In the Heights: The Community Musical

TW: trauma surrounding losing a parent.

‘We’re takin’ a flight / To a couple of days / in the life of what it’s like…En Washington Heights!’[1]

The word ‘Home’ has long been a staple of musical theatre’s eleven o’clock numbers and ‘I want songs’. ‘When I think of Home / I think of place / Where there's love overflowing’[2] dreams The Wiz’s Dorothy as she redefines what home means for her. ‘Is this home?’[3] asks Belle, trapped in the Beast’ dungeon to save her father. ‘I'll make the best of being flesh and bone / Mama, I'm going home, yeah’ belts Lydia as she deals with her grief in Beetlejuice. For In the Heights’ protagonist Usnavi, his story in the stage musical concludes finding his home in Washington Heights. Whilst plenty of musicals explore the significance of community, In the Heights pushes this by providing a snapshot of a small period of time for the inhabitants of one small community. Various characters have different experiences with home and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes explore these throughout.

Washington Heights is home for these characters during the events of the show. Protagonist Usnavi, acting as narrator in the opening number to introduce the community, has a relationship with the Heights which shifts throughout the show. In the opening number, ‘In the Heights’, Usnavi speaks of his experience emigrating from the Dominican Republic with his parents. His past with the country seems tinged with trauma, as he states that, ‘Ever since my folks passed on, I haven’t gone back / Goddamn, I gotta get on that...’[4] Followings their deaths, he now has a found family, being raised by Abuela Claudia. Still, the land he once left remains the place he considers home, dreaming of one day returning. As the show progresses, however, he recognises his appreciation of Washington Heights as home, too. In an interview where home is spoken about as an integral theme of the show, Miranda stated that, ‘For Usnavi, home is this idealized DR that he's barely been to as a baby, and I certainly related to that. As someone who spent summers in Puerto Rico, but never really lived there. It's more complicated than my romantic, fantasy version of what it was.’[5] As such, he finds home in his memories of the Dominic Republic and his present in Washington Heights. The final lines of the show are performed by Usnavi, declaring that, at least for the time being, he will stay: ‘Take the train to the top of the world / And I’m there / I’m home!’[6] He has reclaimed Washington Heights as his community and he puts his dreams of moving on hold to pursue a relationship with Vanessa. ‘Home’ has been redefined and relocated through the events of the show and Usnavi continues to hold the Dominican Republic close to his heart whilst also reclaiming Washington Heights as his home.

For Nina, her home in Washington Heights initially evokes feelings of shame. In ‘Breathe’, Nina expresses that, ‘This is my street / I smile at the faces / I’ve known all my life / They regard me with pride’[7]. Whilst Usnavi dreams of leaving, Nina has left to go to university but evidently feels a closer connection to the area. Her connection to the people and the area evidently causes her anxiety. Nina evidently venerates the opinions of the community due to her fears of letting them down. Fearing to be perceived as a failure for dropping out of university in California, Nina questions, ‘But maybe I should have just stayed home…’[8], revealing the significant pressure she feels from what she believes is expected of her. Indeed, ‘A 2008 Public Agenda survey…[found] that…Inadequate information and low expectations about the opportunities available to them appear to impede the academic achievement of Hispanic youth.’[9] The social and economic inequalities faced by Nina have caused her to feel pressure to represent her community, which has evidently put a wedge between her and home. Yet, Nina’s relationship with home strengthens throughout the show through her relationship with Benny. In ‘When You’re Home’, she re-frames that to her, home is defined as where Benny is: ‘I’m home—…When you’re here with me—’[10]. Indeed, he is the first person she visits after returning from university, immediately setting up their connection as significant in her journey returning to Washington Heights. This is the place where she has felt love and support and reconnecting with home gives her the courage to ultimately return to her studies.

Benny’s influence on Nina evidently reflects his own appreciation of Washington Heights as his home. He is immediately presented as being at ease and satisfied in his job in ‘Benny’s Dispatch’. His job requires knowledge of the area in order to direct drivers, highlighting his connection to the area. ‘Nina, you’re home today!’[11], he states as they reunite, overtly claiming the area as his home. Yet, this also associates Nina’s presence with home for Benny, suggesting the inextricable link between relationships and home. Furthermore, Benny’s ambition resolves around desiring financial growth and, unlike Nina, this ambition is not necessarily attributed to wanting to move away. Miranda references Trump in ‘96,000’, with Benny dreaming that, ‘I’ll be a businessman, richer than Nina’s daddy! / Donald Trump and I on the links, and he’s my caddy!’[12] This suggests a desire to live in an area with more affluent neighbours like the businessman. Yet, he does not explicitly dream outside of Washington Heights, particularly when compared to the first solo songs for Usnavi and Vanessa. Benny becomes the tour guide for Nina and the audience, showcasing the Heights through his eyes. In ‘When You’re Home’, he leads her through the city, taking a nostalgic trip to, ‘show you all I know’[13]. Although Usnavi seems to be Miranda’s self-insert character, his perspective clearly resonates here. In an interview with The Guardian in 2008, Miranda stated of writing the show, ‘I wanted to write a little show that captures what it was like, as I remember it… My little memory of the neighbourhood, through the show.’[14] In ‘When You’re Home’, Washington Heights becomes more than just streets and buildings, but it becomes enhanced by the memories created in their youths. Ending the show by sending Nina as she returns to Stanford, Benny endeavours to stay in Washington Heights as their relationship becomes long-distance. Physically separated, they will be joined by thinking of each other, ‘every night / At the same time…When the sun goes down’[15]. The sunrise becomes synonymous with home for the couple and unites them whilst they are temporarily apart. Washington Heights remains Benny’s base.

Of all the characters, Vanessa is the most willing to reject home. This is most evident in ‘It Won’t be Long Now’. She declares that, ‘one day, I’m hoppin’ that elevated train and I’m riding away! / It won’t be long now!’[16] Miranda utilises imagery of the ‘elevated train’ three times in this first stanza. First, it is presented as being inextricably linked to her home in, ‘The elevated train by my window’[17]. In, ‘The elevated train drives everyone insane / But I don’t mind, oh no’[18], Vanessa distances herself from the community and their shared opinion. When she reclaims this ‘elevated train’ as her way out of Washington Heights, Vanessa has essentially rejected Washington Heights as her home. It is only when Usnavi is on the brink of doing the same when her perception alters. She suggests that, ‘Let’s walk around the neighborhood and say our goodbyes’[19] when they have both decided to leave. She conveys an appreciation for home only in the face of leaving it. This idea was discussed by Melissa Barrera, who portrays Vanessa in the upcoming 2021 film adaptation, in an interview where she compares her character’s to her own experience of leaving home. She states that, ‘as you grow up, you realize that every part of your life is important. Even though you felt like you wanted to escape, it was really that you wanted to expand your horizons, meet new people, and have new experiences. Once you do that, you realize very quickly that you cherish where you grew up and the people there.’[20] Vanessa’s change of heart becomes apparent in ‘Champagne’, when Vanessa suggests that Usnavi stays in Washington Heights and compares how far they are each planning to travel: ‘I’m going down to West Fourth Street; you can take the A…You’re leaving the country, and we’re never gonna see you again‘[21]. We have seen that it is their shared desire to leave which is their most evident common ground. Yet, it is the very desire they share which may end their relationship before it even begins. As such, recognising Vanessa’s feelings for Usnavi allow her to gain some appreciation for Washington Heights as home.

Unlike other shows which centre on a community or group such as The Wiz, Beauty and the Beast and Beetlejuice, In the Heights explores the concept of home through multiple experiences. Home through various lenses and has varying effects on its inhabitants; it joins characters together and allows them to re-connect to themselves and their desires whilst also having the potential to hold them apart. Some are eager to leave, some content to stay and all find home in the community who share its space. This is ultimately made clear in Usnavi’s final cry that, ‘I’m home!’, where he claims Washington Heights as his home for the foreseeable future. Despite the trailers of the 2021 film adaption suggesting that Usnavi has relocated to the Dominican Republic as he dreams of doing in the show, he will always find a home in Washington Heights. Indeed, all the characters identify this small community as special because of the relationships they have made, defining the musical as driven by a community’s story.

Sources [1] ‘In the Heights’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-in-the-heights-lyrics> [2] ‘Home (Finale)’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Wiz-home-finale-lyrics> [3] ‘Home’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Susan-egan-home-lyrics> [4] ‘In the Heights’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-in-the-heights-lyrics> [5] ‘In the Heights: A Conversation with Lin-Manuel Miranda’, Swarthmore College (2014) <https://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/heights-a-conversation-lin-manuel-miranda> [6] ‘Finale’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-finale-lyrics> [7] ‘Breathe’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-breathe-lyrics> [8] Ibid. [9] Sandy Baum and Stella M. Flores, ‘Higher Education and Children in Immigrant Families’, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution, 21 (2011), 171–93 (p.182-3) <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ920372.pdf> [10] ‘When You’re Home’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-when-youre-home-lyrics> [11] ‘Benny’s Dispatch’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-bennys-dispatch-lyrics> [12] ’96,000’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-96000-lyrics> [13] ‘When You’re Home’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-when-youre-home-lyrics> [14] Daniel Nasaw, ‘Salsa and the City’, The Guardian (2008) <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/01/usa.theatre> [15] ‘When the Sun Goes Down’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-when-the-sun-goes-down-lyrics> [16] ‘It Won’t be Long Now’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-it-wont-be-long-now-lyrics> [17] Ibid. [18] Ibid. [19] ‘Champagne’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-champagne-lyrics> [20] Megan DiTrolio, ‘Vida and In The Heights Star Melissa Barrera Isn't Here for Stereotypes’, Marie Claire (2020) <https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a32673597/melissa-barrera-vida-in-the-heights-interview/> [21] ‘Champagne’, Genius (2021) <https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-champagne-lyrics>