In The Heights

When I was in NY on vacation I saw two musicals, namely “The Lion King” and “In The Heights”. I’ll write a post about The Lion King another time. We (as in June, Jenny, Ana and me) bought tickets for Pamela as a surprise and b-day present. More info in my previous post: Vacation time, New York. In the Heights is a musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story explores three days in the characters’ lives in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights. The score features hip-hop, salsa, merengue and soul music. The musical’s 2008 Broadway production was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards and won the Tony Award for Best Musical at the 62nd Tony Awards.

The musical was very nice, I loved the Latin, Urban feel of it and ofcourse the music and songs. Story wise it itsn’t anything really new but the way the actors and crew perform are what made “In The Heights” a pleasure to watch.  Liked the dancing choreography since I am a streetdancer myself, ok well not streetdancer but my style of dancing is very street, urban. I also like latin dances like Salsa, Merengue, Bachata to name a few. So the music in the musical is really up my alley. Latin and urban, what else do I want. 🙂

I have the soundtrack and it has been on heavy rotation since I got back from my vacation. These are my favorite tracks from the soundtrack and have a heavy rotation on my winamp playlist:

• Usnavi, Company – In The Heights (7:38)
• Usnavi, Benny, Sonny, Graffiti Pete, Carla, Daniela, Vanessa, Company – 96,000 (5:35)
• Piragua Guy – Piragua (1:53)
• Company – The Club (5:58)
• Company – Blackout (3:57)
• Abuela Claudia, Usnavi – Hundreds Of Stories (3:40)
• Daniela, Company – Carnaval Del Barrio (7:26)
• Piragua Guy – Piragua (Reprise) (0:52)
• Vanessa, Usnavi – Champagne (2:44)

And here are two songs from the soundtrack for you to listen to. Visit the official website for more info and vids http://www.intheheightsthemusical.com

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Rd7Cpx-Ss&fmt=18] [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPBOYH8E1YQ]