Lin-Manuel Miranda Does "West Side Story"

Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 is keeping busy adapting a fresh Broadway revival of "West Side Story", translating much of the musical's original dialogue and song lyrics into Spanish:

In his own musical Mr. Miranda struggled to balance English and Spanish; he said that, surprisingly, the amount of Spanish doubled between the Off Broadway and Broadway productions. In the song “Breathe,” he noted, when one of the characters returns home confused after dropping out of college, her friends sing about how she has always been the star of the neighborhood.

“It’s much more visceral to hear them sing in Spanish,” said Mr. Miranda, dressed in a hooded blue sweatshirt from Wesleyan, where he first started writing “In the Heights.”

New York Times: A Changed 'West Side Story' Returns to a Changed New York
Washington Post: A Bilingual Return to National Theatre Stage

J.Lo Looking To Reach New "Heights"

The New York Post reports that J.Lo is said to be courting producers about possibly staring in Lin-Manuel Miranda's "In the Heights" either on Broadway or in the upcoming movie version. A friend close to Lopez said that she may be more inclined to star in the movie version as "Broadway shows are exhausting and time consuming." Interestingly, both Miranda and Lopez are born and bred New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent.

Thanks to Liza Conrad '11 for the tip.

Universal Producing "In the Heights" Movie

It's been a great year for Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 - after having won a bunch of Tonys for "In the Heights", which he wrote the first draft of while a sophomore at Wes, and which opened on Broadway earlier this year, he's sold the film rights of the musical to Universal Studios, who will probably make an international monster hit out of it:

Set over three days in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, In The Heights is an exhilarating musical journey into one of New York's most vibrant communities, where the lives of three generations come together in an unforgettable story of hope and self-discovery.

"In The Heights is a musical rich with storyline and characters that transcend the setting in which they are cast to entertain and speak to audiences from all walks of life," said Donna Langley, President of Production for Universal Pictures. "We are thrilled to be working with Lin-Manuel Miranda to bring this fantastic story to the big screen."

..."Nearly nine years into my journey with Heights, I remain constantly humbled by all the opportunities we have been given. I am thrilled to work with Universal and help bring this story to millions of people around the world," said Miranda.

The original Broadway producers of the show, Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller and Jill Furman, will executive produce the movie, and Quiara Alegria Hudes, who wrote the Tony-nominated book for the show, will be writing the screen adaptation for the film.

Miranda will will probably be reprising his starring role in the movie, though no official casting had been done yet. He'll also be producing along with Meryl Poster, who supervised the film version of "Chicago" as an executive at Miramax.

I'm having a little Entourage moment writing this up right now, awesome, Wesleyan, for having some claim to this.

Broadway World: In the Heights to be a Big Screen Musical
Variety: Universal gets "In the Heights" rights

Congratulations 'In the Heights'!

Wesleyan-alum-fueled musical 'In the Heights' just won the Tony for Best Musical!

[edit]

Theatrical mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 (above) is really excited about it. The show was one of the biggest winners of the night, for choreography, score, and orchestration as well as best musical.

Miranda leads the cast of the show in a performance at the ceremony:

[edit by Sheek]

"In The Heights" Nominated for 13 Tonys

"In The Heights," written by Wes alum Lin-Manuel Miranda '02, was first performed in Wesleyan's own '92 Theater in 1999:

I wrote the first incarnation of In the Heights my sophomore year at Wesleyan University. In the winter of 1999, I applied to put up a new show in the student-run '92 Theater. At the time, I had one song and a title: In the Heights. I was given the theater for the weekend of April 20-22—now all I had to do was write a show. I barely slept, I barely ate; I just wrote. I put in all the things I'd always wanted to see onstage: propulsive freestyle rap scenes outside of bodegas, salsa numbers that also revealed character and story. I tried to write the kind of show I'd want to be in.

Two remarkable things happened. One, we broke box-office records for the '92 Theater that year—it was insanity. Two, I was approached by John Buffalo Mailer (son of Norman), a senior at the time. He loved the show and said, "My friends and I are starting a production company when we graduate, and we want to help you bring it to New York." I said, "That sounds awesome," went to the cast party and promptly forgot about his offer.

Nowadays, the show is being performed on Broadway. Today Tony nominations were announced, and "In The Heights" is leading the pack with 13 nominations:

"In the Heights," an original musical written by a university student about life in a working-class New York neighborhood, led the nominations for Broadway's top theater honors, the Tony Awards, on Tuesday.

Among the 13 nominations for "In The Heights" were best musical, best original score, best performance by a featured actor in a musical for Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote the musical, and best direction of a musical for Thomas Kail.

Miranda wrote the musical, set in Manhattan's largely Hispanic Washington Heights neighborhood, while in his second year at Wesleyan University and after graduating he and Kail reworked it for a larger audience. It first played in Connecticut before moving to an off-Broadway theater and then making its Broadway debut on March 9 this year.

We're proud of you, Lin-Manuel!

There will be a special benefit performance of "In The Heights" to raise money for Wes financial aid on September 5 - check it out.

P.S. Apparently also the Broadway production is directed by Tommy Kail '99, and arranged and orchestrated by Bill Sherman '02.

Edit: An anonymous commenter points out some way interesting/impressive additional facts:

1) in the heights was nominated for EVERY POSSIBLE TONY AWARD except for 1 (lead actress). to put that in perspective, RENT was nominated for 10, and Avenue Q was nominated for 6.
2) lin is nominated for 2 tony's, music and acting. that's unheard of.
3) all 3 wesleyan grads are up for awards, lin, tommy, and bill.

Wesleyan Off-Broadway: "In the Heights"

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Wesleyan alum, is currently a big deal in New York theater circles with his Latin and hip-hop musical, "In the Heights". The $2.5 million Off Broadway production is a fully realized version of a play he put on his sophomore year at Wesleyan before graduating with honors in theater studies, and is getting great reviews in its early run.

At Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., he moved into the Latino student house; one summer in college he got a job covering Washington Heights for Manhattan Times, which became a kind of seminar course on the neighborhood and its residents.

When he decided to write a musical for a theater on campus, he drew on the boleros and traditional Latin sounds he had mostly ignored growing up, and the wordplay of lyrically dexterous rap groups like the Pharcyde and Black Sheep he listened to in high school. The early version of “In the Heights” was a campus hit his sophomore year.

A history of how the show got produced:
You're 27. Here Are Millions to Stage Your Musical

And a profile of the artist: Heights Before Broadway