In the Heights, page 31
10. A little love note to Tommy Kail, for whom It’s a Wonderful Life is a foundational film (his production company is named after George Bailey’s address).
11. The rush of this final Usnavi section stays with me always, and my prevailing memory of performing it is the faces in the front row of the Rodgers Theatre: our $20 section, often filled with young people seeing their first musical on Broadway. I lock eyes with them, night after night, and as their eyes fill with tears, so do mine. I’m delivering these words, but I’m also trying to tell them: I’m home, and Usnavi’s home, and in this time you’ve chosen to spend with us, so are you. Welcome home.
12. Listen, I miss the 1990s trend of closing-credit rap songs that summarize the entire plot of the movie (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Addams Family, Bulworth…it’s a whole thing), but that didn’t make sense here. So I decided to write a song pairing that never existed: Nina and Usnavi, both of whom love the neighborhood—one from afar, one from the corner. Friends celebrating the summer together.
13. Imagine you are me: You’ve written this song in November of 2019, and then a pandemic forces the world to literally stay home all summer. But no one can hear it, because the movie’s been pushed a year because everyone’s home all summer.
14. This is on her fire escape in my head.
15. Volumen/boomin’: When you write bilingually, you have access to rhymes the monolinguists don’t!
16. Let’s just pause and adore Anthony Ramos’s voice here.
17. So is Marc Anthony Marc Anthony in this song, or is he in character as Sonny’s dad? You decide! (But my bucket list dream to write for Marc Anthony is checked.)
18. To go from seeing Marc Anthony in The Capeman on Broadway at age eighteen to having him acting and singing in the Heights movie is actually still too much for my brain to process.
A. Vincent Scarano: 1, 2 (top left, top right, bottom left), 3
Amy Sussman / Getty Images Entertainment / Getty Images: 4
Andy Blankenbuehler: 5
© 2018 Anders Strøm Photo by: @anders.stroem: 6
Andrew Fried: 7
Anna Louizos Designs: 8, 9 (top row: far left, third from left, fourth from left; middle row: far left, second from left, third from left, right; bottom row: second from left, second from right)
Copyright 2002—photo by Anthony Veneziale: 10
Atlantis Productions/Photo by: Jaime Unson: 11, 12
Bruce Glikas / FilmMagic / Getty Images: 13
© CAT Produce Co., Ltd.: 14, 15
Corey Hawkins: 16 (bottom left), 17, 18 (top right, bottom left, bottom right), 19 (right)
DKD Studio & I. Javier Ameijeiras: 20
Eli Kaplan-Wildmann, Starcatcher Theater Jerusalem: 21
Janet Dacal: 22, 23
Jason Kempin / WireImage / Getty Images: 24 (right), 25
JEENAH MOON/The New York Times/© The New York Times: 26
© Joan Marcus: 27, 28 (top row: far left, third from left; middle row: second from left, far right; bottom row: far left, third from left), 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 (left), 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 (top row: second from left, far right [above and below]; bottom row: far left, third from left, far right), 42, 43 (center left), 44, 45 (top), 46, 47, 48 (bottom: second from left, fourth from left), 49, 50, 51, 52 (left), 53 (top), 54, 55, 56 (right), 57 (bottom), 58 (top), 59, 60, 61 (left), 62 (bottom left), 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 (bottom), 72 (left), 73 (left), 74 (top), 75, 76, 77 (right), 78, 79 (right), 80, 81 (top row: third from left, fifth from left, far right; bottom row: second from left, fourth from left, far right), 82 (left), 83 (top)
Photo by Johan Persson. 2015 London Cast. Copyright Runaway Entertainment: 84 (right)
Jon Chu, courtesy of and copyright © Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.: 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90 (top left, top right), 91, 92 (bottom left), 93 (bottom), 94, 95, 96 (top center), 97, 98 (left), 99 (right), 100 (left)
Joseph Dominick Martinez: 101, 102
Josh Lehrer: 103 (top left, center right), 104, 105, 106, 107, 108 (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right), 109, 110 (right), 111 (right), 112
Macall Polay: 113, 114
Mandy Gonzalez: 115 (right)
Mary Winn Heider: 116, 117 (bottom left, bottom right)
Merissa Jane Lee: 118 (bottom right), 119
Mio Infante / Photo by: Mio Infante: 120 (bottom right)
Modern English School Cairo, March 2020: 121
Myron Kerstein: 122, 123 (right), 124, 125
Nelson Coates: 126 (top right), 127 (top left), 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136 (top), 137 (left)
Nevin Steinberg: 138 (right)
New York Daily News Archive / Dan Cronin/Getty Images: 139 (right)
New York Daily News Archive / Getty Images: 140 (top)
Olga Merediz: 141 (left), 142
Owen Panettieri: 143 (top right, center left)
The Photo Works / Alamy Stock Photo: 144
Quiara Alegría Hudes: 145, 146, 147 (bottom right), 148 (bottom left), 149 (top left), 150 (bottom left), 151 (top left), 152 (top)
© Robert Workman: 153 (left)
Sara Krulwich / The New York Times / © The New York Times: 154
8SP_Simon Luethi: 155
Steven Henry / Getty Images Entertainment / Getty Images: 156
Theo Wargo / WireImage / Getty Images: 157
Todd DiCiurcio, In the Heights. Charcoal on paper, 22.5 x 30”. Used with permission: 158
Tony Cenicola / The New York Times / © The New York Times: 159
Veronica Jackson: 160 (right)
William R. Clegg: 161 (left)
Yona Kaplan, Starcatcher Theater Jerusalem: 162
is a Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award–winning songwriter, actor, and director, as well as a New York Times bestselling author (Hamilton: The Revolution; Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You). He is the creator and original star of Broadway’s Tony-winning Hamilton and In the Heights. Additional Broadway credits include: Freestyle Love Supreme (co-founder, guest star), Bring It On: The Musical (co-composer/co-lyricist), and West Side Story (2009 revival, Spanish translations). He is a recipient of a 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award, a 2018 Kennedy Center Honor, and a 2019 Portrait of a Nation Prize. Miranda and the Miranda family actively support initiatives that increase BIPOC representation in the arts and government, ensure access to women’s reproductive health, and foster resilience in Puerto Rico. He lives with his family in New York.
linmanuel.com
is the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Water by the Spoonful and the author of a memoir, My Broken Language. She wrote the book for the Tony-winning Broadway musical In the Heights and later adapted it for the screen. Her notable essays include “High Tide of Heartbreak” in American Theatre magazine and “Corey Couldn’t Take It Anymore” in The Cut. As a prison reform activist, Hudes and her cousin founded Emancipated Stories, a platform where people behind bars can share one page of their life story with the world. She lives with her family in New York but frequently returns to her native Philly.
quiara.com
Twitter: @quiarahudes
is the author of Young Radicals and co-author, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hamilton: The Revolution. He is the founder and executive producer of Make-Believe Association, a Chicago-based production company. He spent five years on the artistic staff of the Public Theater and has served on the jury of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He has written about culture and politics for New York magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He lives in Chicago with his family.
jeremymccarter.com
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Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights
