Musicals can be among the most compelling ways to tell stories, assuming they have stories to tell. Broadway in recent years has been impoverished—not economically but creatively, a tourist trap of stuffed Disney cash cows (Frozen) or musically lame efforts at being in the now (Rent). Lin-Manuel Miranda bucked the trend, reenergizing contemporary musical theater in a career that began with In the Heights, a celebration both realistic and hyper-realistic of a particular Manhattan community, largely Latino, flying the flags of half-a-dozen Caribbean nations, proud, struggling, aspiring.
Successfully transposed and expanded to film by director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians), at two hours 20 minutes, it never feels long because it never stands still. In the Heights shifts easily between speaking, singing and rapping, and from salsa to hip-hop to contemporary Broadway. Caribbean rhythms converge with New York street beats as a large cast of fully realized characters (not caricatures) tell their stories in song and dance.
They are all sharing their dreams, some of them deferred as they leverage today in hope for tomorrow, some threatened by cancellation. Washington Heights, Miranda’s home, is threatened by the cruel side of gentrification as rents rise and residents move out. And as one character says, “They’re talking about kicking out all the Dreamers.”
The sharp-elbowed kinetics drawn from modern and urban dance simmer don to allow emotional introspection amidst the bustle. One of the several protagonists, Nina (Leslie Grace), returns from Stanford to Washington Heights on a sweltering summer day to face the disappointment of family and friends. She was the book-smart girl who was going to rise through education, but her father, who runs a car service, is running out of money, and she feels out of place in the Ivy League, despite the strained liberalism of “diversity programs.”
Nina’s lines are sung in part with the powerhouse projection of an “American Idol” champion befitting her role as one of the musical’s dramatic fulcrums. But In the Heights is framed by the storytelling of Usnavi de la Vega (Anthony Ramos), a bodega owner whose dream is returning to the Dominican Republic where the dollars he saved will go the long distance. Most of the neighbors are happy to stay, saving for the future and asserting their dignity in small ways.
Not everyone is positive all the time but the through-line is the strength that comes from a community bound not only geographically but in cultures of food, music and sharing, In the Heights succinctly addresses a dozen issues, including the frustrating economic disparity that is the legacy of low income and delivers short lessons on topics such as influential Latinas from history. Miranda also incorporates references to Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and other figures of American music in a songbook that never sounds less than contemporary. The celebratory film is released at the right moment when Americans are emerging from a year of isolation and frustration.
