In The Heights

Musical (2005)
Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Book by Quiara Alegría Hudes

With Anthony Alfaro (Paragua Guy), Jorge Barranco (Sonny), Christian Bufford (Ensemble), Tony Castellanos (Kevin), Sarah Crane (Ensemble), Lauren Csete (Ensemble), Jared Dixon (Benny), Merissa Haddad (Daniela), Sean Jones (Graffiti Pete), Diego Klock-Perez (Usnavi), Jasmine Knight (Carla), Melanie Porras (Ensemble), Chris Ramirez (Ensemble), Adrian Ruz (Ensemble), Nicole Paloma Sarro (Camila), Carolyn Saxon (Abuela Claudia), Santina Umbach (Nina), Alessandra Valea (Vanessa)

Nina (Santina Umbach) is an Hispanic college student, back from a year at Stanford. Her Dominican parents, Kevin (?!) (Tony Castellanos) and Camila (Nicole Paloma Sarro), work hard in their own car service business to provide for her education. She becomes involved with Benny (Jared Dixon), a young, black kid from the neighborhood who also works at Kevin’s and Camila’s car service. Complications about college and relationship arise, but they are only a part of the action in this well-populated barrio.

Usnavi (Diego Klock-Perez), the proprietor of a small bodega, has a flirtation with Vanessa (Alessandra Valea), whose sites are set on moving downtown, seemingly a universe away. Meanwhile, a neighborhood elder, Abuela Claudia (Carolyn Saxon), brings good fortune to the neighborhood through caring, luck and generosity, and provides a sense of legacy and connection all around.

This lively, Hispanically-oriented, though dominantly-Broadway style, musical brings a new dimension to the genre. It is not quite as musically Hispanic as I expected. It has much more of a standard showbiz feel to it than anticipated; somehow, from the hype, I had expected salsa through and through. In fact, many sections of the music in West Side Story bring out much more Hispanic feeling than did the scoring in this show.

The songs are energetic and catchy, but a real mish-mash. Usnavi, who doubles as the narrator, sings almost entirely in rap, though it is not clear exactly why. The other characters sing and dance to a mix of standard Broadway show tune riffs, with some addition of Hispanic elements woven in.

But, whatever it is, this show is a lot of fun.

It is, however, clearly written by youngsters. Apparently, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer and lyricist, started it as a sophomore in college, then worked it over the course of several years, eventually bringing on playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes to add a coherent narrative.

There are some very good singers here.

Santina Umbach, as Nina, has a rich and clear voice, and makes for a sympathetic lead. Alessandra Valea, as Vanessa, has a confident presence and a dramatically nuanced voice that carried well throughout.

Merissa Haddad, as Daniela, has a show-stopping moment as the lead in Carnaval del Barrio and rises up out of the ensemble as a vivid singer and a great dancer. She wonderfully captures the sense of salsa in her gestures and movements even during short snatches.

Despite its somewhat standard Broadway quality, the music is catchy and upbeat, and done very capably in this production. The choreography is lively and energetic; there are frequently a lot of people onstage and they move well together, ably conveying a sense of a dynamic barrio rather than just an onstage waiting room.

The drama is fairly low key, but comes across reasonably well for a mild and entertaining evening out. Think Rent or West Side Story light. Even though In The Heights is about a disenfranchised neighborhood in New York, there is nothing at all as heavy in it as what goes on in those high musical dramas. It is vocalized slice of life entertainment, with a bit of a book to hold things together; all in all it is pleasantly entertaining without becoming terribly compelling. Miranda has indicated that he wanted to portray Washington Heights as a normal neighborhood rather than, as it is frequently the case, a place of drugs and knife fights; this effort to normalize the setting succeeds, at the cost of a more evocative narrative.

The show started as a tribute by Miranda to his home neighborhood and contains lots of characters who represent the feeling of the place. The plot, such as it is, was added on later to provide some structure, and it feels that way. The piece is largely character, rather than plot, driven, which gives it at once a kind of human richness and narrative paucity.

But one can easily go along with the fairly thin plot line and fully enjoy the characters, the music, the singing and the dancing; do not, however, expect to get a lot of salsa pointers on the way.

– BADMan