Video: TCM Spotlights the United Palace Theatre with Lin-Manuel Miranda

In the latest installment of their ongoing Still Now Showing series, Turner Classic Movies explores the history of the United Palace Theatre in New York's Washington Heights, with help from Broadway's Lin-Manuel Miranda.

In the video, viewers are treated to interviews with CEO Mike Fitelson, event coordinator Gregory Ippilito, and Miranda himself as they take a look at the rich history of the institution and its place in the culture of New York cinema.

"The first time I walked in here, I just couldn't believe I'd been walking by this jewel all my life and never gone inside," says Miranda in the video. In recent years, the Hamilton creator has helped to program the recurring series "Movies at the United Palace," often highlighting musicals and other New York titles, including West Side Story, In the Heights, and more. Screenings often include conversations with special guests such as Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Spike Lee, Rita Moreno, Hugh Jackman, Billy Crystal, and Danai Gurira. 

During a recent screening of the 2024 documentary, Satisfied, Hamilton's Renee Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, and Miranda took the stage for a stripped-down performance of the song of the same name from the hit musical. Watch the performance here. 

Still Now Showing is a new TCM Original Programming series of short profiles on hometown movie theaters, big and small. All were built during a time of unprecedented popularity in moviegoing, when tens of millions of Americans said “let’s all go the movies” on a weekly basis. Some were built with high and majestic intentions, creating palaces of ornate beauty and atmosphere. Others were much more modest, in keeping with smaller cities, tinier towns. But each in their own way were portals for would-be dreamers, young and old, collected in the darkened theater, awash in the wondrous glow of the silver screen.