Tabor Academy presents their winter musical In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, February 15-17 at 7:30 pm in the Fireman Center for Performing Arts in Hoyt Hall, 235 Front Street, Marion. The show is free and seating is open.
The action of In the Heights chronicles the economic and emotional struggles of the Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban immigrant populations of Washington Heights, NYC. All of the characters wrestle with paying bills, finding love, and reconciling dreams with realities. Faced with adversity, they turn to music and dance to rediscover hope and joy. Although the story spans a mere three days over July 4th in Washington Heights, In the Heights’ journey to its Broadway debut marked a nine-year odyssey.
The show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, wrote the first draft in 1999 as a sophomore at Wesleyan University. In the spring of 2000, Miranda and friends staged the show at Wesleyan’s Second Stage Theater. Between 2002 and 2005, Miranda partnered with Quiara Alegria Hudes and a few other talents, rewriting an additional five drafts. Heights then re-opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in Waterford, CT in 2005 and, after even more re-tooling, opened again Off Broadway in 2007. Nine Drama Desk Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Musical later, In the Heights opened on February 14, 2008 at the Richard Rodgers Theater on Broadway.
Over the next four years the show ran for 1185 performances and earned thirteen Tony Nominations including Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations. Miranda, who played the lead, bodega-owner Usnavi de la Vega, had arrived.
All of this preceded the star-studded celebrity and imagination-bending artistry of Hamilton. Of his work Miranda has said, “To engender empathy and create a world using only words is the closest thing we have to magic.”
The cast and crew of Tabor Academy, over 40 strong, is excited to share their work and hopes you will come out and enjoy the show. With plenty of salsa, break dancing, rap, and hip-hop, the show is not your typical Broadway musical. Come out and enjoy something new and fresh at Tabor.