| For the first time, Lin Manual-Miranda's show In the | | | | critical and commercial acclaim, along with a Tony |
| Heights hits the Fox Theater for a six-day run during | | | | Award. |
| its first ever national tour. The show is the brainchild | | | | From where In the Heights is today, it might be |
| of the former star, who finished performing as the | | | | difficult to image a time when this Latin fusion dance |
| lead Usnavi in February, making time to focus on | | | | movement wasn't everywhere. Rather, it took years |
| future moves for the play (like working on a film deal | | | | for the former college play to get to Broadway and |
| with Universal Pictures). | | | | eventually see a national tour. With the help from |
| In the Heights was the first work from Miranda, who | | | | Rent producers Jill Furman and Kevin McCollum, In the |
| wrote the story and score while at Wesleyan | | | | Heights debuted on Broadway just two years ago |
| University studying theater. Now the Latin mixer, | | | | and eventually picked up that year's Tony Awards |
| dancer and actor is gearing up for opportunities that | | | | biggest honor – Best New Musical – while |
| he never dreamed possible after seeing Rent at 17 | | | | Miranda won an award for his score. |
| and becoming instantly inspired. Get <a | | | | Finding inspiration for the "heights" native was simple, |
| rel="nofollow" | | | | having grown up in the now legendary 10-block radius |
| onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(' | | | | his entire life. "I know Washington Heights backwards |
| outgoing/article_exit_link');" href=" the Heights | | | | and forwards. So it felt like a very natural setting for |
| tickets</a> from | | | | this show," he says to Even with all the fame, the |
| Born and raised in the Washington Heights district | | | | 30-year-old hasn't been able to leave the area that |
| just north of Manhattan, Miranda grew up on a fusion | | | | garnered him such attention – he still lives in the |
| of Broadway show tunes and hip-hop beats, enabling | | | | "heights" with his fiancé, another Washington |
| the prospective lawyer to throw away his father's | | | | Heights native, and just three blocks from his |
| dreams and focus on theater. Miranda's found that | | | | childhood home. |
| obsession once he saw Rent, and hasn't looked back | | | | In the Heights follows a group of neighborhood |
| since. | | | | friends who are trying to survive in a world that |
| "I suddenly saw this show that was about how I | | | | doesn't really allow for big dreams. The story |
| pictured my life in five or 10 years," he says to | | | | combines hip-hop, salsa, meringue and other Latin |
| Access Atlanta about the impact that Rent had on | | | | flavors in both music and dance, but one thing it |
| his future career. "It really spoke to me on a gut | | | | doesn't incorporate is a life of crime and drugs most |
| level. That was why I stopped being in musicals and | | | | associate with the area. While Miranda's structured |
| started writing musicals." The result was In the | | | | childhood wasn't anything like how Washington |
| Heights, his first ever effort writing the music, lyrics | | | | Heights is portrayed in the news, it doesn't mean |
| and story in a musical format that has earned him | | | | that it didn't happen. |