
Daniel Tiger. When they watch, they
feel like they’re watching Daniel origin
stories. But I’d like more, please,
because it makes my kids very calm
and kind. —As told to Sarah Rodman
MUSIC
Judee Sill
The podcast Wonderful!, by
my friend Griffin McElroy,
turned me on to this song-
writer from the early ’70s.
She doesn’t have a lot—it’s,
like, two albums and a
posthumous album, just
like [rapper] Big Pun—but
I’m devouring it because
it’s like this Southern Joni
Mitchell voice that I’ve
never heard. It’s gorgeous.
S TA G E
Octet
This Off Broadway show
by Dave Malloy, the com-
poser of Natasha, Pierre
& the Great Comet
of 1812, was the last thing
I saw that really knocked
my socks off. It’s a com-
pletely a cappella musical
about internet addiction.
My wife, who is a tough
audience when it comes
to musicals, it was her
favorite thing she saw
all year.
TV
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
I just binged. It is so genius. The history of incredibly
brilliant movies to TV spin-offs is alarmingly poor. They
don’t usually stick the landing, but I think it’s because
it’s [director Taika Waititi] and the original team, it’s
just a brilliant expansion of the conceit of the movie.
MOVIE
Cabaret
It’s a master class in how
to translate the essence of
something from stage to
screen without literally
translating it. The show is
really different from the
movie, but no one’s mad
at that movie, because
it’s brilliant, and that’s
the toughest act to follow.
We’re going for it with In
the Heights. I’m going for
it with tick, tick...BOOM!
I have a lot of projects, so
Cabaret is a big source
material for inspiration.
B O O K
Here for It
R. Eric Thomas, a
Baltimore-bred writer
and playwright, is one of
my favorite writers. I look
forward to his columns
every day. His first mem-
oir, Here for It [out Feb. 18,
2020], is like if David
Sedaris was completely
steeped in pop culture
instead of living some-
where far away writing
about it. It’s like pop cul-
ture-obsessed, Sedaris-
level laugh-out-loud funny.
→ He stars as an aeronaut on HBO’s His Dark Materials, is at work on movie adaptations of
Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick...BOOM! and his own In the Heights, is enjoying the success of his latest
Broadway undertaking, Freestyle Love Supreme, and gives us daily pep talks on Twitter. But
the mega-multitasker still found time to tell EW about a few of the things he really, really loves.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC RAY DAVIDSON EW●COM NOVEMBER 2019 15
CABARET: ALLIED ARTISTS/GETTY IMAGES; WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS: JOHN P JOHNSON/FX; SILL: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX; ROGERS: EVERETT COLLECTION
