|
Storyline: The 4th of July weekend during a summer heat wave on the
streets of Washington Heights, the Latino neighborhood that is bisected by
Interstate 91 as it crosses Manhattan Island at the George Washington
Bridge. A local girl returns from college to find shop owner Usnavi serving
his neighbors their morning coffee, her parents battling to keep their taxi
company going and a hair and nail salon closing down to relocate to the Bronx.
Everyone on the street has a dream, and everyone is struggling. Someone,
however, is about to get rich, for the lottery has just announced that a
ticket purchased at Usnavi's bodega won $96,000 - but whose ticket is it?
This slice-of-life
community portrait throbs with salsa-inflected rap and the Latino beat that
has driven everyone from Xavier Cugat to Desi Arnaz, but still sounds as
contemporary and up to date as the morning news. The show is solidly
constructed, well paced and energetically performed by a cast that seems to
believe with all its heart that it is performing something unique, something
new, something great. Given the success the show had at the Tony Awards just
a week before we attended, that belief is fully understandable. After all,
this cast and crew walked home with four Tony's - Best Score, Best
Orchestrations, Best Choreography and (drum roll please) Best Musical! The
secret of its success, however, isn't how very new and contemporary it all
is, but how very solid and traditional it is while establishing a
contemporary feel. The "rap" is skillfully crafted rhymed verse. The salsa
beat drives the delivery of songs with solid melodies built on traditional
structures, and the episodic plotline avoids feeling familiar not by
breaking new ground but by populating the community it portrays with well
defined, refreshingly human characters. Think of Comden, Green and
Bernstein's "Christopher Street" which opened Wonderful Town in 1953.
Now set it to a salsa beat. Got it!
The night we attended,
Javier Muņos substituted for star Lin-Manuel Miranda. The tradition on
Broadway is that understudies for stars are often as good, or even better
performers than the principals - they are cast for talent, craft and skill
but not for name recognition or star power. Now, Miranda wasn't exactly cast
for his name - he was an unknown before this show. But he'd conceived of the
show in the first place and wrote its lyrics and book. In addition to
winning the Tony for best score, he was nominated for the Tony for best
actor. Still, Muņos continued the tradition of extremely strong performances
by understudies, carrying his load in the show with energy and charm.
A section of 181st
Street forms the very impressive single set that Anna Louizos created in
hues of heat-baked pastels. Howell Binkley's warm lights emphasize the feel
of the heat wave that is both meteorological and musical. He even manages
the very difficult trick of making soft blue lighting for late night/early
morning darkness seem warm. Andy Blankenbuehler's spirited dances drive that
temperature even higher. This musical is settling in for a lengthy stay in
the Richard Rodgers Theatre. It will do well this summer, but it should be
even more welcome in another half a year when you can come in out of the
cold of a snowy or rainy 46th Street to the heat of the Heights.
Music and lyrics by
Lin-Manuel Miranda. Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes. Conceived by Lin-Manuel
Miranda. Directed by Thomas Kail. Choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler.
Music direction by Alex Lacamoire. Arrangements and orchestrations by Alex
Lacamoire and Bill Sherman. Design: Anna Louizos (set) Paul Tazewell
(costumes) Howell Binkley (lights) Acme Sound Partners (sound). Principal
cast: Andrea Burns, Janet Dacal, Robin de Jesus, Carlos Gomez, Mandy
Gonzalez, Christopher Jackson, Priscilla Lopez, Olga Merediz, Lin-Manuel
Miranda, Karen Olivo, Seth Stewart. |
