In The Heights (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Released on 10/06/2021 by Atlantic Records
Main artists: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Genre: Film Soundtracks

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A little over 13 years after its debut on Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning debut musical, In the Heights, receives a Hollywood treatment with a mostly new cast. A story about the everyday struggles of turning dreams into reality set in the multicultural Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, it was inspired by a then-teenaged Miranda working on a high school production of West Side Story. He realized there had been little else written for Latino actors in the intervening decades. Miranda went on to famously champion diversity in casting again with his Broadway smash Hamilton (2015). The Jon Chu-directed film adaptation of In the Heights stars Hamilton's Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, a role originated by Miranda. The composer/lyricist does make an appearance in the film as the Piragua Guy, a character who provides comic relief and one of the show's catchier melodic hooks ("Piragua"). Otherwise, only Olga Merediz returns from the original stage cast, reprising her Tony-nominated turn as Abuela Claudia, the beloved neighborhood matriarch. Her song "Paciencia y Fe" is a poignant highlight of a show loaded with lively Latin dance rhythms and big cast numbers. The defining voice of the show, however, is Ramos' good-natured Usnavi, who offers up a series of effortlessly witty, wordy rhyming raps throughout the musical -- "In the Heights," the lottery fantasy "96,000," the poetic "Alabanza," duet "Champagne" -- as he plots to leave his corner bodega business for beachfront property in his childhood Dominican Republic. Along with some finessed plot details, including the addition of a documentation-status theme, the film cuts about 20 minutes of music from the cast album, mostly from the second half. What remains still balances company numbers and more-intimate material, like Usnavi and Vanessa's "Champagne" (Melissa Barrera stars as Vanessa) and Benny and Nina's "When the Sun Goes Down" (they're played here by the graceful Corey Hawkins and Leslie Grace), though it favors the spectacle songs. Set outdoors during a heat wave and blackout, "Carnival de Barrio" is a seven-minute centerpiece that rotates soloists and celebrates the musical's rousing blend of hip-hop, Latin dance rhythms, and show tune tradition. The soundtrack closes with the pop-minded "Home All Summer" featuring Marc Anthony, its one new song.

© Marcy Donelson /TiVo

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In The Heights (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Lin-Manuel Miranda

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In The Heights

Lin-Manuel Miranda