The Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned musical, with a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, takes place over three days in NYC's predominantly Hispanic Washington Heights neighborhood.
When “In the Heights” opens tomorrow, March 16, it will be the 18th show NJCU musical theatre professor Marc Dalio has directed for the university.
The Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned musical, with a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, takes place over three days in NYC’s predominantly Hispanic Washington Heights neighborhood. Narrated by bodega-owner Usnavi de la Vega (played by Gerson Checo), “In the Heights” features a sprawling cast of diverse Latino characters – from Usnavi himself to Nina (played by Miriam Navarrete), the one who who was supposed to have made it out of the barrio to go to Stanford University but drops out, to the musical’s sole non-Spanish speaker Benny (played by Prestine J. Allen).
To single out just a few characters is to do the musical and the wide-ranging backgrounds of both its cast and characters a bit of an injustice.
Stephanie Rosario, who plays Vanessa, says that while, “looks will always play a big role in casting,” both in ways that can work against and for someone with a foreign background, that is “not so much for ‘In the Heights’ because (the) majority of Latin countries have a mixture of ethnicities where every character in that musical could be played by any race.”
“We do NJCU versions of everything,” says Dalio. “That means that we search for shows that can include the diverse and multicultural pool of student actors we attract, or we take shows that have not been thought of as possibly being ‘inclusive’ in such a way, and blow them out of the water with the beauty that is our students. After all, why should it be any different? Naturally, there are some shows where the very premise involves a battle of race or culture … ‘Ragtime,’ ‘West Side Story,’ ‘Hairspray’ (all productions NJCU has done) as examples. But this can sometimes become not a question of white or black or Hispanic … but of people on different sides of an issue. And we do our best to approach all of our casting and choices that way.
“Having said that, it is also important that we try to offer material that can directly represent our students. ‘In the Heights,’ in addition to serving to offer vehicle for many of our students, also offers us the opportunity to highlight a Hispanic writer and composer.”
Kirsten Ayala, who plays Daniela, hones in on the musical’s unique qualities when she says what distinguishes this show from the others she’s done at NJCU is that it’s “inviting you in the everyday life and struggle that happens in Washington Heights.
“It’s a personal story from every character that is in our stage from beginning to end,” said Ayala.
The local area has its own Heights, which have similar parallels to NYC’s. Though not as overwhelmingly Hispanic as Washington Heights, that demographic is a big part of the area’s population – which has been changing due to the increased “gold coast” value.
It’s that sensibility, along with the notion people who live in such areas have simply pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, that a few critics have argued make Miranda’s mega-popular second musical “Hamilton” a step back from “In the Heights.”
“While ‘Hamilton’ celebrates settler-colonists as patriots for stabilizing stolen land into a new nation,” writes James McMaster in a piece for HowlRound, “‘In The Heights’ is a critique of the violence of gentrification—an ongoing urban process of displacing black and brown people from their homes, colonization by another name.”
In the same piece, McMaster writes that he’s being too hard on “Hamilton,” partially because he thinks Miranda is the best chance those who want “the just world we all deserve” have in musical theatre.
In Miranda’s “In the Heights,” Usnavi yearns to be somewhere literally beyond the American dream, thus, with him being American, making for something more complicated than any one notion of that dream.
While Rosario would agree that (in relation to the towering success of “Hamilton”) “In the Heights” is under-appreciated; and Ayala would disagree, both “In the Heights” cast members do agree that it changed the “contemporary musical landscape,” as Rosario puts it.
“…It was something that no one had seen before,” says Ayala. “It was a show that played to Latinos living in the ghetto and wasn’t making a mockery of their cultures on stage. Just as (in) “Hamilton,’ it made a huge shift, and impact on Broadway and showed that anyone, and everyone could be on this stage and tell these beautiful stories.”
For “In the Heights” choreographer AJ Natale, seeing “In the Heights” on Broadway was life-changing. “It made me realize that my path was not to perform, but to create …” says Natale. “‘In the Heights’ is such a rich series of mini-vignettes that form a vivid but somewhat spray painted mural of life in Washington Heights. Culture weaves in and out, from scene to scene. Vocal rap patterns marry so intricately to Latin rhythms. Joy and excitement rise high enough to light up the GWB. Voices, harmonies, rhythmic displacement, hip hop, excitement, love, joy, emotion. Everything resonates. This is show is everything but generic. This show is real. It’s why I love theater.”
NJCU’s production of “In the Heights” takes place at the Margaret Williams Theatre, 2039 Kennedy Blvd. in Jersey City, on Fridays and Saturdays, March 16, 17, 23, 24 at 7:30 p.m.; and Sundays, March 18, 25 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $ 15 in general and $ 5 for students and can be bought via this link: https://secure.touchnet.net/C21117_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=712&SINGLESTORE=true.
John DiPinto serves as musical director of a cast that includes Brittany Santos as Camila Rosario, Danette Sheppard-Vaughn as Abuela, Miriam Navarrete as Nina, Eva Martinez as Carla, Jonathan Jarvis as Sonny, Haneef James as Graffitti Pete, Israel Hernandez as Kevin Rosario, and Angel Berros as Pragua Guy; with the ensemble played by Thomas Dougherty, Evelyn Gonzalez, Roy Graquiena, Carly Hatcher, Llan Martinez, Ozzy Martinez, Anthony Nunez, Justin Reed, Francis Rodriguez, Alexa Rosado, and Kayla Stewart.