In The Heights: Family-Friendly Latino Musical Aims to Bring Audiences Back to the Movies

By Liam Lacey

Rating: A-

Set over a few hot days in the largely Hispanic neighbourhood of Washington Heights at the northern tip of Manhattan, the musical In The Heights is a two-and-half hour fiesta of Latin pop, salsa, meringue, and hip-hop music and dance, spun around entwined tales of immigrant yearning.

Adapted from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2008 Broadway hit and directed by Crazy Rich Asian’s Jon M. Chu, the film is an onslaught of swirling camera moves, mass street dances, dexterous rhymes, romance, and winsome characters.

With the aim of getting this family-friendly film to pull audiences back to the theatres, Warner Bros. has brought in celebrity endorsements from Oprah Winfrey, Hugh Jackman, Ariana Grande and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to sell the film. It opens theatrically and on video on demand on June 11.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on a musical full of mostly unknown performers, best known as the warm-up act to Miranda’s ground-breaking Hamilton, a work that put a new lens on America’s origin story by casting it with primarily actors of colour, and rapping history the way Shakespeare forged history into poetic literature.

In contrast to Disney’s film adaptation of Hamilton, In The Heights goes maximal, full of lavish production numbers and puppyish energy (Miranda was in college when he wrote the first draft) that inflate playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes’ slender script until the seams nearly pop.

All this is big, busy fun and while one might wish for some a bit more grit in the charm offensive, the catchwords here are feel-good and broad appeal. Director Chu previously demonstrated his ability to turn light material in big spectacle, while his previous films Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up: 3D prepared him for the mass street-dancing scenes. The lyrical-fusion, hip-hop dance numbers here were choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance’s Christopher Scott.

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

In The Heights starts, in some ways, at its peak, a 10-minute title number, with Anthony Ramos as the shyly charismatic narrator protagonist, a role first played by Miranda onstage, immersing us into his world. Usnavi (named after an American military ship his parents saw), introduces us to his neighbourhood and its principal characters, filling us in on their dreams and struggles.

Usnavi wants to leave the bodega and return to his birthplace in the Dominican Republic to run his late father’s beach kiosk, but he has emotional ties to his New York barrio. Those include abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz), the Cuban-born neighbourhood matriarch who raised him when his parents died.

There’s also his smart-aleck young cousin, Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV), who also works at the bodega to support his hard-drinking dad (singer Marc Anthony). Most of all, there’s Usnavi’s unspoken crush on the neighbourhood beauty, Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who wants to leave her manicurist job and move downtown to be a fashion designer.

A second romantic plot follows the relationship from Nina (Leslie Grace), the neighbourhood’s academic hope, who has recently returned from dropping out of Stanford, where she felt like an outsider, and Benny (Corey Hawkins, the film’s singing and dancing breakout performer), a dispatcher at the struggling taxi company run by Nina’s dad, Kevin (Jimmy Smits). When Kevin makes plans to sell off the business to finance Nina’s schooling, Benny feels he’s being robbed of his future.

As the residents struggle with their different meanings of home, the neighbourhood is disappearing through gentrification, typified by the new fancy dry cleaner who charges nine bucks a shirt. Even the trio of local glamorous queens who run the local hairdressing salon, Daniela (Broadway star Daphne Rubin-Vega), Carla (Stephanie Beatriz) and Cuca (Orange is the New Black’s Dascha Polanco), are planning on moving to the Bronx where the rents are lower.

With money concerns on people’s minds, it’s natural the community goes wild with speculation when it’s rumoured that someone has the winning number on a $96,000 lottery ticket sold at Usnavi’s bodega. That leads to a major Busby Berkeley-style production number at a swimming pool, where everyone sings about what they could do with this fortune. And on the second day, as the temperature crawls up, there’s a power outage, leaving the city to be lit by fireworks.

Not all the production numbers hit the mark. A nightclub scene where Vanessa and Usnavi try to make each other jealous feels murky and cluttered. But there’s lots to like and admire here. In a slightly calmer register, there’s Benny and Nina’s duet “When the Sun Goes Down,” in which the couple appear to dance straight up apartment building walls.

Abuela Claudia (with Merediz reprising her Tony-winning performance), melts hearts with her theme song, “Paciencia y Fe” (“Patience and Faith”), and a climactic celebratory block party number, led by salon owner Daniela, that risks turning Washington Heights into the next tourist shrine.

There are a few updated plot details, including a protest march in support of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a.k.a. “Dreamers”) but the story remains focused on celebration, not anger, and clearly aimed at a young audience.

That’s brought home by a framing device that sees Usnavi, apparently on a Dominican beach, telling a group of rapt children about the events of the story. Tellingly, Mirada appears in a small role in the film, as a cart-pushing hawker of the Puerto Rican confections of syrup-covered ice known as piraguas, an apt symbol for a film that’s intended as a cooling, sweet summer treat.

In The Heights. Directed by Jon M. Chu. Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, based on the musical stage play. Starring Anthony Ramos, Olga Merediz, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Jimmy Smits, Gregory Diaz IV, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Dascha Polanco, Stephanie Beatriz, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Available in select theatres and on video on demand June 11.