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Latino Theater Panel
In The Heights star Priscilla Lopez
In the Heights Recording Session
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PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: In the Heights Street Scene, Spanish-Style
By Harry Haun
10 Mar 2008
He had introduced Hudes, his book writer, from the stage as his sister, but he meant it in a spiritual sense. "I was speaking hypothetically," he clarified. "She's not really my sister, but we are twins. We had exactly the same upbringing her in Philly, me in New York."
She seconded that motion. "I'm from a smaller version of Washington Heights in Philadelphia North Philly and I'd been writing about it in all of my plays up until then."
She made her New York debut Off-Broadway at the Culture Project with one of those plays, Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, which became a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist. "That was a play dealing with North Philly, which I brought here. Lin and I eventually met and said, 'You know what? This is going to be right. Let's get together and tell our story together.'
"What Lin came up with is a lot of the characters, who they were, and obviously the sound of the show that pulsing spirit of energy. He had a different story when I came on board it was more of a love triangle and I said to him, 'Why don't we keep a lot of these characters but start from scratch and make it a story about a neighborhood in transition. Just exactly what does it mean when this neighborhood is changing?'"
Both contributed autobiographical flourishes to the book. "One or two of the stories in there are actually family stories from my family," Hudes admitted. "One of them is a story from my dad about him shining shoes for a nickel and spending his profits on more shoe polish, saying, 'I've always had a mind for investments.' That's his story, and he hadn't seen it on Broadway until tonight. I didn't tell him that the story was in there. He said, 'When did I tell you that story?' I said, 'About 20 times, Popi, about 20 times.'"
The comedy was sharpened for Broadway. Two jokes survived, by the actual count of the author, "but I figured, since we got a second chance, why not do new jokes for people who'd already seen in Off-Broadway since our characters have a great sense of humor?"
There's a secret universality in the setting of the show, contended Hudes. "One of the things we like to do is test people," she said. "A lot of people come who are from Washington Heights and say, 'That's. My. Block. That's exactly the block I live on.' In truth, it's Everyblock. We do mention 183rd and Fort Washington in the opening number, but I think everyone from the Heights claims a little bit of ownership over that block."
Raul Julia's spirit probably haunts In the Heights, but Miranda was able to secure the services of Morales to play a hard-working mother in the show Priscilla Lopez (for now, the lone Tony winner in this 'hood). She gained a new song, getting the show to Broadway. "It's called 'Enough,' and it's a very emotional moment in the show with my character, the mother Camila, really giving it to the daughter and husband to get their act together. 'Enough of this fighting. We gotta work it out. We gotta go forward from here.'
"This was a wonderful, special opening night," said the lady who's seen a few. "The audience was crying always a good sign. It's reciprocal, y'know. It kinda bounces back and forth. We dance and we give and we get and we give." She has been at this a while, Actually, her star was still-born. "I debuted in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and it never opened. Previewed two nights and died. It was the first flop poster to be put up on the walls at Joe Allen's. That was 1966. I was only two." The following year she had her first official opening night, playing one of the schoolgirls in Henry, Sweet Henry. She got her Tony for a Harpo impersonation (!) in A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.
But the evening had a real resonance for her. "I am so grateful that Lin-Manuel is in our world and has given us, all of us, this gift the Latino community, to represent us in such a positive light, and, two, to the non-Latino community to experience us in such light."
One of the evening's flashiest dancers, Luis Salgado was still reeling at the party from the ecstasy of his Broadway bow. "We did this prayer right before going on stage, and the emotions were erupting," he said. "We all got together and collected the energy before going on stage, and we felt like we needed 30 more minutes to get ready after that because the emotions were so high and the stakes were so high. On a night like tonight, when dreams come true for so many people, Lin-Manuel Miranda put together a show that represents the Latin community yet it's open to the world. How thrilled can you be!"
Among the first-nighters: Spamalot Tony winner Sara Ramirez (now of "Grey's Anatomy"), Curtains' David Hyde Pierce, Sports Illustrated 2008 swimsuit model Jessica Gomes, Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears, Latin singer Huey Dunbar, Yerba Buena band member Andres Levin, New York secretary of state Honorable Lorraine Cortes-Vazques, art curator Yvonne Force Villareal, Sarah Paulsen ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and Crimes of the Heart), "Jumper" director Doug Liman, a foursome from Next to Normal (actor Brian d'Arcy James, composer Tom Kitt, director Michael Greif and assistant director Anthony Rapp), Oscar-winning songwriter Stephen Schwartz, Tony-winning songwriters Lynn Aherns and Stephen Flaherty, Young Frankenstein's Sutton Foster, Senator Frank Lautenberg, "Imus in the Morning" regular Bo Dietl, Alexie Gilmore of "New Amsterdam," Zoe McLellan of "Dirty, Sexy Money" and Jim Cramer of CNBC's "Mad Money."
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The cast of In the Heights takes its curtain call.
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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