Miranda has said that treating the project as an album, not a stage show, allowed him to work with some of his "dream collaborators" who could not commit to a Broadway performance schedule.

It also features Broadway actors Miranda worked with as part of the original cast of Hamilton: Sasha Hutchings, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones.

The American singer-songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda first saw the movie The Warriors (1979) at age four on a VHS videocassette and, according to him, the story was "on two stone tablets in my head" since then.

[1][3] In August 2023, New York Post was the first media outlet to report Miranda was working on a stage musical adaptation of Sol Yurick's 1965 novel The Warriors.

[10] In December 2024, in an interview with The New York Times following the release of Mufasa: The Lion King, Miranda said he and Davis were planning to start discussions about a stage adaptation in early 2025, saying "People really like [the album], but because we're such a visual culture, everyone said to me and Eisa 'OK, when can we see it?'

[3] Michael Paulson, a theater reporter at The New York Times, lists the album's genres as "rap and hip-hop, salsa and merengue, ska and sounds from ballroom culture, R&B and funk".

Miranda initially tried writing rap verses for Luther, attempting to match rhythms to the character's thinking patterns as he had done in Hamilton.

[10] Some tracks were written as a broader collaboration with the album's band as part of jam sessions at the Tennessee home of the producer Mike Elizondo.

[19] During the writing process, Miranda swapped early demos with Andy Samberg, who was working on The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience.

At the party, Time Out unveiled a digital magazine cover that includes a photograph of Miranda and Davis in the subway car that was used in the 1979 film and is now housed in New York Transit Museum.

[23] DJ Lynne Pen broadcasts to New York City's gangs, announcing a gathering at Van Cortlandt Park organized by Cyrus of the Gramercy Riffs ("Survive the Night").

The Warriors, an all-women gang from Coney Island, follow Cyrus's instructions to leave their weapons behind and head uptown ("Roll Call").

At Union Square, the Warriors meet the Bizzies, a cardigan-wearing gang offering shelter in their East Village apartment.

Fox distracts the police captain by causing a fight on the platform, allowing the others to escape, but she is thrown onto the tracks and killed by an oncoming train ("Reunion Square").

Cleon rejoins the Warriors, and they express hope that Cyrus's dream of peace will one day be realized ("Finale Part III: When We All Come Home Alive").

He said some of his "dream collaborators" would never commit to a Broadway schedule of performing eight times a week, but could spend a couple of days in a studio.

Logan Culwell-Block, writing for Playbill, commented this might be especially helpful because some aspects of the Warriors story, such as the fight sequences and numerous location changes, are not things musicals on traditional proscenium stages are known for doing well.

She again connected the story of Warriors to the Hoe Avenue peace meeting, which she says enabled "the cultural conditions that created hip-hop officially in 1973.

It gives examples like the line "I be like, 'Warriors, come out and play' ", rapped by Ol' Dirty Bastard on Wu-Tang Clan's debut album, and the video for California Love by 2Pac featuring Dr. Dre, starting with "Can you dig it?"

[18] Miranda said of the process: "If you're a musical theatre writer, the only time you're in the studio is when you're making the cast album of the stage show.

[24] Featured on the album are:[26][1][27] The Warriors The Rogues The Gramercy Riffs The Turnbull AC's The Orphans The Hurricanes The Bizzies New York boroughs Other

In reference to the album's gender flip, Financial Times's reviewer Ludovic Hunter-Tilney asks whether the 1979 "macho flick" The Warriors has been "put in a wokehold"; they conclude it has been, but to good effect.

Hunter-Tilney noted the film's gang violence is largely "cartoon fantasy", and so the story's "transformation into a girl-power parable is hardly a leap".

Hunter-Tilney said the role of the radio DJ—"an ancient Greek chorus in the film"—is less-well used in Warriors, but praised "droll embellishments" like "the cringy ska-pop sung by dweebish loser gang the Orphans".

[29] Chris Wiegand of The Guardian noted "one of the album's joys is its unexpected pairings, especially how musical theatre stars are matched with acts from other genres", citing Alex Boniello's and Kim Dracula's duet on "Going Down" in particular.

Wiegand also noted the "poignant yearning" of Julia Harriman's performance on "Call Me Mercy" as a highlight that gives the character a larger role than in the film, where she is "reduced to a love interest".

Wilson criticises the action scenes for lacking a sense of menace, saying the album seems "sealed inside a nicey-nice musical-theater bubble".

He gives examples of the Warriors' easy acceptance of Swan's and Mercy's "queer love", and the fact the story features only a single gun, which "doesn't feel like it has anything to do with gang life now".

[25] Similarly, Slate said Miranda benefits from the second-hand credibility these artists bring because his version of hip-hop "smacks of corniness to those who aren't already musical-theater fans".

According to Jenkins, Miranda is "plagued by" "occasional G-rated schmaltz", and tends toward an "overbearing maximalism and good-intentioned liberalism", which can sometimes "wring an uplifting takeaway from an objectively bleak situation".