| . | 03/18/2008
IN THE HEIGHTS
By: Jeannie Lieberman
photo credit Joan Marcus
the company, opening number
Latinos are finally back on Broadway and it looks like they are here to stay! The little show that began as a Sophomore project in 1999 at Wesleyan University, and grew into a six month stint on West 37th street, roared into the Richard Rodgers theater a little bit bigger (stage deeper, sets rebuilt a bit taller) and longer (3 more songs), louder (orchestra from 7 to13, heavier on clavas and congas, more horns, bigger crescendos) and much more expensive (budget from $500,000 Off-Broadway to $10 million), playing to an audience enlarged from 500 to 1500. But fear not, this brightly colored, multicultural, infectiously joyous musical will surely win this year's Tony(s)!
Unlike the West Side Story's Sharks that preceded them 50 years ago, and Paul Simon's 1998 brief but melodic Capeman , about a murder, these Dominicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans are not knife wielding. Their only threat is economic as some fight to stay, others to leave the show's lovingly recreated 'hood by the George Washington Bridge at Washington Heights.
photo credit Joan Marcus
Jackson & the cast
As in Porgy and Bess's early morning opening street scene, the corner of 181th street comes to life onstage in the “overture” as the show's creator, lyrics & music writer and star, Lin-Manual Miranda, jump starts it introducing the characters and telling their stories in a slow rap that gradually builds into a full blown salsa whose rhythms are irresistible.
We meet Usnavi ( Miranda), the local bodega owner, whose name was taken off a passing boat by his parents en route to the US, with dreams of going back to his native Dominican Republic and dating Vanessa ( a spirited Karen Olivo), the neighborhood beauty who is obsessed with moving out of the neighborhood to the West Village but cant afford it, Sonny (Robin de Jesus) Usnavi's hilarious little cousin and stockboy, who has schemes and clarity of vision far beyond his age, Daniela (dynamo Andrea Burns), the gossipy salon owner forced to move to the Bronx due to rising rents, Carla (sexy Janet Dacal), one of Daniela's hairdressers, who prefers to tell boys she's from Queens, Nina (sweetly played by Mandy Gonzalez), the local neighborhood heroine, who received a scholarship to attend Stanford and returns home for “summer break” harboring the sad news from her hard working parents (Priscilla Lopez - yes. that one from A Chorus Line) and Kevin (Carlos Gomez), that she dropped out : “I lost my scholarship working to pay for books I didn't have time to read” , Benny (smooth, handsome Christopher Jackson), who works for Nina's dad and falls in love with her but whose African-American heritage is unacceptable to Nina's parents, Piragua Guy (cute Eliseo Roman), who is competing with Mr Softee to sell his flavorful ices, and Abuela Claudia (petite powerhouse Olga Merediz), everyone's grandma who has dreams of her own.
Their sentimentalized stories take place over a hot July 4th weekend, when everybody is hoping to win the $96 000 lottery, each with his own dream - “that's a lot of spray cans!” opines Graffiti Pete. Abuela Claudia wins the lotto with a ticket, bought in Usnavi's bodega, and the play culminates in a blackout in the midst of their holiday celebrations (a nice touch when everybody uses their cell phones for light), after which the “forbidden lovers” appear together on a fire escape (Oh, Romeo, Oh, Juliet) at which point the exuberant audience squealed in shocked delight., and a sudden death sharpens everyone's visions. Relationships are clarified and repaired (or not) and a surprise creation by Graffiti Pete (remarkable dancer Seth Stewart) becomes a life changing experience for Usnavi.
photo credit Joan Marcus
The cast, led by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Anna Luizos manages to fit all these characters into her appropriately crowded, run down, all purpose set, magnificently framed by a stylistic George Washington Bridge. Paul Tazewell has obviously resisted the urge to glamorize these denizens and their very realistic costumes make one want to run up and put on a little lipstick here, and substitute sandals for sneakers there. How “natural” do you want to get?
The genius is in Music Director Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman's savvy arrangements and orchestrations of Miranda's score, like a boom-box gone wild, that incorporate a blend of Rap, Hip Hop, Salsa, Meringue, Samba, Cha Cha, some cool jazz and a touch of Golden Age Broadway,. Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography to this rich mix of music inspires all the dance styles of the counter cultures and generations which do not clash but playfully co-exist. He throws all these at us simultaneously so you see each character dancing in his appropriate genre (a funny moment occurs when Usnavi, finally asking Vanessa to the party, tries to learn salsa in lieu of his hip hop, to compete with the hot Latin men waiting to seduce her through dance). Director Thomas Kail skillfully manages the large cast of 27 and keeps the pace so brisk that you want to shout - stop a minute, can we see a little more of that dancing - because the snippets offered are brilliant and could comprise an evening of their own.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Miranda's abiiity to choose his lyrics with care for contemporary authenticity (remember Sondheim's ” I feel Pretty” in which a recently arrived, English challenged Puerto Rican girl sings “Its alarming how charming I feel”), results in rhyming “maxipads” with “taxicabs”, “bounced checks” with “what's next?”. Music Director Lacamoire is purported to have insisted on proper Latin pronunciation for the English words like “Washingtone” not Washington,in their song and, with all that Spanish spoken and sung, we'll just have to trust them.
The one weakness is Quirta Aleoria Hudes' book, with such pithy phrases as “the watermelon of my heart” and “I want to live where the brick wall is exposed on purpose and not because a house was torn down”, seems to focus on a quantity of characters rather than the quality of characterizations.
Mandy Gonzalez and Christopher Jackson
Kudos to Kevin McCollum & Jeffrey Seller, producers of Rent, Ave Q and Drowsy Chaperone, for again taking the risk of something new. They will be rewarded on this one, too. Although the show is site specific, its themes (Like Fiddler, Romeo & Juliette) are universal and it will have a great future on the road.
Of course the show's ultimate message, “There's no place like home”, is just fine and we hope they stay in their new home on Broadway for a long, long time..
Richard Rogers Theater,226 West 46 Street, 212 221-1211
|
|