BWW Interviews: HEIGHTS' Kyle Beltran

On August 19, 2010, In The Heights welcomed Kyle Beltran as Broadway's resident bodega owner, 'Usnavi,' following the footsteps of Heights creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and, most recently, Corbin Bleu. No stranger to the show, or the part of 'Usnavi,' Beltran originated the lovable role on the First National Tour of In The Heights, which opened last October in Tampa.

Prior to joining the Heights Tour last year, Beltran participated in 10 Things To Do Before I Die (Second Stage), Kingdom (Old Globe), and Aida (WVPT). Workshops include Clueless (New Group), Fortress of Solitude (CTG), Choir Boy (MTC), Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, and Bubble Boy (ASCAP/PCLO). He received a B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon in 2009.

Just after bringing his 'Usnavi' to the Great White Way, Beltran spoke with BroadwayWorld about his Broadway debut in a show that hits especially close to home, working with Jordin Sparks, his troubles with "Champagne," and what he shares in common with Miranda.

How did you first get involved with In The Heights?

I was originally on the First National Tour, which I launched as ‘Usnavi' in October of last year. I was on the road for about nine months and then they asked me to come and take over for Corbin Bleu on Broadway. So in January of 2009 I was just a kid at Carnegie Mellon studying musical theater and after about a six month audition process for the show, where I went in about four or five times, I was cast and on the road by October.

Was it more comforting or intimidating to assume an already established role for your first  big-time professional gig?

It was definitely very intimidating but also really exciting because it's a role I could really understand. I saw Lin-Manuel perform the role when I was in high school and I was so moved and excited by his performance and by ‘Usnavi's' story - this kid with a dream and a story about his roots to tell. So of course there's that kind of fear to take on the role Lin created. There are a lot of people who identify with him so strongly and who are such huge fans of his. It's definitely some gigantic shoes to fill.

To what extent were you allowed to take creative liberties with the role to make it your own?

The creative team was really amazing from the start, including Lin, about letting me do my own thing: letting me pull from what they had done already, from what worked, and allowing me add on to it, change it and kind of recreate it. They were very clear that they didn't want a carbon copy or an imitation of Lin. They wanted someone who had the same sort of spirit is all. You know, no one can do that role like Lin because Lin wrote it. But I was really excited to put my stamp on it. I'm kind of proud how I've been able to do that.

Can you elaborate on that a little more? In what ways do you feel you have, as you say, "recreated" ‘Usnavi?'

Well I identify with the show and with the character so much. I'm half-Puerto Rican. My father, who was born and raised in the South Bronx in the projects, was the first person in his family to go to college just like ‘Nina.' The story of ‘Claudia,' is very much my grandparents' story on my father's side. They came from Puerto Rico and immigrated to this country. So it certainly speaks to my family history. And more importantly I think ‘Usnavii' has a lot of heart, which I'd like to think I have. He certainly knows what it's like to have an extraordinary amount of pressure on him, which I also understand, and to feel the need to be everybody's support system and savior - sometimes sacrificing his own well-being for that. ‘Usvani' also lost his parents when he was very young like me. I lost my mother at 17. So I have a lot of things that personally resonated very deeply for me with this character. But I didn't come into the role thinking, "How am I going to make this different from Lin?" I had him and the whole creative team to kind of guide my steps. But Lin is a rapper and a writer by trade and I'm an actor by trade so I think just by nature it's kind of a different approach. I just try to think about the clearest storytelling I can and being as emotionally invested and connected as I can. I think my ‘Usnavi' is a little bit younger because I'm younger than Lin. And probably a little bit more physical - my ‘Usnavi' is bouncing off the walls [laughs]. So yeah, I didn't try to make it different from Lin, I just tried to have it come from me.

I know that you haven't been on Broadway too long yet, but does it feel different to perform the role as part of the Broadway company as opposed to being part of the tour?

Oh, absolutely. I'm a native New Yorker, so being in New York for a stretch, first off, is amazing for me. And I love being part of the whole Broadway family. To be a part of the theatrical community here - to walk out of a show every night and see all of my friends getting out of their respective shows at the same time - is just so magical. The whole experience is just a dream come true, really. It's something that I literally promised myself at age 8 would happen to me someday, and now it's here.

Tell me a little bit about your opening night on Broadway.

I literally almost had the wind knocked out of me at curtain call because the response was so warm and welcoming. And my father and his best friend were in the third row. There are those things in life that you look back on like "oh, that was a pivotal moment in my life." And then there are moments like "this is a pivotal moment of my life and I know I'm in it, I know it's happening to me right now...I can feel it." And that was what that Thursday night was for me. I was proud and grateful and just over the moon. By nature I'm very eager and enthusiastic all the time. So you can imagine on a night like that, it was like...wow!

Aside from the logistical differences between touring and performing in a sitting production, have you found that the demands of performing on Broadway are different from those of the tour, at least so far?

Well, the road itself is just so challenging and exhausting and requires so much stamina and energy, especially if you're pouring your heart out every night on that stage like everyone deserves to see you do. So it's hard here, it's hard on the road. But it is easier here in the sense that I'm in one place and I don't have to pack the lights up every Monday, or deal with constant climate change and readjusting to the space. But the most beautiful thing about being on Broadway vs. being on tour is that I'm in a much smaller house than about 90% of the houses I played on the road. So that's great because I don't have to work so hard to try to invite the audience in, as now they're right up close to me, which I love.

So you can be more at home in the role.

Oh for sure

Because you...

...are more at home.

And speaking of the challenges of playing this part, what is actually the hardest part about playing ‘Usnavi?' The show is done in a style that is very unique to In the Heights and you probably deliver more words consistently in the shortest span of time than anyone else on Broadway.

[Laughs] For sure. The show is one of a kind. I think the main thing is being able to pace yourself because you have such a long way to go at all times. There's the massive opening, for example, but I have the most to do in the last number of the show. So it requires a lot of focus and energy. But then in some ways I can't over-think my performance, because when I'm rapping a mile a minute, if I let my mind get too much in the way, the words will just go. So I have to be able to trust that it's in my body - that it's there and just kind of try to be present in every moment.

Were you a rapper before you started in In The Heights or did you have to learn for this role?

[Laughs] In my car to like Eminem and Kanye. No, no, I listened to everything under the sun. That's something Lin and I share - our musical influences are so vast and varied. I'm kind of a music junkie. But I didn't know how real rapping would be for me until I auditioned for In the Heights and then I was like, "wow, this makes a lot of sense to me." It just feels so expressive and passionate it just kind of...fits with me. I remember at one of my auditions, Tommy Kail, our director, asked if I grow up rapping because it seemed so second nature to me. And I said "no, this is a new discovery for me too!" As an actor and as a person in general, as an artist, it's thrilling. But I did do another rap show just before Heights called Kingdom at The Old Globe in San Diego - another kind of pop-rock-rap hybrid - so it was good practice. It's so funny how life works sometimes. The week of my first In The Heights audition, a friend recommended me to the casting director of Kingdom. When I went in they asked to hear me rap off the cuff, so I was like "well, I have all the stuff from In The Heights." Turns out that the musical director for Kingdom was one of the associate conductors from In The Heights and he was like "that's my show!" He jumped up there at the piano and started playing it and I rapped it and they offered me Kingdom right there on the spot.

Wow, that's incredible.

And six months later they offered me In The Heights in the room. Just surreal.

Do you have a favorite part of the show? That one number, or moment, that you look forward to every night?

You know, it changes all the time. One of the best things about any musical like this is you never really get stale. I've done about 250 performances on the tour and now over a dozen here in New York and there's always something I discover - always something fresh that sort of reignites my love for the show. I think right now I'm just having so much fun with Shaun Taylor-Corbett. We were on the tour together for nine months. He's so terrifically funny and is willing to play. And everyday backstage we try to come up with something new and crazy. So yeah, I'd say the best parts are the stuff with the guys now, me and ‘Benny' and ‘Sonny.' The stuff before "96,000" and the dance transition where ‘Sonny' is trying to teach ‘Usnavi' to dance. We just have such a good, good time together.

Any especially memorable moments, either on tour or Broadway thus far?

[Laughs] You could do a whole article on the uh-oh moments alone. I think my singular favorite uh-oh was the second night of the tour which was technically our opening in Tampa,  and there's a song called "Champagne" in the show, where ‘Usnavi' is trying to impress ‘Vanessa' while trying to uncork the champagne bottle. Well for some reason on tour, someone decided it was a good idea to use a real champagne bottle. And I'm doing the song and I'm fiddling with the thing, doing the song, doing the song...and the champagne bottle explodes. And I don't even mean like just pops, it was one of those really dramatic New Year's Eve explosions. Someone had shaken it and it shot out all across the stage into the house. Champagne was everywhere - on my clothes, all over the stage. And so I literally had to, on the spot, make up new lyrics, because the song is about not being able to open the champagne bottle. So I had to kind of free-style my way out of it. It was kind of like divine inspiration from Lin, because I love to rap but I can't freestyle for my life! It was horrifying and also so exciting. The magic about theater, it's so crazy. And in some ways it was like a beautiful welcome to the show, like a good luck omen.

That's insane! Did they have to stop the show and wipe the stage down or did you just keep going?

[Laughs] Oh we just kept going. The best part was that the tour cast was so amazing, they found a way to work around it and to clean it up. Jose-Luis, who plays Graffiti Pete on tour, has a dance solo after that song to set up for the finale, and he literally went out there with the towel, and he made up choreography to wipe the stage.

That's brilliant.

Oh yes, he's brilliant. Anyway, it's a great story and people want me to tell it over and over and over.

In this show, of course, you are performing alongside a platinum seller. How has it been working with Jordin Sparks and headlining a show with someone so notable?

It's awesome! She's so sweet and talented. She just has an incredible voice and instrument. She's very grateful and gracious and I think is a great example to people of how to be humble and encouraging to fans. Every night she stays until every autograph is signed and every picture is taken at the stage door. We laugh a lot and she makes us cupcakes all the time. We also play Scrabble on our iPhones. I beat her mercilessly. [Laughs] Make sure you print that!

[Laughs] That's a promise.

She's a great girl. And the beautiful thing about theater is it's a level playing field behind the scenes. She's the star but its just family and she's another cast member and we're a team. Every member of the team is essential to the machine working.

And how long will you be with the show?

As of now, just six months. I've been with the show for a long time, but I said I would do six more months and then kind of go from there. As much as I love ‘Usnavi' and I love In The Heights, there are a trillion things I want to do, and I want to do them fast! I am so grateful to be in this position and so excited for the next half in store.

Any other projects in the pipeline?

I was really fortunate to do a workshop for a bunch of new material, a brand-new Tarell McCraney play at Manhattan Theatre Club called Choir Boy. I did a workshop of a new Kudisch musical, and I'm attached to this awesome Michael Friedman piece called Fortress of Solitude which is based on the novel. And then I want to chase film and television. I also want to do a play really badly, as I've been doing musicals for a really long time. I want to have a really diverse career and do really great work and keep learning and growing as an artist. I want to take on whatever is going to push me a little further.

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Now in its third year at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street), In The Heights is the winner of four 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Lin-Manuel Miranda won the 2008 Tony for Best Music and Lyrics, Andy Blankenbuehler won the 2008 Tony for Best Choreography, and Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations. In The Heights began previews on Broadway Thursday, February 14, 2008, after a six-month award-winning 2007 Off-Broadway run. The musical opened on Broadway to critical acclaim Sunday, March 9, 2008, recouped its $10 million investment in 10 months. With a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes and conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda, In The Heights is directed by Thomas Kail. Alex Lacamoire is music director and music arrangements are by Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman. In The Heights features a scenic design by Anna Louizos, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Howell Binkley and sound by ACME Sound Partners. In The Heights is produced by Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, Jill Furman Willis, Sander Jacobs, Robyn Goodman/Walt Grossman, Peter Fine and Sonny Everett/Mike Skipper with associate producers Ruth Hendel and Harold Newman.

In The Heights won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album. The first national tour of In The Heights launched in October 2009 in Tampa, FL at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and will travel to Tokyo, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Juan, Grand Rapids and Providence. Last year, In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams premiered on Thirteen's Great Performances on PBS HD. Imagem Music, the Number #1 independent music publisher in the world, has acquired the worldwide stock and amateur rights to In The Heights. In November, 2008, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to produce a feature film based on In The Heights.

In The Heights is about a vibrant and tight-knit community at the top of the island of Manhattan. The music pulses with the hopes and dreams of three generations as they struggle to forge an identity in a neighborhood on the brink of transition.

Tickets for In The Heights range from $41.50 to $121.50, and can be purchased at the Richard Rodgers Box Office or at www.ticketmaster.com. The playing schedule for In The Heights is as follows: Tuesdays and Sundays at 7pm, Monday, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8pm, with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm.

For more information, visit www.intheheightsthemusical.com.