Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller and Jill Furman are pleased to announce full
casting for IN THE HEIGHTS, a new musical, beginning previews Tuesday,
January 9, 2007 and opening Thursday, February 8, 2007 at Off-Broadway's 37
Arts (450 West 37th Street). With music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
and a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, IN THE HEIGHTS will be directed by
Thomas Kail and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler. Alex Lacamoire is
music director, and music arrangements and orchestrations are by Alex
Lacamoire and Bill Sherman.
IN THE HEIGHTS is a new musical about two days in the life of Washington
Heights, a vibrant and tight-knit neighborhood at the top of Manhattan. From
the vantage point of Usnavi's corner bodega, we experience the joys,
heartbreaks and bonds of a Latino community struggling to redefine home.
IN THE HEIGHTS stars Andrea Burns, Janet Dacal, Mandy Gonzalez, John
Herrera, Christopher Jackson, Robin de Jesus, Priscilla Lopez, Olga Merediz,
Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Karen Olivo in a cast of 22 that features Rosie
Fiedelman, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Joshua Henry, Nina Lafarga, Doreen
Montalvo, Javier Munoz, Eliseo Roman, Luis Salgado, Seth Stewart, Rickey
Tripp, Michael Balderrama and Stephanie Klemons.
IN THE HEIGHTS will feature a scenic design by Anna Louizos (Avenue Q, High
Fidelity), costumes by Paul Tazewell (The Color Purple; Caroline, or
Change), lighting by Jason Lyons (The Threepenny Opera, Evil Dead: The
Musical) and sound by Acme Sound Partners (Avenue Q, High Fidelity).
The playing schedule for IN THE HEIGHTS is as follows: Tuesday through
Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 7pm, with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.
Tickets go on sale Monday, November 20, and may be purchased at
Ticketmaster.com (212-307-4100).
CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
Lin-Manuel Miranda (Music/Lyrics/Usnavi) received the Georgia Holof
Outstanding Lyricist Award for his work on In The Heights at the 2005 Eugene
O'Neill Music Theater Conference. Along with Anthony Veneziale and Thomas
Kail, he is a founding member of Freestyle Love Supreme, a hip-hop comedy
group that has toured the Aspen Comedy Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe
Festival and the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Lin-Manuel Miranda has written a
number of musical pieces for commercials, including political ads for
Fernando Ferrer and Eliot Spitzer, and contributed original music to ads for
Promesas, a youth center for homeless teens in New York. In 2004, he and
Shockwave won the first annual Vocal Warrs freestyle battle contest at the
Bowery Poetry Club. He lives near the last stop on the A train.
Quiara Alegria Hudes (Book) is a playwright and composer originally from
Philadelphia, who made her New York debut last January at the Culture
Project with her play Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, which is being given
regional productions this season at The Alliance Theatre, Teatro
Vista/Steppenwolf Garage, and The New Theatre. Her previous play, Yemaya's
Belly, earned three national honors: The Clauder Prize, The Paula Vogel
Award in Playwriting, and The Kennedy Center American College Theatre
Festival Latino Playwriting Award. Yemaya's Belly has been seen on stages
around the country including Portland Stage Company, People's Light and
Theatre, and Signature Theatre and is published in Kennedy Center Presents:
Award-Winning Plays from the American College Theatre Festival. Upcoming
projects include a TV adaptation of her play The Adventures of Barrio Grrrl!
and commissions from South Coast Repertory and Signature Theatres. Quiara
holds a B.A. in Music Composition from Yale University and an M.F.A. in
playwriting from Brown University. Her first production came in the tenth
grade as part of the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival. Hudes still
returns home to teach young writers in the Philadelphia public schools.
Thomas Kail (Director) is the artistic director, and a co-founder, of Back
House Productions, the resident theater company of New York City's the Drama
Book Shop, and home of the Arthur Seelen Theater. Kail co-created and
directs Freestyle Love Supreme (FLS), which had a run at Ars Nova in New
York City and was selected to participate in the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts
Festival, the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the 2006 Melbourne Comedy
Festival. The show still performs regularly in NYC, and is gearing up for a
college tour in spring of 2007. In March of 2006, Back House produced
Savages, a new play Anne Nelson. Nelson is author the long-running
off-Broadway 9/11 play, The Guys, which was made into a film starring
Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia. Kail directed the 5th anniversary of
The Guys at the Flea Theater in Tribeca last September.
