In the Heights, page 2
He did even more than that. Because the musicians on campus were all tied up doing another event, the actors had to sing to prerecorded music. So a band needed to pre-cut all those demos. Lin joined the musicians in a Middletown, Connecticut, recording studio to play the piano. He also hand-wrote the sheet music.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and M. Graham Smith
He had enough time for this tedious task because he wasn’t spending it with his girlfriend. After four years together, she had left to spend a semester abroad. The separation and his general uncertainty about the relationship put him “in as dark a place as I’d ever been,” he says. That early-twenties anguish went a long way toward shaping the show.
In that first incarnation, In the Heights was a story of fraught, crisscrossing love affairs. Benny is in love with Nina, a Yale student who has returned to her old neighborhood, Washington Heights, for the summer. But Benny is the best friend of Nina’s brother, Lincoln, who disapproves of their relationship. He disapproves because—the big twist!—Lincoln is secretly gay and in love with Benny.
Their love triangle unfolds through nights at the club with their friend Usnavi, the bodega owner, and his unattainable dream girl, Vanessa. Even now, the score doesn’t sound like anything else. Benny, Lincoln, and Usnavi’s raps are dense, rhyme-packed, self-consciously lyrical—the offspring of ’90s hip-hop acts like the Pharcyde, Black Sheep, Big Pun, and Fat Joe. The salsa sounds like the theatrical extension of what the whole world (except for Broadway, anyway) seemed to be listening to at the time: the Latin boom of Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin. Mixed in with the rest were lovely ballads that wouldn’t be out of place in a much more conventional show, such as “Never Give Your Heart Away”—the dubious advice that Benny gets from his mother, Alma.
To find a cast capable of playing these characters and delivering these songs, Lin needed to look far beyond the theater department regulars. He reached out to his fellow residents at La Casa, the Latino house on campus. But the show also acted as what Lin calls a “Bat signal” to people like him all across Wesleyan.
Matt had done all he could to help Lin secure one of the precious spots in the spring season. The playbill would list Matt as the show’s “consigliere.” But even he wondered if a mere sophomore would be able to draw enough of an audience for a full weekend of shows in a 150-seat theater. He didn’t need to worry. All of Lin’s outreach contributed to the place being packed.
“It just felt like—how did he do that?” Matt recalls.
ou can see in embryo form a lot of what would come later for Lin: trying to put new sounds onstage, casting a wide net for actors, changing who’s in the room, treating a yellow light as an imperative to go faster. Some of his most important relationships date to those days. Sara Elisa Miller, who manages his philanthropy, choreographed the show.
By all accounts, the crowd liked what they saw. “I knew my audience,” Lin says. “My audience was college kids. So it played great.” But two decades later, he doesn’t get much joy from revisiting what he created. Pressed for an explanation, he laughs and says, “It’s just—the writing is bad!”
The show at Wesleyan might have been called In the Heights, but it wasn’t yet In the Heights. It would take time, change, and growth—also trial and error, false starts, wrong turns, inspired leaps forward. It would take collaborators, lots of them. In fact, it would take the loving effort of a whole community.
The problem is, Lin had never felt that he was at the center of one of those.
USNAVI: Lights up on Washington Heights, up at the break of day
I wake up and I got this little punk I gotta chase away. 1
Pop the grate at the crack of dawn, sing
While I wipe down the awning, hey y’all, good morning.
(USNAVI opens the bodega.)
PIRAGUA GUY (Scraping from his ice block): Ice-cold piragua! Parcha. China. Cherry. Strawberry. Just for today, I got mamey!
USNAVI: ¿Oye, piragüero, cómo estás? 2
PIRAGUA GUY: Como siempre, Señor Usnavi.
USNAVI: I am Usnavi and you prob’ly never heard my name.
Reports of my fame are greatly exaggerated
Exacerbated by the fact
That my syntax
Is highly complicated, cuz I immigrated from the single greatest
Little place in the Caribbean 3
Dominican Republic.
I love it.
Jesus, I’m jealous of it.
And beyond that
Ever since my folks passed on, 4
I haven’t gone back.
Goddamn, I gotta get on that.
(He sniffs the milk carton.)
Fo!
The milk has gone bad, hold up just a second
Why is everything in this fridge warm and tepid?
I better step it up and fight the heat
Cuz I’m not makin’ any profit
If the coffee isn’t light and sweet! 5
(ABUELA CLAUDIA enters.)
ABUELA CLAUDIA: Ooo-oo!
USNAVI: Abuela, my fridge broke. I got café but no “con leche.”
ABUELA CLAUDIA: Try my mother’s old recipe: one can of condensed milk. 6
USNAVI: Nice.
(ABUELA CLAUDIA kisses a pair of lottery tickets and holds them up to the sky.)
ABUELA CLAUDIA: Paciencia y fe…
(She exits.)
USNAVI: That was Abuela, she’s not really my “abuela,” 7
But she practically raised me, this corner is her escuela!
Now you’re prob’ly thinkin’, “I’m up shit’s creek
I never been north of Ninety-sixth Street.”
Well, you must take the A train
Even farther than Harlem to northern Manhattan and maintain. 8
Get off at 181st and take the escalator.
I hope you’re writing this down, I’m gonna test ya later. 9
I’m getting tested, times are tough on this bodega.
Two months ago somebody bought Ortega’s.
(USNAVI points to the salon.)
Our neighbors started packin’ up and pickin’ up
And ever since the rents went up
It’s gotten mad expensive
But we live with just enough.
COMPANY (EXCEPT NINA): In the Heights
CARLA, DANIELA, CAMILA, WOMAN, KEVIN, BENNY, SONNY, PIRAGUA GUY, MEN: I flip the lights and start my day.
COMPANY: There are fights
CARLA, DANIELA, WOMEN: And endless debts
KEVIN, BENNY, PIRAGUA GUY, MEN: And bills to pay.
COMPANY: In the Heights
WOMEN, BENNY, KEVIN, PIRAGUA GUY, GRAFFITI PETE, MEN: I can’t survive without café—
USNAVI: I serve café.
COMPANY: Cuz tonight seems like a million years away!
En Washington—
USNAVI: Next up to bat, the Rosarios. 10
They run the cab company, they struggle in the barrio.
See, their daughter Nina’s off at college, tuition is mad steep
So they can’t sleep, and everything they get is mad cheap!
(KEVIN and CAMILA enter.)
KEVIN: Good morning, Usnavi!
USNAVI: ¡Pan caliente, café con leche!
KEVIN: Put twenty dollars on today’s lottery. 11
CAMILA: One ticket, that’s it!
KEVIN: Hey! A man’s gotta dream.
CAMILA: Don’t mind him, he’s all excited
Cuz Nina flew in at three a.m. last night!
KEVIN: Don’t look at me, this one’s been cooking all week!
CAMILA: Usnavi, come over for dinner
KEVIN, CAMILA: There’s plenty to eat!
(They exit. DANIELA and CARLA enter.)
DANIELA: So then Yessenia walks in the room— 12
CARLA: Aha…
DANIELA: She smells sex and cheap perfume!
CARLA: Uh oh…
DANIELA: It smells like one of those trees that you hang from the rearview!
CARLA: Ah, no!
DANIELA: It’s true! She screams, “Who’s in there with you, Julio?”
Grabs a bat and kicks in the door!
He’s in bed with José from the liquor store!
CARLA, USNAVI: ¡No me diga!
USNAVI: Daniela and Carla, from the salon.
(They grab their purchases and go.)
DANIELA, CARLA: Thanks, Usnavi!
(They exit. SONNY runs in.)
USNAVI: Sonny, you’re late.
SONNY: Chillax, you know you love me.
(SONNY exits.)
USNAVI: Me and my cousin runnin’ just another dime-a-dozen
Mom-and-pop stop and shop. 13
And oh my God, it’s gotten
Too darn hot like my man Cole Porter said.
People come through for a few cold waters and
A lottery ticket, just a part of the routine.
Everybody’s got a job, everybody’s got a dream.
They gossip as I sip my coffee and smirk
The first stop as people hop to work.
Bust it—I’m like—
(People come through his store.)
USNAVI: One dollar, two dollars, one fifty, one sixty-nine,
I got it. You want a box of condoms, what kind? 14
That’s two quarters.
Two quarter waters. The New York Times.
You need a bag for that? The tax is added.
Once you get some practice at it
You do rapid mathematics automatically
Sellin’ maxi pads and fuzzy dice for taxicabs and practically
Everybody’s stressed, yes, but they press through the mess
Bounce checks and wonder what’s next.
COMPANY: In the Heights
GROUP 1 (CAMILA, CARLA, DANIELA, ABUELA CLAUDIA, WOMAN, SONNY, USNAVI, MEN, KEVIN, BENNY, GRAFFITI PETE): I buy my coffee and I go.
GROUP 2 (WOMEN, PIRAGUA GUY, MEN): I buy my coffee and—
COMPANY: Set my sights
GROUP 1: On only what I need to know.
GROUP 2: What I need to know
COMPANY: In the Heights
Money is tight
GROUP 1: But even so
GROUP 2: But even so
COMPANY: When the lights go down I blast my radio!
(BENNY enters, dressed in a shirt and tie like KEVIN.)
BENNY: You ain’t got no skills! 15
USNAVI: Benny!
BENNY: Lemme get a— 16
USNAVI: Milky Way.
BENNY: Yeah, lemme also get a—
USNAVI: Daily News—
BENNY: And a—
USNAVI: Post—
BENNY: And most important, my—
USNAVI: Boss’s second coffee, one cream—
USNAVI, BENNY: Five sugars—
BENNY: I’m the number one earner—
USNAVI: What!
BENNY: The fastest learner—
USNAVI: Yup!
BENNY: My boss can’t keep me on the damn back burner!
USNAVI: Yes he can.
BENNY: I’m makin’ moves, I’m makin’ deals, but guess what?
USNAVI: What?
BENNY, SONNY: You still ain’t got no skills!
USNAVI: Hardee-har.
BENNY: Vanessa show up yet?
USNAVI: Shut up!
BENNY: Hey little homie, don’t get so upset.
USNAVI: Maaaaaan.
BENNY: Tell Vanessa how you feel, buy the girl a meal,
On the real, or you ain’t got no skills.
(VANESSA walks by on the phone.)
VANESSA: Nooo!
No no nooo!
No no nooo, no no no!
Nooo, no no no!
No no no no no no no no no no no no no!
Mr. Johnson, I got the security deposit 17
It’s locked in a box in the bottom of my closet.
It’s not reflected in my bank statement
But I’ve been savin’ to make a down payment and pay rent.
No no, I won’t let you down.
BENNY: Yo, here’s your chance, ask her out right now!
VANESSA: I’ll see you later, we can look at that lease!
(She hangs up.)
BENNY: Do somethin’, make your move, don’t freeze—
USNAVI: Hey!
(VANESSA approaches USNAVI.)
VANESSA: You owe me a bottle of cold champagne. 18
USNAVI: Are you moving?
VANESSA: Just a little credit check and I’m on that downtown train!
USNAVI: Well, your coffee’s on the house.
VANESSA: Okay!
BENNY (under his breath, to SONNY): Usnavi, ask her out.
SONNY: No way!
VANESSA: I’ll see you later, so…
(VANESSA waits a moment before exiting. USNAVI misses the moment.)
BENNY: Smooth operator, aw damn, there she goes!
Yo, bro, take five, take a walk outside!
You look exhausted, lost, don’t let life slide!
The whole hood is struggling, times are tight,
And you’re stuck to the corner like a streetlight!
USNAVI: Yeah, I’m a streetlight, 19
Choking on the heat.
The world spins around
While I’m frozen to my seat.
The people that I know
All keep on rolling down the street
But every day is different
So I’m switchin’ up the beat.
Cuz my parents came with nothing
They got a little more
And sure, we’re poor, but yo,
At least we got the store.
And it’s all about the legacy
They left with me, it’s destiny,
And one day I’ll be on a beach
With Sonny writing checks
To me.
ENSEMBLE (DANIELA, CARLA, WOMEN, PIRAGUA GUY, MEN): In the Heights
I hang my flag up on display. 20
USNAVI: We came to work and to live, and we got a lot in common. 21
ENSEMBLE +CAMILA, VANESSA, SONNY, KEVIN: It reminds me that I came from miles away.
USNAVI: D.R., P.R., we are not stoppin’.
COMPANY:
In the Heights
Ooh
Ooh
Ooh
ABUELA CLAUDIA:
Every day, paciencia y fe.
USNAVI:
Until the day we go from
Poverty to stock options.
COMPANY: In the Heights
I’ve got today.
USNAVI: And today’s all we got, so we cannot stop,
This is our block.
COMPANY: In the Heights
I hang my flag up on display.
PIRAGUA GUY: Lo le lo le lo lai lai lo le!
COMPANY: It reminds me that I came from miles away.
USNAVI, PIRAGUA GUY, WOMAN, MAN:
My family came from miles away—
ENSEMBLE: In the Heights
It gets more expensive every day.
WOMAN, USNAVI, MAN, PIRAGUA GUY:
Every day
COMPANY: And tonight is so far away—
USNAVI: As for mañana, mi pana ya
Gotta just keep watchin’,
USNAVI:
You’ll see the
Late nights,
You’ll taste
Beans and rice,
The syrups and
Shaved ice,
I ain’t gonna
Say it twice.
BENNY, GRAFFITI PETE,
MEN:
Late nights
Beans and rice
Shaved ice
Say it twice
ALL OTHERS:
In the Heights
In the Heights
In the Heights
USNAVI:
So turn
Up the
Stage lights,
We’re takin’ a flight
To a couple of days
In the life of what it’s like
COMPANY:
Ah
Ah
Ah
COMPANY: En Washington Heights! 22
Skip Notes
1. Right from the top, we’re teaching the audience how to listen to our show, a hybrid of hip-hop and musical theater lyric traditions. We have the pure rhymes of lights/heights, break/wake, and day/away. But the very next lines have hip-hop slant rhymes, by which I mean they only rhyme with the correct pronunciation: awning/morning. (See the Notorious B.I.G.’s immortal opening lines to “Warning”: “Who the f—k is this, pagin’ me at five forty-six in the morning?/Crack of dawn and now I’m yawning.”) I’m telling the story, but I’m also trying to get musical theater purists and hip-hop heads on board.
2. Re: Spanglish. In our neighborhood, people go back and forth between English and Spanish all the time. Our goal was always to have the amount of Spanish ring true to any New Yorker. Almost anytime you hear Spanish in the show, a translation is around the corner (more on this in “Breathe”), but sometimes the context is enough to make the gist clear, as in this greeting.
