On the northernmost tip of Manhattan, under the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, lies the district known as Washington Heights. Heavily populated with Latinos and far from the glamour and wealth of Midtown, ordinary people live out their hopes and sorrows in this urban cityscape. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes' In the Heights, the 2008 Tony Award winner for best musical and playing this weekend at the Lexington Opera House as part of the Broadway Live series, celebrates the importance of community with this highly sanitized slice of life in the barrio.
Its effort to be a family show compromises the reality of the gritty streets, portraying no foul language, no violence, no drugs, no gays — rather like a West Side Story for our times. The utter predictability of the plot does not help this effect. But the sweetness and innocence of the authors' approach enables the message of "home and community" to come through clearly.
This touring production of In the Heights is a re-creation by Michael Balderrama of the Broadway original. The set blends a realistic foreground (the neighborhood itself) and poetic background (the soaring bridge, representing the world outside the barrio). The stage pops with muscular contemporary dance moves and pulsating, energetic music, strongly influenced by Latin and hip-hop styles, assisted by an excellent band that frequently overwhelms the actors with its volume.
As Usnavi, the owner of the corner bodega, Perry Young carries the play with a warm, likeable characterization and decent rapping skills. Presilah Nuñez, as Usnavi's love interest, Vanessa, is so smokin' hot that it is hard to believe she is not a spokesmodel on some cable station rather than an indigent girl with no prospects struggling to pay her rent, but she is a good actress, singer and dancer, and she legitimately earns the audience's sympathy.
The other romantic couple in this musical are Nina, a neighborhood girl who has struggled while away at Stanford University, and Benny, the dispatch boy in Nina's father's car-service business. Kyle Carter plays Benny very naturally, with a sweet demeanor to match his smooth voice. Virginia Cavaliere does not fare so well as Nina, with her shallow, tinny voice and wooden acting.
As Nina's parents, Benjamin Perez and Celina Clarich Polanco are not convincing as hard-working Dominican immigrants. They sport the most Midwestern accents of the entire cast, adding to the impression of fairly prosperous suburbanites rather than hardscrabble city dwellers.
As the barrio matriarch, Christina Aranda wows the audience with a powerhouse voice, but lapses in and out of her Latino accent to a disconcerting degree. Tauren Hagans and Katherine Brady, as proprietors of the neighborhood hair salon, and Robert Ramirez, as Usnavi's bodega assistant Sonny, also contribute strong performances.
In the Heights is one of the most important and influential musicals of the past decade, and this good touring production offers Lexington a chance to observe the workings of a city very different, and not so very different, from our own.
