Luis Salgado: ¿un futuro ‘Gene Kelly Boricua’?

Por Miguel López Ortiz
Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular

El puertorriqueño Luis Salgado se mantiene activo tanto en los escenarios de Broadway como en producciones fílmicas. (Foto suministrada)

Luis Salgado es un artista a quien sus compatriotas puertorriqueños deben seguirle la pista, porque se encamina aceleradamente a alcanzar un sitial estelar, tanto en Broadway como en Hollywood. Es indiscutible que este actor y bailarín boricua figura entre los hispanos de mayor promesa en el ambiente del espectáculo anglosajón en Estados Unidos. Dicho en palabras claras, se trata de una estrella en potencia.

Para refrescarle la memoria a aquellos que todavía permanecen ajenos a sus triunfos, baste señalar que, además de caracterizar el personaje de “José”, fue el asistente del coreógrafo Andy Blakenbuehler en la aclamada producción “In the Heights” – creada por otro compatriota nuestro, Lin-Manuel Miranda –, presentada en el Richard Rodgers Theatre y merecedora de cuatro premios Tony, uno de ellos en la categoría de Baile.

Consecuencia de su creciente éxito es el hecho de que el sábado 16 de mayo desfiló como “Grand Marshall” en la New York Dance Parade y el 7 de junio actuará como presentador invitado de la producción especial que, sobre la gala de los premios Tony, realizará el portal cibernético de noticias en español sobre el acontecer de la Meca Mundial del Teatro, todoBroadway.com, que podrá ser disfrutado por el público hispano de Estados Unidos, España y Latinoamérica.

“Mi función será la entrevistar a artistas nominados cuando llegan a la gala y a los que resultan premiados y comentar lo que acontece durante la ceremonia. Es una experiencia nueva para mí que me tiene ansioso y emocionado”, nos dice el artista, cuyo nombre completo es Luis Alberto Salgado Pérez y vio la primera luz en Vega Alta, el 30 de agosto de 1980.

Ahora es el coreógrafo de la producción “Shafrika, the White Girl”, que se presenta en el Jaradoa Theatre, en Broadway –

El bailarín boricua Luis Salgado ha estado en el elenco del musical galardonado In the Heights desde el estreno de la obra en su versión off-Broadway.. (Foto Joan Marcus)

Claro que su ansiedad y emoción no se limita a esta función que tanta exposición le brindará a nivel internacional. Porque casi de inmediato, junio 12, tendrá que incorporarse a la producción musical “Shafrika, the White Girl”, en el Jaradoa Theater. La dirección general de la misma recae en Katrina Stevens, mientras que Karl Mansfield y Brian Usifer comparten la dirección musical.

“Monté las coreografías de esta obra que es una especie de autobiografía de Anika Larsen, una joven que creció en Cambridge, Massachussets, con nueve hermanos, entre los que unos tienen sangre negra, otros asiática, otros latina y otros de nativoamericanos o indígena. Este proyecto me entusiasma porque aborda un tema que resulta novedoso en el teatro”, declara.

Vale la pena indicar que en “Shafrika, the White Girl” intervienen otros actores puertorriqueños o de origen latinoamericano. Entre ellos Ricardo Hinoa, Joamer González, Stephanie Martínez y Eileen Rivera.

Antes de llegar a Broadway y Hollywood, fue bailarín de Jailene Cintrón, Olga Tañón, Gilberto Santa Rosa y otros artistas –

Luis Salgado nos cuenta que hizo sus pinitos artísticos como actor y bailarín en funciones escolatres cuando contaba nueve años. Profesionalmente emprendió su trayectoria integrando el grupo coreográfico de la entonces exitosa merenguera Jailene Cintrón durante el período 1997-1999. Luego se desempeñó como bailarín en espectáculos de Olga Tañón – con quien viajó a Venezuela –, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Shalim y otros artistas. En el interín, cursó estudios de Actuación Dramática en la Universidad de Puerto Rico (1998-2001).

“En el 2002 fundé mi propia Academia Ensueños en mi pueblo de Vega Alta, pero mi sueño siempre fue triunfar en grande. Así que, con mucho dolor, al poco tiempo la cerré y me vine a Nueva York, donde ingresé a la Acting School para especializarme en la técnica Meisner. Para ese tiempo trabajé como bailarín de la cantante mexicana Paulina Rubio y, después, con Thalía, también mexicana”, nos cuenta.

─ ¿Cuándo consideraras que tu carrera comenzó a cobrar fuerza?

Escena de la película “Step Up 2” en la que aparecen Robert Hoffman, Briana Evigan y el puertorriqueño Luis Salgado (vestido de negro). (Foto suministrada)

“Gracias a Dios, aunque tuve que ir a numerosas audiciones, como todo el que aspira a dedicarse a esto, rápido fui seleccionado a trabajar en teatro y en cine. Estuve primero en producciones de Off-Broadway como ‘The Mambo Kings’, con Albita Rodríguez y Jaime Camil. Después en otros musicales de Broadway como ‘Fame on 42 Street, ‘Evita’ y ‘Aida’. Pero la experiencia de ‘In the Heights’ ha sido extraordinaria. En Puerto Rico hice el papel de ‘Bobby’ en el clásico ‘AChorus Line’ en el 2006. Al año siguiente, 2007, me concedieron el Drama Desk Award, lo cual para mí fue un privilegio”.

Ya ha aparecido en cuatro películas norteamericanas –

─ ¿Cuál ha sido tu experiencia en cine?

“Mi primer trabajo en este medio, o mi debut, fue hacer de doble de Diego Luna en ‘Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights’, que se rodó en Puerto Rico en 2004. Después, aparecí, básicamente como bailarín, en ‘Across the Universe’ en 2005 y, en 2007, en ‘Step Up 2 the Streets’, que se estrenó en febrero de 2008. También aparezco en otra película, que está inspirada en la vida del trompetista de jazz Louis Armstrong cuando era joven: “The Great Observer”, dirigida por Dan Pritzker y protagonizada por Anthony Coleman. Aquí hago el papel de ‘Alejandro’. Pero, este filme no se ha estrenado todavía. Creo que llegará a las salas de cine el año que viene, 2010”.

La actriz boricua Rosie Pérez compartió con Luis Salgado en su visita a la obra “In the Heights”. (Foto suministrada)

Nuestro entrevistado revela que, además de disfrutar intensamente de su desempeño en los escenarios, siente una particular pasión por la enseñanza. Esto lo impulsó a producir, en sociedad con el también reconocido coreógrafo Seth Stewart, dos valiosos DVDs didácticos en 2007: “Latin Fusion / Fusión Latina” (Vol. 1 y 2), que le ha permitido viajar a Toronto (Canadá), México, Perú, Japón y a diversas ciudades norteamericanas para ofrecer talleres a aspirantes a bailarines profesionales.

Su más reciente y ambicioso proyecto como educador es encaminar la academia R.Evolución Latina, que ha fundado en colaboración con los muy experimentados Michael Balderrama ( de “In the Heights”) y Gabriela García (de “Chicago The Musical”).

“Aquí preparamos o pulimos a bailarines que aspiran llegar a Broadway y a otros escenarios de alto nivel en el teatro musical. Es algo que mis compañeros y yo disfrutamos al máximo y les aseguro que nos está yendo muy bien”, concluye evidentemente feliz.

06/jun/09

Univision.com Inquieto, entusiasta, con la ilusión en la comunidad, Luis Salgado no ha parado de soñar.

	Boricua feliz
	R.Evolución Latina

Opina en los Foros de Univision

NUEVA YORK – El escenario está vacío, la función de la noche aún no empieza y uno a uno los integrantes del musical In The Heights, ganador de cinco premios Tony van llegando para el show de la noche. “Aquí todos somos una familia”, afirmó Luis Salgado, bailarín y asistente de coreografía, quien aún siente el éxito de la obra como un sueño, uno que llegó a su vida por seguir su corazón.

Boricua feliz

El joven boricua entendió que la “fórmula capitalista” no era la que lo hacía feliz. “Claro debes ir la universidad, obtener una profesión para lograr el éxito en la vida. Pero aunque eso puede trabajar para algunos y ser la forma en que alcanzan sus metas, en mi caso no funcionó”, reflexionó este joven con una sonrisa y el recuerdo de la cara de preocupación de su madre cuando vio que su hijo no siguió ese camino.

<script language=JavaScript src="http://macads.univision.com/js.ng/Params.richmedia=yes&SITE=UNIVISION&CHANNEL=LOCAL&SUBCHANNEL=ESPECIALES&SECTION=MESHISPANIDAD&CONTENT=ARTICLE&PARTNER=UNIVISION&CLIENT=ALL&LCL=YES&MKT=NEWYORK&AFF=ALL&CR=223&D=501&Z2=10&Z3=100&S=NY&T=-4.0&L==mindspring&AOL=0&SRT=not+proxy&DP=MN&LANG=SP&TLD=com&SLD=mindspring&BT=10030&BT=10169&BT=10170&TILE=609548&SIZE=300x600&cid=300600x1718681?bust=765376"></script>

In The Heights

Una experiencia que ha marcado su vida es su paso por la “familia” de In The Heights, donde ayudó a Andy Blankenbuehler en la coreografía.

Antes de empezar cada función se toman de la mano y dan gracias por los resultados del trabajo y llenos de energía inician un rato de entretenimiento para el público asistente de la noche.

Una  experiencia que lo tiene muy feliz. “La verdad es que estoy tan añoñado que no sé qué hacer después. Este es un sueño que aún no acabo de creer. Cuando estabamos Off Broadway teníamos 499 personas sentadas cada noche y ahora son 1350 en cada función”.

Luis también le gusta la actuación, algo que extraña, “quizás porque es lo que no tengo en este momento”, pero no puede visualizar su vida lejos del baile.

De aquel joven que abandonó la Universidad de Puerto Rico donde estudiaba Drama, queda un hombre inquieto, que no puede hablar sin darle forma a cada palabra con un gesto, una mano levantada o una sílaba prolongada.

¿Podrías hablar sin mover el cuerpo? “No creo, no creo”.

Su mente siempre está en función de hallar un nuevo proyecto con mucho sentido social y en ese ir más allá llegó a fundar una organización para darle a los jóvenes las oportunidades que ellos han tenido que descubrir en el camino. Así nació R.Evolución Latina.

Latinos brillan en el TeatroStageFest de NYC

Josefina Scaglione, Luis Salgado y Jackie Guerrido asistieron al estreno del festival de teatro

Broadway's R.Evolución Latina
CORTESÍA: TEATROSTAGEFEST

REVOLUCION LATINA

This week in

 

Luis Salgado interviews Priscilla Lopez.

This was an amazing opportunity. There was so much to learn from this incredibly experienced but humbled talent. We hope you enjoy!

Revolución Latina is a movement that celebrates human success and growth in Particular the Latino Artist who with their choices and actions set's up a great example for others.

Priscilla Lopez is an American singer, dancer, and actress.

 

 

Born on February 26, 1948 in the Bronx, Lopez has the distinction of having appeared in the Broadway landmark, the highly-acclaimed, long-running A Chorus Line.

http://www.myspace.com/revolucionlatina
http://www.youtube.com/RevolucionLatina

Other interviews:

From the Pit with Alex Lacamoire 
From the streets of NY with Michael Balderrama
10 minutes with Lin Manuel Miranda

Thank You!

Luis Salgado
(Director of Revolución Latina)

 

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This week at Revolución Latina;

 

• Luis Salgado interviews Michael Balderrama (Swing, Dance Captain and Understudy) of the Hit Musical "In The Heights".
  
  Revolución Latina is a movement that celebrates human success and growth in Particular the Latino Artist who with their choices and actions set's up a great example for others.
  
  MICHAEL BALDERRAMA (Swing; u/s Graffiti Pete, Piragua Guy; Dance Captain) Broadway: Hot Feet (Anthony); Movin' Out (u/s Tony); Urban Cowboy (Featured); Saturday Night Fever (Cesar). Regional: West Side Story (Bernardo); The King and I (Simon).
  
  The Dance Captain is a member of the company who maintains the artistic standars and/or musical staging in a production.
  
  An understudy is a theatrical term for someone who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a leading actor or actress in a theatrical play. Should the lead actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or accident, the understudy takes over the part. Usually, when the understudy takes over, the theater manager will make the announcement prior to the start of the performance. Several actors made their name in showbusiness by being the understudy of a leading actor and taking the role over for several performances (for example, Anthony Hopkins with Laurence Olivier).
  
  In musical theatre, the term swing is often used to refer to a member of the company who understudies several chorus and/or dancing roles.

Visit us:

http://www.myspace.com/revolucionlatina

http://www.youtube.com/RevolucionLatina

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This is the first story about Luis Salgado written in English. In Spanish, it’s another story. Check out these headlines: “Luis Salgado saborea el éxito teatral” (“Luis Salgado savors theatrical success”), Primera Hora newspaper. “Línea ascendente” (“Rising star”), El Nuevo Día. And when it looked like he’d have his first Broadway role, in 2005’s The Mambo Kings, the newspaper Hoy Nueva York proclaimed, “El debut de un grande” (“A great one’s debut”).

He’s known in places where they speak other languages too. The German telecommunications giant Arcor twice hired him for an industrial, first as a dancer and the following year as choreographer. He’s gone to Japan three times to be the guest artist with a dance company.

Here in New York, where he’s lived for the last five years or so, Salgado currently has his most prominent role to date. In off-Broadway’s In the Heights, this season’s most ingratiating new musical, he’s one of the denizens of that barrio up near the top of the subway map—i.e., Washington Heights. If you don’t notice him for his mop of curly hair, you do because of his eye-popping dance moves, especially in the club scene, when he comes between would-be sweethearts Usnavi and Vanessa.

Salgado, 26, first heard about Heights from its original choreographer, Sergio Trujillo, with whom he’d worked on Mambo Kings. About a year and a half ago, Trujillo told the previously close-cropped Salgado to start growing out his hair for a role in the new show. Though he ended up passing on the In the Heights workshop to be dance captain for a regional production of Aida, Salgado let his hair grow all last year, even while he was filming two movies and playing other parts on stage—including prissy Bobby in A Chorus Line. “It gave it a comedy thing—like a little psychotic Bobby,” he laughs.

Salgado was billed as a “special guest star” in Chorus Line, which was presented for six performances last fall at Centro de Bellas Artes de Caguas, outside San Juan. He was, after all, returning to his native Puerto Rico with some Hollywood credentials—dance double for star Diego Luna in 2004’s Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and parts in scenes with Russell Crowe and Patrick Dempsey in, respectively, American Gangster and Enchanted (both scheduled for release this November).

In 2004, Salgado had made another heralded return—for his hometown’s annual Carnaval Vegalteño, which was dedicated to him in recognition of his accomplishments and the example he set. Salgado grew up in Vega Alta, a city of 38,000 on Puerto Rico’s north coast, about 25 miles from San Juan. Coincidentally, it’s also where the family of In the Heights’ creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda hails from. Miranda, whom Salgado hadn’t met before working on the show, wrote a lyric—sung by Daniela (Andréa Burns)—about “the hills of Vega Alta” for Heights.

When Salgado was still a teenager, he started a dance academy in a local gym. He notes that, ironically, the government which would honor him with Carnaval after he’d left the island wasn’t that forthcoming with financial or logistical support during the five years his school operated. But it had 300 pupils—children and adults—and put on a show every six months. In the spring of 2001, Salgado and his students were invited to perform at New York’s Puerto Rican Day Parade (Vega Alta was one of that year’s parade honorees).

That trip led to Salgado’s decision to move to New York, and by the following year he was living in la Gran Manzana and working pretty regularly. But he’d arrived in the city without the childhood indoctrination most of his colleagues have had. “I was pretty much unaware of the power of musical theater until I came to New York. I didn’t grow up seeing Mary Poppins, I didn’t grow up seeing The Wizard of Oz,” Salgado says, though he does recall being profoundly affected by a nonmusical stage production of Pinocchio as an adolescent. “When I moved to New York, my first voice teacher told me ‘See more!’ and I’m like, ‘Who’s Seymour?’ And he was, ‘No. See more shows. You’ve got to go and study, you’ve got to learn.’ So I was in Blockbuster every week, renting movie musicals.”

Before he left Puerto Rico, he produced one last show with his school—“Por Amor al Arte” (“For Love of the Art”), the story of a Puerto Rican boy who goes to New York to pursue his showbiz dreams. “In a way it was an apology, because I was leaving,” says Salgado. Then and now, however, people around Salgado must know how important following one’s dreams is to him. He had named his school Ensueños—In Dreams—and his bio in the In the Heights program concludes “Dare to dream.” Last May, he co-choreographed and danced in Starting Today Dare to Dream…, a show performed in Jackson Heights, Queens, with students of the Lexington School for the Deaf.

“I am a dreamer, and I will always be a dreamer,” Salgado says, er, dreamily. “We can all dream; it’s free. If nobody wants to support it, you can go to your room and still dream.”

For the Starting Today job, he’d been referred by Maria Torres, who was his dance partner in The Mambo Kings and choreographed off-Broadway’s Four Guys Named José. She also was associate choreographer for Enchanted, Disney’s live-action/animation mash-up due out later this year, and Salgado assisted her on its Central Park scene. The film’s cast includes Hollywood stars Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon and Amy (Junebug) Adams as well as such Broadway faves as Idina Menzel, Brian D’Arcy James, Judy Kuhn and Gregory Jbara.

Salgado also performs in a ballroom scene in Enchanted, one of three fall films in which he appears (barring any prerelease edits). In Julie Taymor’s Vietnam-era Across the Universe, which also features some animation as well as a score by the Beatles, he plays a hippie in the “Come Together” number and a sergeant in a dream sequence (the movie should be out in September). In American Gangster, a 1970s-set Ridley Scott opus about heroin smuggling, starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington, he dances in a club scene.

One of Salgado’s first jobs in New York was a role in “Broadway Workshop,” a 2002 miniseries starring Wayne Cilento, Amy Spanger and Alan Thicke that was created for PBS’ Egg: The Arts Show. “Broadway Workshop” chronicled the fictional development of a Broadway musical about lobstering, Traps!, but only one episode was televised before Egg went off the air.

A few years later, Salgado would be involved in another aborted project—the attempt to bring The Mambo Kings, a musical adaptation of the Antonio Banderas/Armand Assante movie (which had been based on an Oscar Hijuelos novel), to Broadway. He did the workshop in New York and the spring 2005 production in San Francisco. Then the company came back to New York, put up a marquee on the Broadway Theatre, announced an Aug. 18 opening, and gave the cast a week off. A few days into their paid vacation, they got the call that the Broadway run had been canceled.

“It was devastating, the hardest experience of our lives,” Salgado says. “The cast was so united, so committed, and we were all so proud because it was something that spoke our language, that was representing our people. That period—the ’50s—was beautifully represented. And suddenly it was gone, done, just out of the blue.”

Salgado had found his first mentor at a crucial time. When he was 9, he went to Hawaii to live with his father, who’d divorced his mother when he was a baby. “I had a pretty difficult time because I didn’t speak English and I was pretty much living alone because my father was in the Army, my stepmother was very young—she wasn’t really taking care of me—school wasn’t in my native language. I had D’s and F’s in school. It was a tough change, because my mother always took so much care of me, I had A grades [in Puerto Rico]. I went from everything to nothing.”

Rivera taught the kids dance, acting, poetry, and had them put on a performance every week. When Luis and his classmates were moving on to high school—and therefore would no longer be in the school with Pepito’s program—Rivera created a company to keep them as students. Around that time, Salgado began his formal dance training at a studio. Rivera introduced him to professional artists, and the connections led to jobs. At age 17, Salgado became a backup dancer for merengue singer Jailene Cintrón. He performed on her TV show, A Reír y a Gozar, and on other Puerto Rican television programs, including Voces en Función, Vale Mas, Eso Vale and De Noche con Iris y Sunshine.

While Salgado was performing and running his own school, he was also enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in Rió Piedras as an acting student. All the while, his mother was wary of this dream of his. “It was pretty much taboo,” he says. “In Puerto Rico, in the United States, no matter where you are, they don’t teach us to do what we love. They teach us to do something that can give you money.”

He moved to New York before he could graduate from college but has continued taking acting classes. He has plans for putting all the dramatic training to use. “Eventually I want to move more into acting,” he says. “Just plays.” His role models are Raul Julia and José Ferrer, two Puerto Ricans who were respected dramatic actors in U.S. But this dream is being deferred at present. “I feel I still have a long way to go, with my accent, with many other things,” Salgado explains. “When that time comes when I’m going to focus on that [acting], I will have had developed a name and a résumé that will support me and I will have the abilities.” Besides, he adds, “I am way too happy dancing at this moment!”

His happiness is due to not just what he’s doing but where. “I am so in love with In the Heights,” says Salgado, who’s the only cast member (besides veterans Olga Merediz and John Herrera) who was born outside the States. “Nothing in New York City has brought what it has. It’s not creating a stereotype; it’s creating the story of people, and that’s where the honesty’s at. This show just grabs the music and just grabs a story of people who are struggling.”

He’s not as effusive about the most famous Manhattan-set musical about Hispanics, primarily because of the image it has fixed in people’s minds. “When I step into an audition, I’m not always allowed to step in as Luis, but I have to be Bernardo. I have to represent what someone put out there that the Latino community was. It’s been accepted because it was so powerful and beautiful and has so much greatness to it. Yet West Side Story f---ed us up, I’m sorry to say. We have to now become a character that people understand.” The authentically puertorriqueño Salgado says he’s been told in auditions that he doesn’t have the “right accent” by people accustomed to the fake accents of actors who’ve played Bernardo. Despite his gripes, that was Salgado at last year’s Tony Awards, “playing” Bernardo when characters from shows produced by Hal Prince appeared on stage during a tribute to Prince.

Salgado, whose yen to perform began with childhood magic tricks using cards and “pañuelos” (handkerchiefs), keeps honing some offstage talents as well. He’s an avid photographer, still loyal to 35mm, and has painted art for his apartment—which is in Harlem, not the Heights. And “I love writing,” he says. “I write thoughts, I write quotes, I write plays. Hopefully I’ll be able to give more effort to do that and I’ll have some good material there to publish someday.”

Reader Feedback - 4 Replies

congratulations by FaFa42 @ 04/03/07, 12:18:44 PM Congrats Congrats Congrats my shining star! You totally deserve it! This is just the beginning cause you have "pasion" for a hole lifetime... You're quite the amazing person. Always a fan! this show sounds cool by bryan @ 04/03/07, 02:55:02 PM and it needs a cast cd made indeed by rentchica444 @ 04/03/07, 03:44:57 PM The cd is coming out this month! thank god....I've been dying without it! It's one of those shows that after you see it, YOU NEED THE RECORDING!! Congrats! he is amazing... :] Click Here to Read More Replies and to Respond... Join the discussion... To register, please click here

Adrienne Onofri, one of BroadwayWorld's original columnists, was a longtime contributor to OOBR (The Off-Off-Broadway Review) and theater editor of The Greenwich Village Press. She is a member of the Drama Desk and contributes to Entertainment Weekly. She is also a travel writer; her first book, Walking Brooklyn, will be published this spring by Wilderness Press.

JOAN MARCUS 'In the Heights,' a new off-Broadway musical, takes place in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, wrote the music and lyrics and he plays Usnavi, a bodega owner. For information "In the Heights," 37 Arts, 450 W. 37th St. Tickets are $55 to $85. Call (212) 307-4100.

Friday, February 9, 2007

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"In the Heights," a new musical that opened off-Broadway on Thursday, is an old-fashioned musical in the best sense of the word.

Such classic musicals as "West Side Story" and "Fiddler on the Roof" took audiences into a different world as they wove moving stories about interesting characters. Not to mention entertaining with memorable music and lyrics.

This show also reflects its time: it's one of the first to include rap numbers, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays the owner of the local bodega and the narrator of the musical.

The rap numbers are fairly mellow, and the words are quite easy to follow.

"In the Heights" is set in present-day Washington Heights, the section of Manhattan near the George Washington Bridge that is home to immigrants from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic among other places.

This is a close-knit neighborhood, where residents look out for one another and rejoice in each other's successes. For example, Nina's mother, played by Priscilla Lopez ("A Chorus Line"), has passed around her report card from her freshman year at Stanford University so everyone can admire all the A's.

The show takes place during the Fourth of July weekend and interweaves several stories, including that of Nina, played by Mandy Gonzalez ("Lennon,""Dance of the Vampires"), who is determined to drop out of school because of the financial strain it has placed on her family.

Another story line involves Vanessa, played by Karen Olivo ("Rent,""Brooklyn"), who works at the local beauty shop and dreams of a better future.

Then there's Miranda's character, Usnavi, who wants to close the bodega that he has been running since his parents died and return to his native Puerto Rico.

The only things holding him back are his ties to the neighborhood and the responsibility he feels for his young cousin, who works at the store, and for Claudia, known as Abuela, or grandmother, to the neighborhood.

Parts of the plot are quite sentimental, but the show holds some surprises.

 

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 Reviews  Feb 9, 2007

New York

In the Heights

Reviewed By: Barbara & Scott Siegel

Mandy Gonzalez and Christopher Jackson in In the Heights (© Joan Marcus)

The sensational new musical In the Heights may not please everyone, but plenty of people are going to leave Off-Broadway's newish 37 Arts theater with words like "exuberant" and "exciting" coming out of their mouths -- even if they have never been to Upper Manhattan.

The title of the show, which features a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, refers to Washington Heights, the contemporary New York City barrio where plenty of Latin-Americans live, work, love, and dream. We are introduced to a tight-knit community of Heights' residents going about their business on designer Anna Louizos' stunning set, consisting of aging tenements and crumbling storefronts with a view of the George Washington Bridge in the background. The bridge not only establishes the musical's location, it also represents the gateway to the other America that exists beyond Nueva York.

The show's narrator, if there can be said to be one, is Usnavi (Miranda), a bodega owner who's struggling to get by. But the main story centers on the middle-aged, middle-class couple Kevin and Camila (John Herrera and Priscilla Lopez), who own the local car service. Their daughter Nina (Mandy Gonzalez) has just returned from her first year at Stanford; scholarships are not enough to bridge the financial gap, so she has decided to quit college rather than see her parents bankrupt themselves for her sake.

Also figuring into the mix are Abuelo Claduia (Olga Merediz), the woman who raised Usnavi after the death of his parents; Vanessa (Karen Olivo), an apprentice beautician who is desperate to get out of the neighborhood; her spunky boss, Daniela (Andrea Burns); and Benny (Christopher Jackson), a shy young man who has worked for Nina's parents for years yet isn't deemed by them good enough to be her boyfriend.

Early on, you will think you've got the plot all figured out, but the show takes a more truthful turn than you might have imagined. Still, the book is the least of this musical's gifts; In the Heighs might benefit if the story were a bit darker. Miranda's music is flavorful, sometimes even powerful, and his lyrics are a triumph; not only do they drive the story and establish and develop character, they also represent a magnificent blend of people's poetry and the dynamic essence of musical theater.

As for the choreography, it almost literally jumps for joy: Andy Blankenbuehler's work provided pretty much the only spark in last season's disappointing Burleigh Grime$, and In the Heighs establishes him as the brightest new choreographer on this side of the Hudson. Thanks to Thomas Kail's taut direction, the show's movement, staging, and dance seem all of a piece with the vibrant cascade of characters in this melting-pot story.

Best of all, the performances given by the talented cast members are breathtaking. Miranda is a knockout; Gonzalez and Jackson are immensely appealing; Olivo sings and dances like a dream; Robin De Jesus plays Usnavi's young cousin, Sonny, with scene-stealing aplomb; and it's always great to hear Burns sing. Among the hard-working ensemble, Seth Stewart is a standout as Graffiti Pete. But it's Merediz who unexpectedly stops the show with her first-act song "Pacienca Y Fe" -- a truly exhilarating moment.

Though In the Heights and Spring Awakening are wildly different from each other in tone and style, they both suggest that the musical theater is finally embracing the energy and talent of today's youth to create shows that are fresh and bold.

 

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Legit

Posted: Thurs., Feb. 8, 2007, 8:00pm PT

In the Heights

 (37 Arts; 461 seats; $76.25 top)

By DAVID ROONEY

Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, stars in Latino immigrant tuner ``In the Heights,'' for which he wrote the music and lyrics.

A Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, Jill Furman presentation of a musical in two acts with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, conceived by Miranda. Directed by Thomas Kail. Music direction, Alex Lacamoire. Choreography, Andy Blankenbuehler.
 
Graffiti Pete - Seth Stewart
Usnavi - Lin-Manuel Miranda
Piragua Guy - Eliseo Roman
Abuela Claudia - Olga Merediz
Carla - Janet Dacal
Daniela - Andrea Burns
Kevin - John Herrera
Camila - Priscilla Lopez
Sonny - Robin De Jesus
Benny - Christopher Jackson
Vanessa - Karen Olivo
Nina - Mandy Gonzalez
Bolero Singer - Doreen Montalvo
 

With "In the Heights," musical theater welcomes a dynamic new talent in Lin-Manuel Miranda. The composer-lyricist-performer's lovingly drawn portrait of a Hispanic community in upper Manhattan's Washington Heights began as a student production during his sophomore year at Wesleyan U. The show's plotlines rehash familiar indie-movie staples of immigrant family experience, but even when it wades through sentimental cliche, this vibrant Latin-beat musical has a sincerity that amplifies its infectious charm. It also scores by keeping its song and dance strengths front and center.

The resume of production team Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller and Jill Furman includes "Rent," "Avenue Q" and "The Drowsy Chaperone." That track record raises commercial expectations, not to mention the idea of a Broadway transfer for this ambitiously scaled Off Broadway venture, which has a cast of 20. But first the show must attract young auds, and even more so Latinos, if it is to stake out a niche at heretofore undertrafficked venue 37 Arts.

Despite the invigorating prevalence of hip-hop and rap in Miranda's songs, there's more innocence than urban cred here. The book by playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes ("Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue") 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.

With its wholesome characters and touching reaffirmation of the value of home, "In the Heights" recalls such Hispanic-themed films as "Raising Victor Vargas" and "Real Women Have Curves" or the family scenes in ABC's "Ugly Betty." There may be financial woes, but there's little evidence of drugs, crime, violence or machismo in this idealized fairy-tale world.

Anna Louizos' agreeably cluttered, two-tiered set conjures a neighborhood in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, with a fire hydrant on one corner and the 181st Street subway entrance on the other. Downstairs from the jumble of apartments and fire escapes, there's a hair salon, a car service and a bodega, run by Usnavi (Miranda), named for the U.S. Navy ship his father saw on arrival in the country.

Singing the title song that opens the show, Usnavi observes the sleepy community coming to life on a July 4th weekend morning. We meet his cousin Sonny (Robin De Jesus), a teen desperately cultivating cool home-boy attitude, and their Cuban de facto grandmother, Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz).

Then there's the Puerto Rican couple who run the car company (John Herrera, Priscilla Lopez); their daughter Nina (Mandy Gonzalez), back for summer break from Stanford U.; dispatch worker Benny (Christopher Jackson); and hairstylist Vanessa (Karen Olivo) and her gossiping salon cronies (Andrea Burns, Janet Dacal).

The plot developments are pedestrian but engaging enough. Usnavi tentatively romances Vanessa while he dreams of opening a bar on a beach in the Dominican Republic and she plans her exit on a downtown train. Tender feelings also grow between Nina and Benny despite the objections of her father, who wants to sell the business to keep her in college. Abuela Claudia, meanwhile, gets a $96,000 windfall on a winning Lotto ticket, which may change the future for Usnavi and Sonny.

The show is somewhat overloaded in that virtually all the characters get their own "I want" song and/or a paean to their homeland. But it's hard to grumble when the music is so fresh and the hard-working cast so delightful. The large ensemble works smoothly together and, some harmless overacting notwithstanding, no one reaches too hungrily for the spotlight.

An appealing performer as well as a gifted songwriter, Miranda deftly blends hip-hop with salsa and merengue, pop and traditional Broadway. With their droll lyrics, syncopated phrasing and smattering of Spanish, the freestyle rap elements are the musical high point.

What's most refreshing, however, is that for all its eclectic rhythms, "In the Heights" never shrinks away from the corny exuberance of traditional musical theater or tries too hard to be hip.

Choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler mirrors the energized score with dancing that runs from contempo urban to languid slo-mo to sexy, sinuous Latin moves. Jason Lyons' lighting heats up the sultry summer atmosphere and creates some nice mellow nighttime moods.

Director Thomas Kail (who, along with Miranda, comes from hip-hop improv troupe Freestyle Love Supreme) keeps things motoring busily. Some of the transitions between songs feel abrupt, and some numbers are poorly set up, suggesting the musical originally ran longer and has been clipped back to minimize the fragility of the book scenes. But recognizing that the catchy numbers are the principal driving force was the right move for this spirited little show.

Set, Anna Louizos; costumes, Paul Tazewell; lighting, Jason Lyons; sound, Acme Sound Partners; arrangements and orchestrations, Lacamoire and Bill Sherman; music coordinator, Michael Keller; production stage manager, J. Philip Bassett. Opened Feb. 8, 2007. Reviewed Feb. 2. Running time: 2 HOURS, 10 MIN.
 

With: Rosie Lani Fiedelman, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Joshua Henry, Nina Lafarga, Javier Munoz, Luis Salgado, Rickey Tripp.
Musical numbers: "In the Heights," "Breathe," "Benny's Dispatch," "It Won't Be Long Now," "Plan B," "Inutil (Useless)," "No Me Diga," "96,000," "Paciencia y Fe (Patience and Faith)," "When You're Home," "Piragua," "Siempre (Always)," "The Club/Fireworks," "Sunrise," "Hundreds of Stories," "Carnaval del Barrio," "Atencion," "Alabanza," "Everything I Know," "Hear Me Out," "Goodbye," "Finale."
 

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From the Corner Bodega, the Music of Everyday Life

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, in the musical “In the Heights.”

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By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

Published: February 9, 2007

Coffee, light and sweet, is the fuel that keeps a busy world in motion in the new musical “In the Heights,” a singing mural of Latin-American life that often has the inspiriting flavor of a morning pick-me-up on a warm summer day. Light and sweet are actually just the words to describe this amiable show, which boasts an infectious, bouncy Latin-pop score by a gifted young composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, an unfortunately underspiced book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, and a stage full of energized, energetic performers you can’t take your eyes off and won’t want to.

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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Mandy Gonzalez, left, and Christopher Jackson in "In the Heights."

The engaging Mr. Miranda himself is front and center for much of “In the Heights,” which opened last night at 37 Arts. He plays the central role of Usnavi, who dispenses all that café con leche at the local bodega, the regular pit stop for a neighborhood full of outspoken characters.

In the terrific title number that opens the show, Mr. Miranda raps a cityscape into vibrant life over the rumbling rhythm of a bass line. Shredding the air with his arms, rhymes percolating on his tongue, he introduces us to the men and women whose daily troubles — overdue bills, overheated romances and overtaxed hearts — will form the episodic story that provides a slender spine for Mr. Miranda’s musical valentine to the barrio.

Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) is Usnavi’s surrogate grandmother, whose purchase of her daily lottery ticket on this hot summer morning just before the Fourth of July will have significant consequences for almost everyone in the ’hood. Camila and Kevin Rosario (Priscilla Lopez and John Herrera) run the gypsy cab company next door to Claudia’s home — incongruously still called O’Hanrahans, but who could afford a new sign?

Benny (Christopher Jackson), their prized employee, harbors a secret (and forbidden) crush on their daughter, Nina (Mandy Gonzalez), who has just returned from her freshman year at Stanford with a conscience troubled by the economic stress the family is enduring to keep her there. Down the block Nina’s arrival adds a welcome new strand to the dense fabric of gossip woven daily by the women working in the hair salon owned by the tart-tongued Daniela (Andréa Burns), who is happy to fabricate artificial news to go with the fake nails, if necessary.

Although it is rendered with exacting, gritty verisimilitude by the set designer Anna Louizos (right down to the flashing red lights atop the George Washington Bridge in the background), this sun-drenched block of Washington Heights could almost be mistaken for Main Street at Disneyland, or “Sesame Street” without the puppets. Stretches of Midtown would inspire greater anxiety.

Mr. Miranda and Ms. Hudes’s panorama of barrio life is untagged by any graffiti suggesting authentic despair, serious hardship or violence. In this rosy image of the urban underclass, the most pressing question animating local conversation is whether the girl who made good will choose to return to that fancy university.

Not surprisingly this subplot doesn’t accrue much emotional tension or dramatic momentum. Nor do any of the others, as the kernels of conflict troubling the block are resolved with sentimental simplicity in the musical’s flimsy second act.

Still, the emotional heart of the show is the ambivalence most of the characters feel about their neighborhood — and their lives — and this uncertainty is given powerful expression in Mr. Miranda’s songs. Almost all these people are exiles from a history of greater economic want somewhere else — Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico — but their affection for the community they’ve forged in a rundown neighborhood is shadowed by a desire to escape once again, to a life of surer promise. Unfortunately, with gentrification oozing inexorably up the West Side Highway, they are more likely to be forced across the bridges into more precarious neighborhoods; Daniela has already signed a lease in Queens.

A clever shout-out to Cole Porter in the opening song attests to Mr. Miranda’s scholarly affection for musical theater. (In many ways “In the Heights” suggests an uptown “Rent,” plus some salsa fresca and without the sex, drugs and disease.) Some of the more earnest anthems, effective as they are, run in grooves derived equally from Broadway formulas and the new power-pop idioms employed with such exhausting frequency on “American Idol.” But even the weaker songs are sung with heart, urgency and solid showmanship. The sweet Ms. Gonzalez, the saucy Ms. Burns and the fierce Karen Olivo, who plays Usnavi’s love interest, have particularly rich, powerful voices.

 

From the Corner Bodega, the Music of Everyday Life

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Published: February 9, 2007

(Page 2 of 2)

In the up-tempo numbers and the rapping solos and duets, Mr. Miranda’s musical voice shines forth most pleasingly. The hip-swaying rhythms of Latin music have not gained much traction in theater, so it is a pleasure to hear an unfamiliar sound finding fresh expression onstage. The director, Thomas Kail, keeps the stage humming with activity, as characters dance, prance or merely walk in time to the ecstatic bursts of brass and the insistent beats of Mr. Miranda’s rap.

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Mr. Kail is aided in this mission for motion by Andy Blankenbuehler’s joyous choreography, which synthesizes street styles and Broadway athleticism, showcasing the fabulously elastic bodies of the ensemble. A particular standout is Seth Stewart, playing a sweet-hearted graffiti artist, who seems to have little springboards in his sneakers.

An uncalculated exuberance touches almost all of the performances at one time or another. (I delighted throughout in the comic flair of Robin de Jesús, a young charmer, as Usnavi’s would-be lothario cousin.) And when the collective dance numbers catch fire, heat fills the stage and starts flowing outward. On a chilly winter evening, scruples about the show’s not inconsiderable flaws start to evaporate quickly, like water from a hydrant turning to steam as it hits the asphalt on a July day.

IN THE HEIGHTS

Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda; book by Quiara Alegría Hudes; conceived by Mr. Miranda; directed by Thomas Kail; choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler; music director, Alex Lacamoire; sets by Anna Louizos; costumes by Paul Tazewell; lighting by Jason Lyons; sound by Acme Sound Partners; arrangements and orchestrations by Mr. Lacamoire and Bill Sherman; music coordinator, Michael Keller; production stage manager, J. Philip Bassett; general manager, R. Erin Craig; technical supervisor, Randall Etheredge. Presented by Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller and Jill Furman. At the 37 Arts Theater, 450 West 37th Street; (212) 307-4100. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

WITH: Lin-Manuel Miranda (Usnavi), Andréa Burns (Daniela), Janet Dacal (Carla), Robin de Jesús (Sonny), Mandy Gonzalez (Nina), John Herrera (Kevin), Christopher Jackson (Benny), Priscilla Lopez (Camila), Olga Merediz (Abuela Claudia), Karen Olivo (Vanessa) and Seth Stewart (Graffiti Pete).

 

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New musical celebrates upper Manhattan

Staff and agencies
08 February, 2007

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Critic 21 minutes ago

NEW YORK - There‘s a lively block party going on at 37 Arts, the off-Broadway theater complex located on the far western fringes of New York‘s garment district, and you would be foolish to turn down an invitation.

The musical is a slice-of-life entertainment taking place on a rundown, neighborhood block over the Fourth of July weekend. It features a master of ceremonies of sorts, Usnavi, who runs a bodega where his most popular items seem to be cups of coffee and lottery tickets. Those tickets figure prominently in the loose story.

The self-deprecating Usnavi is played by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a lanky, genial fellow who also wrote the show‘s flavorful, intriguing score. It‘s an eclectic mix of songs, encompassing hip-hop, rap, pop and more traditional Broadway-style melodies. The cast recording should be quite something.

If there is a main plot, it concerns Nina, a college student at Stanford University, returning home to visit her parents (Herrera and Lopez) who run a taxi and limousine service. Nina, portrayed by the lovely Mandy Gonzalez, has decided not to return to school and finds herself falling for one of her father‘s employees (Christopher Jackson).

Other standouts in the company include the big-voiced Andrea Burns as the sassy, attitude-enriched owner of the local beauty shop. She does wonders for a tight red dress. And there is Robin de Jesus as the brash yet insecure young hip-hopper who works in the bodega.

Designer Anna Louizos‘ has put together a cozy set of shabby tenements and storefronts with the George Washington Bridge (the architectural focal point of Washington Heights) anchoring center stage.

No me sorprende que Luis Salgado esté logrando hacer sus sueños realidad pues es una persona determinada. Eso es lo que siempre nos ha dado a sus amigos, la motivación de soñar sin miedo y hacer de esos sueños realidades. Pero vamos, este es como que el momento Boom! de nuestro Luisito...

Así que en hora bueno amigo.

Sigue adelante, sabes que cuentas con nosotros tanto en la radio como en este espacio. Pronto te veremos en tu nuevo show  “In the Heights”

Luis Salgado; entrevista en TV guía de Puerto Rico.