MUSICAL REVIEW: In The Heights ★★★★

In The Heights
King’s Cross Theatre
Sunday 19th June 2016

For those who are not familiar with In The Heights, this is a musical originally produced for Broadway, with music and lyrics written by 2016 Grammy Award winner Lin Manuel Miranda, the same say ‘Genius’ behind this 2008 overseas musical and the Hamilton, currently playing on Broadway, which will soon transfer to London in October 2017. The production won Best Musical, Original Score, Choreography and Orchestrations at The Tony Awards 2008, and winner of Best Musical Album in the same year at The Grammys, In The Heights has enjoyed massive success and critical acclaim, so with all this under it’s belt and the offer of £15 tickets to go and watch this production one Sunday evening, I couldn’t turn down this amazing offer, and it’s safe to say it was an incredibly enjoyable experience.

Set in the Latino neighbourhood of Washington Heights, and following the resident’s lives in the course of Three Days, the production features elements of hip hop, soul, and salsa, and centers around graffiti artist Usnavi, portrayed by Sam Mackay. Also in this production is Nina, portrayed beautifully by Gabriela Gracia, who returns from her Freshman year at Stanford University, but has bad news for her parents, as she reveals that she has dropped out of her course, after losing her Scholarship, to which sends her parents, especially her father, Kevin, into turmoil, to which he then sets himself up for selling his car business to pay for her tuition.

With winning lottery tickets, sexual desires, and relationships blossoming, In The Heights is a constant rollercoaster right throughout, and set on the Kings Cross Theatres Traverse stage, you are constantly finding yourselves looking left, right, and centre to keep in touch and focused on this compelling production. At times funny, then immediately switching to heartbreak, this production crams in every situation and feels genuine and impactful to all those involved. My personal favourite song was Blackout, mainly due to the incredibly creative staging and lighting, to where lightbulbs situated around the stage, and overhead, lit up to give off the effects of Fireworks going off in the city.

Overall, In The Heights in fast paced and compelling production to which I would urge anyone of any age, whether a fan of this sort of Rap style musical or not, to go experience and enjoy this genius musical, to which I saw many people in the audience during this performance doing exactly that!