| In the Heights | |
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Broadway poster |
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| Music | Lin-Manuel Miranda |
| Lyrics | Lin-Manuel Miranda |
| Book | Quiara Alegría Hudes |
| Productions | 2007 Off-Broadway 2008 Broadway 2009 North American Tour 2011 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Concert 2011 Manila |
| Awards | Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award for Best Score Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical Lortel Award for Best Musical |
In the Heights is a musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story explores three days in the characters' lives in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights.
After productions in Connecticut (2005) and Off-Broadway (2007), the show opened in a Broadway theatre production in March 2008. This production was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, winning four: Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography (Andy Blankenbuehler), and Best Orchestrations (Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman). It was also a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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Miranda wrote the earliest draft of In the Heights in 1999, his sophomore year of college. After the show was accepted by Wesleyan University's student theater company The Second Stage, Miranda worked on adding "freestyle rap ... bodegas, and salsa numbers."[1] It played from April 20, 1999 to April 22, 1999. After seeing the play, two Wesleyan seniors, John Buffalo Mailer and Thomas Kail approached Miranda and asked if the play could be expanded to be on Broadway.[1] In 2002, Miranda and Mailer worked with director Tommy Kail and wrote five separate drafts of In the Heights.
A new version of In the Heights was presented at the National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT in 2005.[2][3]
It then opened at the off-Broadway 37 Arts Theater, running from February 8, 2007 through July 15, 2007. Directed by Thomas Kail, with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and music direction by Alex Lacamoire, it was produced by Jill Furman, Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller and Sander Jacobs. The off-Broadway production was nominated for nine Drama Desk Awards, winning two.
The musical premiered on Broadway, starting in previews on February 14, 2008,[4] with an official opening on March 9, 2008 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The Broadway production was again directed and choreographed by Kail and Blankenbuehler, with most of the off-Broadway principals repeating their roles. The creative team included set design by Anna Louizos, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting design by Howell Binkley, sound design by Acme Sound Partners, arrangements and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman, and music coordination by Michael Keller.
The producers announced on January 8, 2009 that the show had recouped its $10 million investment after 10 months.[5] The cast recording was released on June 3, 2008, by Ghostlight Records and won the 51st Annual Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, beating the recordings of The Little Mermaid, Young Frankenstein, and the revivals of Gypsy and South Pacific. The Broadway production celebrated its 1000th performance on August 2, 2010.[6]
The Broadway production played its final performance on January 9, 2011 after 29 previews and 1,185 regular performances, making it the 79th longest running show in Broadway history.[7][8] The final cast starred Lin-Manuel Miranda, Arielle Jacobs, Marcy Harriell, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Olga Merediz, Andréa Burns, and Priscilla Lopez.
The first national tour of In the Heights began on October 27, 2009 in Tampa, Florida.[9] The musical ran in San Juan, Puerto Rico in November 2010, the first time an Equity tour has played in the city. Puerto Rico is the "ancestral home of its librettist Quiara Alegría Hudes and its star and Tony-winning songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda." Miranda will play this engagement.[10] The national tour closed on April 3, 2011 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida.[11] At the time of its closing, the tour starred Joseph Morales as Usnavi.[12]
On January 5, 2011, past and present cast members of In the Heights performed a Cabaret Cares concert at the Laurie Beechman Theatre to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.[13]
The international premiere opened in Manila, Philippines, on September 2, 2011, and played a limited engagement until September 18, 2011. The new production was directed by Bobby Garcia and starred Nyoy Volante as Usnavi.[14] In the Heights will return to Manila in March 2012.
In The Heights will begin a new, non-Equity United States national tour, starting on October 17, 2011, according to casting notices. Venues and cast members have yet to be announced, but rehearsals will begin September 12, 2011; the tour is scheduled to run until June 2012.[15][16][17]
In the shadows, a young man sprays graffiti onto the awning of a bodega, but his artistic reverie is interrupted when the store owner, Usnavi, enters and chases him away ("In the Heights"). Usnavi opens his bodega and supplies everyone with their morning coffee and papers. We meet the major characters and neighbors as they pass by his bodega. As the morning rush subsides, Nina Rosario enters, home at last from her freshman year at Stanford. In a moment alone, Nina reveals that she struggled at college ("Breathe").
Meanwhile, Nina's parents seek an emergency loan from the bank to keep their struggling taxi dispatch afloat. They leave Benny, a young employee, in charge of the dispatch for the first time ("Benny's Dispatch"). At the hair salon across the street, Vanessa has financial troubles of her own. Vanessa dreams of escaping to a studio in the West Village, but doesn't have enough money to do so ("It Won't Be Long Now"). When she stops by Usnavi's bodega, Sonny asks Vanessa out for Usnavi, and she accepts.
When her parents return, Nina becomes nervous and reveals to them that she lost her academic scholarship and dropped out of Stanford. Her father, Kevin, is devastated that he cannot provide tuition without the scholarship ("Inútil"). Nina seeks comfort from her friend Vanessa, but the salon owner, Daniela, sits her down for a makeover and gossip session ("No Me Diga"). Daniela decides to tease Vanessa by telling her that Usnavi slept with one of the neighborhood skanks, just to see how Vanessa would react. Vanessa reacts in a way that shows that she likes Usnavi, but does not truly recognize it.
After Usnavi discovers he sold a winning lottery ticket worth $96,000, everyone on the block dreams of how they would each spend the small fortune ("96,000"). Later, Abuela Claudia reflects on her childhood journey from Cuba to New York in 1943, remembering her mother saying "patience and faith" along the journey ("Paciencia y Fe"). She reveals that she holds the winning lottery ticket.
Nina and Benny find themselves alone on the street. Nina admits that she felt like an outsider at Stanford, and Benny says that being the only African-American in a Latino-run business can be intimidating. The two take a tour of the neighborhood landmarks around which they grew up ("When You're Home").
At a dinner party, Kevin announces that he has sold Rosario's Car Service to pay for Nina's tuition. His news is met with anger. Nina follows Benny to a dance club, apologizing, but he is furious at Kevin's decision, which has put him out of a job. Vanessa and Usnavi enter the club and begin to dance ("The Club"). Tensions rise on the dance floor because Vanessa and Usnavi are attempting to make each other jealous.
Suddenly, the power goes out throughout the city ("Blackout"). Chaos ensues, and Usnavi loses Vanessa in the darkness, while Sonny and Graffiti Pete are at the bodega protecting it from vandals and trying to distract them with fireworks. Abuela Claudia reveals to Usnavi that she won the lottery. With fireworks exploding in the sky, Nina and Benny find each other and kiss.
The next morning, Benny and Nina are on his fire escape after spending the night together. Nina teaches Benny Spanish. ("Sunrise") Down on the street, Usnavi's bodega has been looted. Abuela Claudia convinces Usnavi they should use her lottery winnings to relocate to the Dominican Republic. Usnavi agrees to be rid of his corner store and pursue his dream ("Hundreds of Stories").
Nina's parents have been searching for her all night, and when they learn that she has been with Benny, Kevin is furious. Kevin vows that Benny will never be a part of the Rosario family because he is not Latino. The family is at a breaking point when Camila instructs them to get it together before it is too late ("Enough").
It is high noon and the neighbors are frustrated by the extreme heat and continuing power outage. They muster enough energy for one last celebration before the bodega, the salon, and the dispatch shut their doors forever ("Carnaval Del Barrio"). People, led by Daniela, start to dance and sing. The celebration continues onto another block when a noticeably upset Nina comes out and stops Usnavi from dancing, pulling him into Abuela's house. Kevin makes an announcement over the taxi radios that Abuela Claudia has died ("Atención"). The neighbors reunite on the sidewalk, this time to hold a vigil in honor of the block's matriarch ("Alabanza"). Usnavi and Nina look through boxes of Abuela Claudia's keepsakes—old lottery tickets and photos from the block's history ("Everything I Know"). As Nina discovers photographs from her own high school graduation, she decides to accept her father's sacrifice and return to Stanford.
Across the street, as Daniela closes her salon forever, she reveals one last bit of juicy news ("No Me Diga (Reprise)"). She will co-sign on Vanessa's dream apartment in the West Village, thanks to a little convincing from Usnavi. Vanessa brings Usnavi a bottle of champagne to celebrate and asks him to stay, getting in an argument with him in the process, and she kisses him ("Champagne"). However, Usnavi's mind is still set on the Dominican Republic. Benny worries about his relationship with Nina. They stand together as the sun sets ("When the Sun Goes Down").
The next morning, Usnavi wakes up early to begin closing up shop. He sees the businesses around him: Daniela's salon is closed, and the Rosario's Car Service sign is gone. In just a few weeks, he will be gone, too, and the block will be completely changed. Sonny, however, is not content to leave without a trace. He commissions a graffiti mural of Abuela Claudia on the bodega's grate, and Graffiti Pete has stayed up all night completing the portrait. Sonny rolls down the bodega grate, revealing the memorial. Usnavi is stunned that they completed this all in one night, and he realizes that this block is his true home ("Finale"). He tells Sonny to tell the block that he has decided to stay, and promises himself that he's "stepping to Vanessa, [he's] getting a second date." He has found home.
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† Designates number not included on original cast recording
| Character | Opening Broadway Cast | Closing Broadway Cast | Notable Broadway cast replacement(s) |
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Seth Stewart | N/A | |
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Lin-Manuel Miranda |
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N/A |
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Olga Merediz | N/A | |
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N/A |
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Andréa Burns |
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N/A |
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Priscilla Lopez | N/A | |
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Christopher Jackson | N/A | |
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N/A |
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| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Clarence Derwent Award | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Won | |
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Musical | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Ensemble Performance | Won | |||
| Outstanding Director of a Musical | Thomas Kail | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Choreography | Andy Blankenbuehler | Won | ||
| Outstanding Music | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Lyrics | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Orchestrations | Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Set Design | Anna Louizos | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Sound Design | Acme Sound Partners | Nominated | ||
| Lucille Lortel Award | Outstanding Musical | Won | ||
| Outstanding Choreographer | Andy Blankenbuehler | Won | ||
| Outstanding Scenic Design | Anna Louizos | Nominated | ||
| Obie Award | Music and Choreography | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Won | |
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical | Won | ||
| Outstanding New Score | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Director of a Musical | Thomas Kail | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Choreography | Andy Blankenbuehler | Won | ||
| Theatre World Award | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Won | ||
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Broadway.com Audience Award[20] | Favourite Breakthrough Performance | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Won |
| Favourite New Broadway Song | "In the Heights" | Won | ||
| Grammy Award | Best Musical Show Album | Won | ||
| Tony Award | Best Musical | Won | ||
| Best Book of a Musical | Quiara Alegría Hudes | Nominated | ||
| Best Original Score | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Won | ||
| Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical | Nominated | |||
| Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical | Robin de Jesús | Nominated | ||
| Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical | Olga Merediz | Nominated | ||
| Best Direction of a Musical | Thomas Kail | Nominated | ||
| Best Choreography | Andy Blankenbuehler | Won | ||
| Best Orchestrations | Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman | Won | ||
| Best Scenic Design | Anna Louizos | Nominated | ||
| Best Costume Design | Paul Tazewell | Nominated | ||
| Best Lighting Design | Howell Binkley | Nominated | ||
| Best Sound Design | Acme Sound Partners | Nominated | ||
| 2009 | Pulitzer Prize | Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Nominated | |
The reviews for the show were positive to mixed (the median grade of 9 major reviews was "B+").[21] Charles Isherwood's review in The New York Times said that "when this musical erupts in one of its expressions of collective joy, the energy it gives off could light up the George Washington Bridge for a year or two."[22] Heather Bing of The Cleveland Leader wrote, "Although I was sometimes struggling to keep up with the hip-hop and Spanish-infused lyrics, the exciting set and choreography paired with excellent acting held my interest in the storyline."[23] David Rooney's Variety review said, "That depth of feeling, together with the wit of Miranda's lyrics, the playful dexterity of his rhymes, his dynamic score and a bunch of truly winning performances, make the show an uncalculated charmer."[24]
Hudes' book received mixed reviews. Charles McNulty's The Los Angeles Times review mentioned that "the downside to In the Heights is the book...which is overstuffed and oversimplified."[25] The New York Post's Clive Barnes also gave negative comments about the book, saying that "Hudes' work is droopily sentimental and untruthful."[26] Joe Dziemianowicz of the NY Daily News also disliked the book, but added that "what it lacks in story and believability it makes up for in a vibrant rap- and salsa-flavored score, spirited dances and great-looking design."[27]
On November 7, 2008, Universal Pictures announced that they planned to adapt the musical as a feature film for release in 2011.[28][29] Kenny Ortega was set to direct the film, which was slated to begin filming in summer 2011.[30][31] However, the project was canceled in March 2011, when Universal opted not to produce the In the Heights film.[32]
On May 27, 2009, PBS Great Performances aired an episode entitled "In The Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams." It documents the journey taken by the cast and crew to bring the show to Broadway and to later win a Tony Award.[33] Producer Andrew Fried and Director Paul Bozymowski captured footage of the cast and creative team for over two years, from Off-Broadway through to their Tony Award win for Best Musical. The special previewed at the Paley Center for Media in New York on May 4, 2009.[34]
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