IN THE HEIGHTS
John Cooper Studio Theatre, 41 Monkgate, York
Music and Lyrics by
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Book by
Quiara Alegria Hudes
Directed by
Robert Readman
Musical Director
Ben Papworth
DECEMBER 2017
“Lights up on Washington Heights” – Pick Me Up Theatre brings Lin-Manuel Miranda’s joyous first musical to York in the same year the phenomenon that is Hamilton opens in London’s West End.
In The Heights won four Tony Awards including Best Musical when it opened on Broadway in 2008 and has been playing to packed enthusiastic houses in London for more than a year.
It’s a truly life-affirming show with a universal story played out to a heady mix of salsa, merengue, soul, hip-hop and RnB.
At the crack of dawn on the hottest day of summer, Usnavi opens up his tiny bodega in Washington Heights to dispense morning coffee and papers to his neighbours.
It’s a place where everyone knows everybody, and we discover their stories and dreams. Usnavi’s dream is to return to the island where he was born, the Dominican Republic – but along the way he discovers what it really means to be home.
Miranda started writing In The Heights while still at college in 1999 and expanded it over the years until it premiered off-Broadway in 2007. A year later it opened at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre with Miranda as Usnavi. It was during a vacation from In The Heights in the summer of 2008 that Miranda picked up a copy of Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton.
Seven years later Hamilton opened on Broadway to unprecedented advance box office sales and an incredible critical reception, going on to win 11 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The London premiere is planned for October 2017 at the refurbished Victoria Palace Theatre.
The London production of In The Heights, which opened at the Southwark Playhouse before transferring to the King’s Cross Theatre last year, is scheduled to close in January 2017.
