Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't know how much he'd miss the old neighborhood until he left for college. The musical he composed during his sophomore year at Wesleyan University was a tribute to his close-knit Latino community and, ultimately, introduced an original, contemporary story and new sound to Broadway.

His 2008 Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights, endured a long gestation period. Lin-Manuel started writing it at when he was just 19.

"I grew up in Northern Manhattan and I was home sick," he admits. "I was living with other Latino kids who had a similar upbringing to me in that their parents were born in other countries—Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic—and they had that tug of war about speaking English at school, Spanish at home and figuring out where they fit in the margins"

His Folks Shared Their Love for Broadway Musicals

Lin-Manuel Miranda

His parents introduced him to musical theater as a child through Broadway cast albums including Camelot and Man of La Mancha and special occasion outings to a blockbuster show. For his college project, he bridged traditional Broadway-style songs with Latin music and Hip Hop, both of which he had grown up with but had never written before. The result was an 80-minute one-act show.

"I think one of the things that really sets In the Heights apart is that it takes Hip Hop music, a lot of different types of Latin music including Salsa, Meringue, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, and stirs it all up in a pot all in the service of telling the story," he explains. "It's really a traditional musical but we haven't really heard these sounds on a Broadway stage."

Nor have we seen such a range of Latino actors center stage singing that big number.

"There are a world of people who have not fit in any show who are perfect for In the Heights," Lin-Manuel insists. "It's so exciting to see Latino actors who don't get that opportunity to sing that 11 o'clock number and they get to do that in our show. So, the community I longed for my entire life has occurred as a result off writing this show."

The Action Takes Place in a Real New York Neighborhood

The Model of the IN THE HEIGHTS Set

The show is set in an actual New York neighborhood called Washington Heights located in the northernmost part of Manhattan. The Heights is bordered to the south by 155th Street and extends to Dyckman Street (200^th street) where it melds into Inwood—two similar neighborhoods often considered as one and where Miranda in fact grew up.

"It's always been an immigrant's first step," says Lin-Manuel. "That's one of the things I love about the neighborhood. And it has such a different energy from everywhere else in the city, because it's got this terrain that was never conquered." 

Washington Heights has attracted immigrants since the late 1800s. Fleeing persecution or famine or in search of a better life, the Heights has been home first to Armenians, followed by Irish and Greek immigrants at the turn of the 20^th century, then German and Eastern European Jews arriving in the 1920s and peaking in 1940. The first wave of Latinos arrived in the 1950s with Puerto Ricans then Cubans and Dominicans in the 1960s. Today, the neighborhood has gentrified as have so many others in Manhattan but the Heights retains a predominately Latino essence, with Dominicans, Cubans, Ecuadorians and Mexicans making up the majority.

"This is a neighborhood in New York where everyone is from everywhere," Lin-Manuel explains. "When our parents are from somewhere else, what do we carry with us, what do we pass on to the next generation, what's important to us? On that level I think In the Heights strikes a universal chord."

Set Designer Anna Louizos Replicates the Heights

Anna Louizos in Her Studio

The fact that the neighborhood is a real place is essential to the storytelling. To replicate the look and feel of Washington Heights, director Thomas Kail and set designer Anna Louizos accompanied Lin-Manuel on a tour of the neighborhood, checking out his favorite spots and soaking up the scene. Anna made several more trips with her camera to document the details of the buildings and surrounding environs. 

"Part of what makes Washington Heights unique is the height," explains Anna. "It's actually up on a big rocky part of Manhattan so the elevation is different—it's almost like San Francisco in that way because you can see these vistas down the streets that you just don't see anywhere else in Manhattan. And, of course, the George Washington Bridge figures quite prominently in any view that you see from those streets. That's why the bridge is so prominent in the set and truly anchors the neighborhood."

To Anna and the entire creative team, it was important that not only the actors feel the set is a place they can inhabit and relate to but that the audience also believes it is a real place.

"I felt it was critical for the actors to feel that the Bodega was real, the beauty salon and the car service that the family runs feel authentic to them and even the stoop where the grandmother sits, that those places really exist. Because when you wander the neighborhood of Washington Heights, that's exactly what you see."

Story of One Culture that Resonates Universally

The Cast of the National Touring Company

Even though the Heights is predominately inhabited by Latinos, Anna believes the fact that it is culturally a particular neighborhood makes it universal.

"My family is of Greek origin and the minute I heard this music and the minute I saw these characters I could immediately relate to so many of these people," Anna recalls. "The fact that they are struggling, that they are immigrants, they are children of immigrants, is my family story. I know that all across this country there are so many families that have similar stories and I think that's what makes In the Heights uniquely American as well."

For Lin-Manuel it's all about traversing two worlds, growing up in America yet hanging on to your culture and how you bridge that divide.

"I think what this show does is it is a gentle reminder that Latinos are the latest chapter in the American story," he insists. "I get letters from all over the country and around the world from people who have seen the show and say, ‘that's about my parents, that's my grandmother up on that stage.' Everyone here is an immigrant and we all had that parent or grandparent who worked that terrible job so that their kid could do better. I think that has enormous universal resonance."

Watch the In the Heights video.
Listen to the In the Heights podcast with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Read the Q & A with In the Heights Tony Award-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler.
Catch Up on Facebook.

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