Review Roundup: IN THE HEIGHTS Opens at New York City Center

Just breathe! In the Heights is now running at New York City Center, now through November 15. Leading the cast are Tony Award winner Natalie Venetia Belcon (Claudia), Jaci Calderon (Nina), Ashley De La Rosa (Vanessa), Linedy Genao (Daniela), Ishmael Gonzalez (Sonny), Ivan Hernandez (Kevin), Cedric Leiba Jr (Piragüero), Matte Martinez (Usnavi), Aaron James McKenzie (Benny), Ilia Isorelýs Paulino (Carla), and Veronica Vazquez-Jackson (Camila).  

The 2008 Tony Award-winning musical unfolds over three hot July days in New York City’s Washington Heights as bodega owner Usnavi and his neighbors navigate the meaning of home in a rapidly changing neighborhood. Directed by David Mendizábal with Music Direction by Alejandro Senior and choreography by Mayte Natalio, this gala concert production underscores the show’s lasting cultural resonance and introduces its story and score to a new generation of audiences. 

Check out what the critics are saying about the production…

Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: It’s a pleasure to hear this Tony-winning score again, and to see a new generation of performers bringing their distinctive stamp to it. (And a new generation of theatergoers embracing it so enthusiastically as well.) It’s apt that Martinez waits until the curtain call to put on an ivy cap like the one Miranda famously wore as Usnavi. This is a revival that tips its hat to its roots but strives to forge its own path. In that respect, though, it only partially succeeds.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: “In The Heights” was a pioneering work, and remains a popular one. Is it a musical for the ages – the way, say, “Hamilton” will be? Even its librettist, Quiara Alegría Hudes said recently “I love it, but it’s that youthful inspiration piece born before you have the tools.”The audience becomes engaged in the difficulties that Nina (Jaci Calderon) has with her father, for her having dropped out of Stanford and for her romantic relationship with Benny (Aaron James McKenzie); Usnavi’s ambivalence about staying in the neighborhood, and his awkward romantic aspirations for Vanessa (Ashley De La Rosa); Vanessa’s frustrating search for a downtown apartment in order to escape for the neighborhood; the closing of the beauty salon owned by Daniela (a riotous Linedy Genao.) But the jump from one to the next is a little dizzying, more illustrative than deeply developed, and each a bit too quickly and conveniently resolved. Still, much of the score is tuneful, and if it feels more sentimental and optimistic than the reality has ever dictated, that optimism, in the face of the current circumstances in the country, feels like an act of defiance.

Average Rating: 65.0%