Review: 'In the Heights' brings Broadway to the streets, with a joyful look at a vibrant New York neighborhood
Just when we needed it most, as the country starts to emerge from virus-inflicted isolation and wanting to have fun, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda and director Jon M. Chu bring the party with the long-awaited movie version of “In the Heights.”
Miranda’s debut musical, first staged off-Broadway in 2007 and debuting on Broadway in 2008, is a rhythm-driven, joy-filled celebration of Washington Heights. For those who don’t know — and Miranda & Co. are eager to tell you — that’s the neighborhood in far northern Manhattan where first- and second-generation immigrants toil and strive to make better lives for themselves.
The narrator is Usnavi de la Vega, played by Anthony Ramos, who’s best known for playing two doomed characters — John Laurens and Philip Hamilton — in Miranda’s “Hamilton.” Usnavi’s parents brought him to “Nueva York” from the Dominican Republic. It’s Usnavi’s dream to leave behind his dad’s run-down bodega, where he sells coffee and lottery tickets to the neighborhood, and reopen the bar his dad used to run in Santo Domingo.
But there’s more than money woes keeping Usnavi from going back to the Dominican Republic. There’s his young cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV), a DACA kid who runs the store with him. And there’s Claudia (Olga Merediz), who raised Usnavi after his parents died — and serves as “abuela,” or grandmother, to the neighborhood. But, mostly, Usnavi is tied by his unrequited crush on Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), a fashion designer who also dreams of leaving Washington Heights — in her case, for an apartment downtown.
The story’s other romantic coupling is between Nina Rosario (Leslie Grace), who’s back from her first year at Stanford, and Benny (Corey Hawkins), the dispatcher at the taxi company owned by Nina’s dad, Kevin Rosario (Jimmy Smits). Nina is dealing with the pressure of being Kevin’s perfect daughter, and being the one person everyone knows who escaped the Heights — which is why she’s having trouble telling everyone that she wants to drop out of Stanford, where she feels alienated and alone.
Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes, who wrote the musical’s book and the film’s screenplay, mostly make space for the characters to sing about their hardships and dreams. What little plot there is involves a blackout, the miscommunication between Usnavi and Vanessa (easily the musical’s weakest link), and the word spreading around the neighborhood that Usnavi’s bodega sold somebody a winning lottery ticket worth $96,000.
Fans of the play will notice some changes. The film removes the subplot where Kevin disapproves of Benny dating his daughter; in fact, the movie also takes away Kevin’s big solo number and makes him a widower. Merediz’ show-stopper “Paciencia y Fe,” in which Abuela Claudia sings of her passage from Cuba and her family’s hard work in New York, is moved into the second act.
Merediz, who received a Tony nomination for the role, is the only Broadway cast member who reprises her role for the movie. Miranda played Usnavi back in 2008, but has aged out. Now he plays the Piragueno, the shaved-ice man, selling his sweet treats around the block — and serving as the symbol of the Heights’ resistance to gentrification, personified by the corporate-backed Mister Softee truck. (The Mister Softee driver is played by Christopher Jackson, who was the original Benny and later played George Washington in “Hamilton.”)
“In the Heights” is part of a long Broadway tradition: Enticing rich theatergoers to plunk down hundreds of dollars for tickets to watch poor people persevere. It’s a tradition that stretches from “Oliver!” to “Fiddler on the Roof,” from “Les Miserables” to “Miss Saigon,” and from “Rent” to “Urinetown.”
Miranda’s debut musical doesn’t wallow too much in the historic nostalgia of “Fiddler,” or the operatic self-importance of “Les Miz,” or the smug sanctimony of “Rent.” No, “In the Heights” is a big-hearted work — weaving together stories of hope holding firm in the face of disappointment, love winning out over adversity — that also tackles issues of poverty, immigration and the preservation of Latino culture.
And in the hands of Chu, who directed “Crazy Rich Asians” and a couple of the “Step Up” movies, it’s the sort of musical spectacle — fast-moving, dance-focused, candy-colored — that Miranda’s music deserves. The fact that much of it is filmed on location gives the movie magic an underpinning of street-smart authenticity.
Chu sets the ensemble piece “96,000,” when everyone considers what they would do with a lottery windfall, at the public pool in a throwback to Busby Berkeley’s watery extravaganzas with Esther Williams. He smartly casts Daphne Rubin-Vega (the original Mimi from “Rent”) in the key role of Daniela, the exuberant owner of the local hair salon. And in Benny and Nina’s duet “When the Sun Goes Down,” he stages the dance on the side of their building, reminiscent of Fred Astaire in “Royal Wedding.”
Ramos gives a star turn as Usnavi, caught between his New York life and his Dominican dreams. Barrera is a charming discovery as the ambitious Vanessa, and Hawkins and Grace bring soul to Benny and Nina’s love story. Smits and especially Merediz shine as they show that pursuing one’s dreams is a multi-generational occupation.
Throughout “In the Heights,” one hears Miranda’s way of melding traditional musical theater and the rhythms of hip-hop, the Caribbean and the New York street. As he did in “Hamilton,” Miranda here is bending the musical to fit the moment, creating something both timely and timeless.
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‘In the Heights’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, June 11, in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive references. Running time: 143 minutes.