In The Heights

When this show opened with a rap number, my first thought was ‘this may not be for me’. It didn’t take long though before it won me over with it’s high energy Latin / hip hop hybrid music and thrilling dance sequences. By the end I joined, possibly led, the standing ovation.

Set in a NYC Dominican American community in Washington Heights, the show revolves around three businesses – a cab firm, a bodega (corner shop!) and a hairdressers – and two families – the Rosario’s who own the cab firm and Usnavi (named after the first sign his parents saw when they sailed into New York!), his cousin Sonny and Claudia, the woman who took him in when his parents died. Hairdresser and chief gossip Daniela (a terrific Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, almost stealing the show) and her two assistants (one Usnavi’s love interest), Rosario’s employee Benny (Nina Rosario’s love interest), a street seller and a graffiti artist complete the picture. It’s all about their hopes and dreams, growing up and living in this close-knit inner city community.

The score is an odd cocktail of Latin, rap and pop, but I warmed to it, perhaps because of the quality of delivery of the songs and the brilliant brassy big band sound. I struggled to catch all of the rap lyrics at first, but I attuned to (most of) it eventually. Above all, though, it is Drew McOnie’s choreography that sweeps you away, using every inch of the space. Also a hybrid, of street-dance and Latin, it often takes your breath away and, from the front row, gets perilously but thrillingly close! It’s a great cast; the lack of name-checks has more to do with the unavailability of a programme!

Some have called it a modern West Side Story, but I think it’s its own thing and more original than that comparison would have you believe. After a hard day’s work, it was a re-energising, uplifting experience. The performance I saw was the third of three previews and it was in great shape; by press night, it might well be on fire.