TIVO RED ALERT: IN THE HEIGHTS Special on PBS Great Performances May 27

On Wednesday, May 27th at 8pm (check local listings for details), Great Performances on PBS presents a dazzling documentary "In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams". This special will go down as the greatest commercial of all time for a Broadway musical, that took an enormous risk, moving from Off-Broadway to Broadway and running off with the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical. 

This special looks unlike anything that we've seen on PBS and a little bit of research told me why. The company that filmed it, Radical Media, are the people responsible for filming the HD last performance of RENT on Broadway. 

The show footage is glorious and the charismatic writer, Lin-Manuel Miranda is the freshest face to hit the boards in years. It's sad indeed that he's moved on and has left the Broadway show, but shows do go on and who ever thought that there would be a Phantom after Michael Crawford left the original London and Broadway productions of The Phantom of the Opera? Even the opening night reviews, read on camera to the producers by the show's press agent, focused on Miranda's star power.  

What we have in this special are back stories on the cast and the preparation for the move to and premiere on Broadway They go into cast member's homes, their lives, their families and we get backstage into rehearsals and even into technical rehearsals, which build a nice tension. It's beautifully shot and edited and credit must be handed to Kevin McCollum and Jeffrey Seller, who are executive producers of the PBS piece along with Jill Furman- all three are also lead producers of the Broadway show.

The up-close 'talking head' shots of all the players, have a real MTV, reality 'style' feel to them and one of the little story highlights is Priscilla Lopez at Sardi's, getting inducted onto the famous wall with her caricature. Unfortunately, Max Klimavicius is not named in a overlay, but is responsible for the choices of who goes on the wall and is a valuable player, important to Broadway itself. It's also hard to believe that with all her credentials, it took this long to get on the wall, but how great for her and for the In the Heights cast. Touching stories abound, but of particular interest, might be Karen Olivo, who takes a deep breath and knows that her future hinges on what happens with this show. As you can imagine, she could never have seen Anita in West Side Story coming at her and she'll probably be walking off with a Tony Award on Sunday June 7, for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (although she does have stiff competition from Billy Elliot's Hadyn Gwynne and Carole Shelley).

This is a joy to watch, from start to finish and will send you to your CD shelf to throw on the cast album, as we watch the articles pile up next week about the jump in box office sales after this airs...GUARANTEED!

Don't Miss It! 

Click here to view the documentary's trailer. 

Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG - one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers. In addition to thrilling extended performance sequences of the original cast of In the Heights onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, this Great Performances program offers an intimate look at the production backstage and off-stage. Producers from @radical.media first identified the show's potential at one of the early readings, and began filming the process shortly thereafter. This provides unprecedented access to the cast as they went through workshops, to off-Broadway, and finally to Broadway. Karen Olivo (Miranda's on-stage love interest, who is now starring in a new version of West Side Story as "Anita"), describes her dedication to performing as more like an "addiction" ; Mandy Gonzalez finds that her real life experience growing up with immigrant parents mirrors that of her character Nina; and Seth Stewart (Graffiti Pete), who has struggled to balance his love of dancing with his football career, is emotionally overwhelmed by seeing his image seven stories tall in Times Square. For Broadway veteran Priscilla Lopez (Camila), it is a journey back in time, as she recalls how her role in the original cast of A Chorus Line changed her life, while for Chris Jackson (Benny), the stakes are extremely high, as the success or failure of the show will directly impact how he can provide for his family, which includes an autistic child. These disparate stories all come together in the rehearsAl Hall and onstage, as the In The Heights company takes Broadway by storm with their high octane song and dance numbers.

In The Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams is a @radical.media production for THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG. For Great Performances, Bill O'Donnell is Series Producer, Michael Kantor (Broadway: The American Musical, Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America) is consulting producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.