In the Heights
-
“My Cutting Process is Very Old School”: Editor Myron Kerstein on In the Heights
The smash hit that launched creator and leading man Lin-Manuel Miranda into the Broadway stratosphere, In the Heights was less an overnight sensation than a constantly developing passion project. Early iterations of the musical, about a group of residents in Washington Heights who are more family than neighbors, originated at Wesleyan University and Off-Broadway before subsequently making the move to the Richard Rodgers Theatre and winning the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical. Highlighting the intricacies, passions, and dreams of Dominican culture (as well as the inner struggles and homesickness of immigrants and first-generation New Yorkers), the show was praised […]
by Erik Luers on Jun 11, 2021 -
500 Extras on a Hot Summer Day: DP Alice Brooks on In the Heights
On Broadway, In the Heights won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 2008. With music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, the story unfolds in Manhattan’s Washington Heights during a heatwave that results in a blackout. Shot largely on location in 2019, the screen version of In the Heights stars Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera and Olga Merediz. Directed by Jon M. Chu, the adaptation features several large-scale production numbers with up to 600 extras. Each song brought a different set of problems for cinematographer Alice Brooks to solve. Brooks worked […]
by Daniel Eagan on Jun 10, 2021 -
“A Storybook We Were Creating Inspired by the Truth of Washington Heights”: Director Jon M. Chu on the Spirited New York Musical In The Heights
“We were trying to break the rules of a musical genre that’s been around since the beginning of Hollywood,” director Jon M. Chu says about the making of In The Heights, his sensational adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s multi-award-winning stage musical featuring a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, who also wrote the screenplay. And the rules, he does break confidently, with a boisterous movie dedicated to the mostly Hispanic and Latin-centric communities of New York City’s Washington Heights. When he first came on board to direct In The Heights, a massively-scaled screen musical that renews the Busby Berkeley spirit and brings […]
by Tomris Laffly on Jun 9, 2021
