Sheryl Lee Ralph and more Pennsylvania stars join Lin-Manuel Miranda’s newest musical project
"Octet" is the "Hamilton" creator's new stage-to-film project. Its cast features a mix of screen and stage performers including Lancater's own Jonathan Groff and Allentown native Amanda Seyfried.
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is tapping Pennsylvania talent for his new project.
This week, Miranda announced the cast for his film adaptation of the 2019 musical Octet. It’s a buzzy lineup including Abbott Elementary actor Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lancaster-raised musical theater star Jonathan Groff, and Allentown native Amanda Seyfried.
Written and composed by Dave Malloy, the a cappella chamber musical centers on eight strangers struggling with internet addiction who meet in a digital dependency support group that operates out of a church basement.
It premiered off Broadway at New York’s Signature Theatre in 2019, a production that Miranda said he found incredibly moving.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about Octet since I saw Annie Tippe’s premiere production in November of 2019. Dave Malloy’s score is versatile, brilliant and grows more relevant with each passing year. It won’t leave me alone so here we are,” Miranda told the Hollywood Reporter.
Malloy will serve as screenwriter and executive producer of the film while Miranda directs. It’s the Moana songwriter’s second time directing a musical-to-screen adaptation, following the 2021 film Tick, Tick … Boom!. The news comes after his revolutionary musical Hamilton celebrated its 10-year anniversary and received the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal in 2025.
The Octet cast features a mix of screen and stage performers with West Side Story and Evita star Rachel Zegler, Hamilton powerhouse Phillipa Soo, Severance’s Tramell Tillman, Sweeney Todd actor Paul-Jordan Jansen, and Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo, who grew up in Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J. and worked briefly as a food runner at a Long Beach Island restaurant.
Three of the cast members call Pennsylvania home (or used to).
Groff, who originated the Hamilton role of King George, won the 2024 Tony Award for best performance by a leading actor in a musical for Merrily We Roll Along. In his acceptance speech, he gave Lancaster a special shoutout and thanked his eighth grade teacher for encouraging him to pursue theater.
Mamma Mia! singer Seyfried most recently starred in the Shakers film The Testament of Ann Lee. During the press tour, she appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for a comedic bit on the show’s Community Calendar segment that focused on actual events in her hometown of Allentown.
Emmy-winning actor Ralph, who starred in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls in 1981, has become a beloved celebrity in Philadelphia thanks in part to her role as Barbara Howard in Quinta Brunson’s blockbuster sitcom Abbott Elementary. Last year Ralph came to town for the live taping of the show at a Phillies game and to renew her wedding vows at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with her husband, Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Pa.).
Rehearsals for Octet are currently underway, but no release date has been announced yet.
