in the heights

I listen to so many musicals that I'm always down for new material -- popular or not. I'll give it at least one run-through. I just finished listening to In The Heights for the second time and I am loving it. No wonder it won the 2008 Tony for Best Musical. It's an original mix of "hip-hop, salsa, merengue and soul music". (I stole that bit from wikipedia.) I didn't know anything about the story before opening the CD and was thus caught unawares by the dramatic moment in the musical. If you had passed by my desk during those 2-3 songs, you'd see me with tears welling up and trying not to cry while typing away. Haha. I'm such a sap. Not as much as Doris. But still a sap. :)

I initially found out about the musical from watching the 2008 Tony Award performance. The musical number they did for In The Heights actually didn't appeal. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago that I wanted to get the track listing. I stumbled upon this video:



How cool is that? The writer and star of the show Lin-Manuel Miranda happened to see this kid's youtube video and loved it so much that he invited the kid to Broadway and perform the finale alongside the entire cast. If you watched the vid, you'll notice Miranda right behind the boy directing him where to go, sometimes covering the huge smile on his face with his hand, because this kid is good!

And if that doesn't peak your interest, the producers of In The Heights are also the same people who brought us Rent and Avenue Q. Not too shabby.