101 Words About This Show:
In the Heights is a Broadway musical love letter in salsa and hip-hop to the Washington Heights area of upper Manhattan. It’s a mostly-Hispanic neighborhood of immigrants, the upwardly-hopeful, and, soon, gentrifiers.
In the Heights tells the intertwining stories of Usnavi, a bodega owner, who has sold a winning lotto ticket (but to whom?); Nina, who flunked out of Stanford and lost her scholarship (but how will she tell her parents?); and Benny, a non-Hispanic in love with Nina (but how will he tell her parents, who are also his employers?).
And it all comes to a head on a hot July night.
Who’s Who and What’s What:
This Tony Best Musical was conceived by the talented Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music and lyrics. Ironically, Miranda grew up not in the Heights, but in nearby Inwood.
It was his desire to show a community, not simply a neighborhood of dangerous corners and threatening people, and he succeed marvelously.
Loud, driving salsa and hip-hop music; fast-paced, rap-cadenced lyrics; and how-did-they-do-that dancing makes for a fast two and a half hours.
Where and When:
- Richard Rodgers Theatre
226 West 46th Street
- Show Times and Tickets
- Opening: February 14, 2008
- Closing: Open-ended run
- Run Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (including intermission)