OUTscene Staff
“In the Heights” tells the universal story of a vibrant community in Manhattan's Washington Heights – a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. A little like “Fiddler on the Roof,” this community faces major forks in the road, tough choices, big dreams and hopes. The characters struggle on deciding which traditions to take with them, and which ones to leave behind.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, who developed the musical and originally starred in it, grew up in Manhattan's vibrant and diverse Washington Heights neighborhood, and his background in a close-knit Puerto Rican family has inspired his work as a writer, composer and performer.
“My earliest memory takes place in a bodega on Dyckman Street in Washington Heights,” he says. “I am 3 years old, and walking hand in hand with my Abuela Mundi. Abuela Mundi isn't biologically my "abuela" (grandmother), but she lives in my house, feeds me, tucks me in and walks me to and from nursery school.
I grew up in Northern Manhattan, and if you've ever even driven through the neighborhood, you know that music comes out of every corner. Salsa horn lines wail from fire escape windows; bachata guitar lines blare from pimped-out car stereos. As a teenager, my father was the president (and maybe the only member) of the Puerto Rico chapter of the Debbie Reynolds Fan Club, so we grew up on a bizarre diet of Juan Luis Guerra, Marc Anthony, “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Camelot.”
The central role in the musical is Usnavi, played on tour by Joseph Morales, who dispenses all that café con leche at the local bodega, the regular pit stop for a neighborhood full of outspoken characters.
In the terrific title number that opens the show, he raps and rhymes an introduction of the neighbors’ lives — overdue bills, overheated romances and overtaxed hearts. Abuela Claudia is Usnavi’s surrogate grandmother, whose purchase of her daily lottery ticket on this hot summer morning just before the Fourth of July will have significant consequences for almost everyone in the ’hood. Camila and Kevin Rosario run the gypsy cab company next door to Claudia’s home — still hailing the Irish name of the building’s predecessor, O’Hanrahans.
Benny, their prized employee, harbors a secret (and forbidden) crush on their daughter, Nina, who has just returned from her freshman year at Stanford with a conscience troubled by the economic stress the family is enduring to keep her there. Down the block Nina’s arrival adds new fodder for gossip among the women working in the hair salon owned by the tart-tongued Daniela, who is happy to fabricate artificial news to go with the fake nails, if necessary.
The set design is very detailed, but one wonders if it looks a bit too tidy and happy for a ‘hood. As The New York Times put it, “this sun-drenched block of Washington Heights could almost be mistaken for Main Street at Disneyland, or “Sesame Street” without the puppets. Stretches of Midtown would inspire greater anxiety.”
Winner of four Tony Awards—best musical, best score, best choreography and best orchestrations, “In the Heights” opened on Broadway in 2007 to critical acclaim. (Note: The New York Times said the book, by Quiara Alegría Hudes, is “unfortunately underspiced.”)
In the Broadway version, Nina is played by pop-star Jordin Sparks, who makes her Broadway debut. Sparks is the youngest contestant to ever win "American Idol" at the age of 17. In the touring version of the musical, Seattle-ites see Arielle Jacobs in the role.
The show runs through Oct. 17. Go to http://www.5thavenue.org/ for tickets.
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