Finding oneself In the Heights

MANILA, Philippines -  It could almost have been mistaken for a Filipino play. With a few expressions here and there in Tagalog and Visayan instead of Spanish, director Bobby Garcia’s version of In the Heights could easily have been set in Daly City in L.A. with the largest Filipino concentration outside of Manila, or Queens in Manhattan, or in any of the numerous aggrupations of Pinoys all over the world. This is possibly the reason why migrant audiences, Filipinos or otherwise, have embraced the musical wholeheartedly despite its sometimes yucky sentimentality and overdone clichés. This is also the reason why Bobby’s already remarkable cast appears to be inordinately even better in the Atlantis Production. It is simply because the members of the cast are comfortable with the milieu and the people they play.   

SFrom left: Ima Castro, Tex Ordoñez, K-La and Tanya Manalang in a scene from the musical

Did we identify with In the Heights? Did we find ourselves in one of the characters? Of course we did, even as we were embarrassed to find tears welling in our eyes at persons and problems that somehow strike a chord by reminding us of our colonial past. In coming up with this amazing paean to a place called home addressed to the migrants of the world, Lin-Manuel Miranda has been called a dynamic new talent with this initial work. A Puerto Rican-American composer, rapper, lyricist and actor, Lin-Manuel wrote of his own experience, the Washington Heights community in which he lived, their dreams and their aspirations, their successes and their failures. He wrote about their conflicts, of having sought success in a foreign land. Was it selfish to change allegiance? In so doing, have they lost the traditional virtues of their homeland?

A review from Variety notes that “the book by playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes  is disarmingly sweet-natured — some might say naive — in its depiction of the struggle to make an honest living, carve an identity, find love, remain true to one’s cultural roots and retain family and community unity amid the shifting sands of gentrification.” The New York Times concurs, “In many ways, In the Heights suggests an uptown Rent, plus some salsa fresca without the sex, drugs and disease.”

While panning the play for its fairy-tale demeanor where “this sun-drenched block of Washington Heights could almost be mistaken for Main Street at Disneyland, or Sesame Street without the puppets,” most critics are willing to forgo the deficiencies for the play’s innumerable virtues most of all its addictive music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel combining rap, hip-hop, salsa, meringue and soul with orchestral strings, harps, bongos, scratches, up-tempo and ecstatic bursts of brass. What had begun as a student production found its way to off-Broadway, eventually to Broadway, and finally the four Tony Awards in 2008 for Best Musical, Best Score, Best Choreography and Best Orchestrations. Lin-Manuel originated and performed the lead role of Usnavi on Broadway and in many special places. 

Not that Lin-Manuel has had it easy. Few successes particularly in highly-visible areas like music, publishing (Filipinos Sam Sotto for Before Ever After and Miguel Syjuco for Ilustrado published in New York), theater (Lea Salonga), and film have been achieved after years of burning the midnight lamp. For Lin-Manuel, it took eight years before his play saw the light of day.

The sung-through musical opens to the traditional introductory song and dance establishing the people and the community in the shadows of George Washington Bridge. This is Washington Heights, home to a conglomeration of latinos from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Chile, Cuba and elsewhere. They congregate by virtue of shared dreams of someday going back home or making it big in their adopted country.

Within the permanent two-tiered set, one meets rapper Usnavi Miranda (Nyoy Volante) and his cousin Sonny (Bibo Reyes) who run a bodega that serves like a local 7/11. There is Abuela Claudia (Jay Glorioso) from Havana, Cuba, surrogate lola to Usnavi and Sonny, firm believer that the $96,000 grand lotto she buys each day would change the lives of her wards. Usnavi, named by his dad while sighting a US Navy boat on their way to the new land, has emerged as unofficial leader and spokesperson for the neighborhood. 

A Puerto Rican family of Kevin (Calvin Millado) and Camila (Jackie Lou Blanco) operate a car service while supporting daughter Nina’s (K-la Rivera) education at Stanford University. Benny (Felix Rivera), their non-latino dispatcher falls in love with Nina but Kevin is against it, especially when he hears his daughter has dropped out from school for lack of funds. A farmer’s son, Kevin had promised himself to one day set the world on fire. After years in the urban underclass, he is determined that Nina fulfill his dream even if it means selling his company business to attain it.

From left: Jackie Lou Blanco, Calvin Millado and K-La

While pondering at opening a bar back home in the Dominican Republic, Usnavi courts Vanessa (Ima Castro) who works at the parlor with its daily dose of harmless gossip owned by Daniela (Tex Ordoñez) and daughter Carla (Tanya Manalang).  Daniela has made up her mind to pack her bags and head for the Bronx to escape the threat of greater more unstable uncertainties. Other engaging characters are Grafitti Pete (Altair Alonso), an inspired graffiti artist, and Piragua Guy (Jimmy Marquez) who pushes a cart hawking a Puerto Rican concoction of sweetened shaved ice called Piragua.

Their stories are intertwined in a way that everyone has his moment on stage, and often his chance at a solo number. One of our favorite songs, the second in Act 1, is the heartfelt Breathe sung by the lovely Canadian-Filipino import K-La, part of the ABS-CBN Starpower Five, now into her first Musical Theater venture. As Nina, she articulates her fear of disappointing both her parents and friends.

“This is my street. I smile at the faces I’ve known all my life. They regard me with pride… I am the one who made it out, the one who always made the grade. But maybe I should have just stayed home...”

A surprise number in Act 2 has the subservient Camila, reaching the end of her patience with the squabbling of husband Kevin and daughter Nina that she finally says, “Enough.” This is Jackielou’s solo in her first try at Musical Theater in English. The song has garnered numerous blogs from women who pick the following portion as similar to their own experience. 

“I don’t wanna hear it! You sound just like your father. We both know what a son of a bitch he was… When you have a problem, you come home. You don’t go off and make matters worse on your own. One day you’re gonna come back home. And you’re not gonna find me waiting anymore.”

Calvin, singer and theater actor, has for his solo the heartbreaking Inutil where he swears not to be like his father, and his father’s father before him.

“Today, my daughter’s home and I am useless… I always knew that she would fly away, that she was gonna change the world someday. I will not be the reason that my family can’t succeed. I will do what it takes. They’ll have everything they need, or all my work, all my life, everything I’ve sacrificed will have been USELESS.”

Classical singer Jay tackled the role of Lola Claudia, a dreamer to the end as she sings her song Paciencia Y Fe remembering her mother’s call in Havana for patience and faith that things will be better in America. She reminisces on the years of working as a maid.

“And as I fed these birds, my hands begin to shake. And as I say these words, my heart’s about to break. And ay Mama, what do you do when your dreams come true? I’ve spent my life inheriting dreams from you. What do I do with this winning ticket?”

Acoustic pop balladeer Nyoy is clearly the star of Heights in which he again startles the audience with rapping for the first time.  He is known to be a talented composer and vocalist with several award-winning albums, a hit song Nasaan ka Na for Eddie Romero’s indie Teach me To Love, and theater appearances mostly for Atlantis (Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Rent, Dreamgirls and Rocky Horror Show).

Lola Claudia has given him and Sonny a third each of the $96,000 winning lotto. Now what to do with it, Usnavi wonders. Leave the Heights and build that dream bar in the Dominican Republic? Leave Vanessa who will herself seek her own fortune? How will it end? They all know they must deal with the changes. Creator Lin-Manuel has divulged that In the Heights was not as much influenced by West Side Story as many would believe. “It is actually Fiddler on the Roof,” he said in a published interview, “because it really tries to paint a portrait of a community in the midst of change, and we were going for the same thing — although with different demographics and different styles.”

Jay Glorioso, the dreamer Lola Claudia with Nyoy Volante, the rapper Usnavi Miranda

The program blurb of In the Heights couldn’t have put it more succinctly. “It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which tradition you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.”

(In the Heights runs until Sept. 18 at the RCBC Theater, Makati City. For tickets, call 892-7078 or 840-1187 or Ticketworld at 891-9999.)

(E-mail me at [email protected].)