In The Heights at Orpheum Theatre on 12/1/09

By: Janet Preus

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Broadway is taking another step in the right direction with the contemporary music and ethnic flavors of In the Heights, a slice of life in a Latino neighborhood in New York City. The 2008 Tony Award Winner is decidedly sugar-coated, but it’s also new and original – rare in musical theater produced these days – and authentically grounded in Latino culture – rarer still. This show even blesses us with today’s music and, for those of us who have a latent fascination with Latin rhythms, we are treated to every every imaginable form of it imaginable, deliciously mixed with hip-hop and sprinkled with rap.

 

The “bad guy” in this show is the neighborhood itself – a place one aspires to rise above and leave permanently. With that set up, we’re pretty sure the next two hours are going to be spent proving otherwise.     Not much for an antagonist, in this case, but the good guys (the entire cast of characters) are so engaging and have just enough scuffs and poofy flaws to make them believable.

What makes this show rise above is choreography that dazzles and delights, but more importantly it makes all the right moves at the right time, merging dance and direction that creates a new whole altogether. I haven’t seen that understanding of choreography in a long time. Such an intelligent pairing of movement and storytelling!

Unfolding on a three-story unit set, with two simple wagons and a handful of small set pieces, the lithe forms of the dancers glided easily around the environments hard edges. Lighting and clever direction moved us from place to place, an approach that made the story flow and served as a reminder that the characters were stuck in the Heights, no matter what.

A solid ensemble navigated the subtle shifts with grace and personality. Isabel Santiago (“Daniela”) seemed to effortlessly sing above the sound system in the joyous celebration called “Carnival del Barrio,” and Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer as the hot chick “Vanessa” had just the right balance of girly and tough.

Kyle Beltran (“Usnavi”) was an enormously appealing lead – and best of all avoided the obligatory protagonist-singing-his-guts-out scene, spit fanning across the stage. Shaun Taylor-Corbett as his side-kick “Sonny” absolutely nailed a mix of juvenile bravado, quips and emotions.

I am puzzled by the choice of Elise Santora, a young actress to play the aged “Abuela.” Santora is enormously talented, to be sure, but real age would have been so much more poignant.

The nasally, shrill soprano that typifies much of Broadway-style musicals today also had no place in this show. In fact, Arielle Jacobs (“Nina”) has one of the prettiest voices I have ever heard anywhere. “Breathe” and “Everything I Know” were absolutely lovely, and her duet with “Benny” (Rogelio Douglas Jr.) was a glorious blend of textures and pure sound.

So the story is utterly and shamelessly simplistic. Well, ok. If you don’t like that, you don’t see too many Broadway musicals, do you? This is about the music and the dancing, and on that note, In the Heights delivers.

 

Produced by Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, Jill Furman Willis, Sander Jacobs, Goodman/Grossman, Peter Fine, Everett/Skipper

 

Directed by Thomas Kail

 

Choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler

 

Music Direction by Alex Lacamoire

 

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Location Info: Orpheum Theatre
Artist Info: Orpheum Theatre

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