I wasn’t sure how “In the Heights,” a Tony-award winning show about mainly black and Hispanic immigrants building a life in the barrio of Manhattan’s Washington Heights, would translate to Orange County Performing Arts Center patrons.
The show, which opened last week, is driven by Latin beats and Eminem-style raps for a majority of its musical numbers. But any reservations I had about the modern musical were gone after the first few numbers, when the actors had to hold up the show until the audience stopped clapping.
I, too, had to tamp down the desire to jump to my feet in applause for much of the first act.
“In the Heights” revolves around a street corner on the Upper, Upper West Side of Manhattan that is overseen by young shop owner Usnavi—whose parents named him after a U.S. Navy ship when they first immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic. Usnavi (played by Joseph Morales) opens and closes the show with a slow-flow kind of rap that is perfection in its restraint.
His store is the central meeting place for the residents of the melting-pot block, which is dotted with flags from Peru, the Dominican Republic and Cuba—among other countries—representing the backgrounds of the main characters.
A central theme of cultural pride and a sense of home run through all of the characters’ stories—and there are a lot of them in the two-and-a-half-hour show. The characters all struggle with staying true to their homelands while growing businesses in Washington Heights, until they realize they are building a new home in the somewhat rough and tumble streets at the top of the subway map.
The actors—most of which are relative newbies in musical theater—sing with passion and purity, regardless of the type of music they are singing. The show is well-paced with comic interludes, brought by the underage slacker Sonny (played by Chris Chatman, a Cal State Fullerton graduate), and choke-you-up emotion from Kevin Rosario (played by Daniel Bolero), the father of another character.
While the show’s themes can transcend its cultural roots—the language sometimes doesn’t. So brush up on your Spanish so you won’t be left out of the Piragua Guy’s (David Baida) sunshine-y songs.
—Julie Leupold
Drink of the Week
Bluebird Canyon martini, French 75, Laguna Beach, $13
Sitting in the elegant French restaurant with frescoed ceilings and an unobtrusive piano player, I felt a little silly ordering a Bluebird Canyon martini—one of the featured drinks on the small plates menu served until 7:30 p.m. in the bar or patio. The drink—on sale for $10 on that menu—promised an interesting mix of sour and sweet with blueberry schnapps, blueberry Stoli and lemon juice. When the bright blue martini with a lemon rind twist arrived it looked like something I should’ve ordered in Vegas that had a name beginning with Adios Mother and ending with an expletive. But the first sips were exactly as promised—a tangy float of lemon juice mingled with sugar crystals and a note of blueberry before the slight afterburn of the Stoli finished it all off. It’s more of a pre-dinner cocktail, as a nice red wine—the sommelier is in the process of gutting the restaurant’s wine list—would have gone better with the mouth-watering cuisine.
—Julie Leupold
