Sydney Opera House presents 16 – 20 JAN CONCERT HALL I II III Welcome to Washington Heights, the vibrant and ambitious Latino community brilliantly captured in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s revolutionary musical, In the Heights. A smash-hit since its Broadway debut in 2008, we’re thrilled to present In the Heights on the grand Concert Hall stage with an all-Australian cast. This four-time Tony Award® winning musical combines the sounds and rhythms of salsa, soul, hip-hop and merengue with explosive street dance, rap and social commentary for a truly radical musical theatre experience. As part of Sydney Opera House’s Contemporary Performance program, led by Olivia Ansell, In the Heights exemplifies our artistic mandate – to be unmissable. We are grateful to our philanthropic group The Brave, which helps bring these works to our stages. I would also like to thank the team at Blue Saint Productions for the collaboration and all of the performers for bringing their remarkable talent to our stage. Please enjoy tonight’s energising performance. Kate Dundas Executive Director, Performing Arts Sydney Opera House Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda Book by Quiara Alegría Hudes Conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda WELCOMEWELCOME It’s not often you see a production bursting with enough energy, heart, explosive dance and Latino rhythm to fill Australia’s most prestigious Concert Hall. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit precursor to Hamilton, performed by an Australian cast and band, is the perfect summer show, reimagining what a modern musical can and should be. Contemporary Performance at Sydney Opera House champions modern storytellers and the mavericks who reinvent classic forms. We are thrilled to partner with The Art House Wyong and Sydney Festival to present In the Heights this January. I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance. Olivia Ansell Head of Contemporary Performance Sydney Opera House Presents IV HOLAHOLA Synopsis HOLAHOLA ¡Hola! To that little gem - Hayes Theatre Co. SYNOPSIS A space that has allowed and will continue I would like to welcome you all to the glorious to allow teams of Australians to create and In the Heights tells the story of a vibrant Latin Sydney Opera House where we are about develop masterful works. American community in New York’s Washington to push in on a beautiful multi-faceted story Heights – a place where the coffee from the corner of one man’s drive and determination to honour A massive heartfelt thank you to Josh Robson is light and sweet, the doors are always open and a legacy, while breaking free from the periphery and Damien Bermingham from Blue Saint the summer air carries salsa music and the rhythm HOLAHOLAof the American mainstream and returning to Productions, Olivia Ansell, Ellen Kavanagh of generations in the breeze. At the centre, we meet his cultural home. He yearns for something and Nick Beech from the Sydney Opera Usnavi, a well-loved bodega owner. The heart of our better, and discovers he’s not alone. House and to Neil Gooding for all of your story, Usnavi looks after ‘Abuela’, the elderly Cuban guidance and assistance. woman next door who he considers to be family, Written in 1999, composer Lin-Manuel pines for Vanessa, the gorgeous girl working in the Miranda paid homage to his Puerto Rican To the wider production team - Trudy Dalgleish, neighbouring beauty salon and dreams of finding heritage the best way he knew how – by Mikey Waters, Tony Lorenz, Liz Franklin, my his way home to the shores of his native Dominican turning up the Latin beats. The show was dear mate Matty Ryan, Cecilia Anne Lochardt Republic. Meanwhile, Nina, a childhood friend of first fully staged in 2005 where it changed the Nelson, Anna Sinclair and Charlie Coy.... Usnavi’s, has returned to the community from her first music theatre landscape. A rap musical. A first. thank you all so much for your expertise year at college with surprising news for her parents, and talent. who have spent their life savings on building a better I believe In the Heights is such an important HOLA life for their daughter. HOLAstory to be telling now in 2019. We have never To the beautiful cast, who I adore. May you felt more alone, more isolated and more all soar to great heights. Thank you for your It’s a community on the brink of change. Full of hopes, disconnected from one another. In the Heights talent, commitment and uniqueness. dreams and pressures, and the discovery of a winning places family, community, culture and human lottery ticket makes everything more complicated. Lastly to you, our audience, without you there connection at the forefront and reminds us Facing some of the biggest challenges of their lives, would be no show. Thank you for visiting our that these simple humanistic concepts are each character must figure out their futures while little community. My hope is that you leave us what most fulfil us in the long run. deciding which traditions to take with them, and which with a full heart. Enjoy this special show. ones to leave behind. Will Vanessa ever make it out With beautiful, nuanced music direction by of the small neighbourhood and live out her dreams Lucy Bermingham and explosive, intelligent Luke Joslin in the big city? Will Usnavi make it back to the choreography by Amy Campbell I really Director Dominican Republic? Will Nina go back to university? HOLAHOLAcouldn’t have asked for a better team to take this show forward. I thank them both from In the Heights is a quadruple Tony Award® winning the bottom of my heart. Broadway smash hit, taking out Best Musical, Best Score, Best Choreography and Best Orchestrations in 2008. Finally making its way to Sydney, it’s time to experience this universal story of family and finding HOLAHOLA your home. HOLAHOLA 5 HOLAHOLA Editorial LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA IS TIPPING THE SCALES OF BROADWAY AND HOLLYWOOD FROM THE START, HE’S CHAMPIONED DIVERSE VOICES AND STORIES. HERE ARE THE DEFINING MOMENTS FROM THE GENIUS BEHIND IN THE HEIGHTS. Lin-Manuel Miranda is simply non-stop. TELLING THE STORY HE WANTS HELLO HOLLYWOOD: Since In the Heights debuted in 2005, Miranda TO TELL: IN THE HEIGHTS THE NEW FACE OF DISNEY has been on a strictly upward trajectory, quickly making a name for himself as the guy Then came the big break. In the Heights first First he changed Broadway, then he set who changed Broadway. Miranda has upended saw the light of day as part of Wesleyan his sights on Hollywood. After writing music the traditions of musical theatre, and not just University’s student theatre company Second for Moana, for which he received an Oscar the stories that are told, but who tells them Stage, then was reinvigorated off-Broadway, nomination, Miranda became cozy with and how. before finally cracking the bigtime in 2008. Disney, even composing the ‘new cantina theme’ for Star Wars. He has since starred Fast forward to 2018 and Lin-Manuel Years later, to a crowd of drooling graduates, in a Mary Poppins sequel and has recently Miranda’s musicals are talked about in Miranda spoke about the hurdles of putting become attached to a live-action remake the same breath as Game of Thrones, on In the Heights. Miranda proudly declared of The Little Mermaid. water cooler chat for suits and hipsters alike. that, despite everything, he and director He also has a firm foothold in Hollywood, Thomas Kail told “the story they wanted to In slightly less wholesome territory, keep contributing to everything from Star Wars tell”: of a Latino community where the stakes an eye out for the film adaptation and TV to the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns. are high, and not because of a superficial spin-off ofThe Kingkiller Chronicles, a cult love triangle or unplanned pregnancy fantasy book series in the vein of Game of And it all started in a Wesleyan dorm, HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: THE with a sophomore who fondly remembered (as Broadway execs had demanded), but Thrones, which Miranda is producing and hot summer days in Washington Heights. SOPRANOS AND SESAME STREET because of the everyday adversities of being composing the music for. Not unlike Usnavi and Hamilton, Miranda a minority in America. Here are the defining moments of Miranda’s has always aspired for something bigger. It paid dividends: In the Heights is slated for a career, from humble beginnings to becoming But it didn’t come easy. Following a stint as ALL ROUND GOOD GUY: a Hollywood star. feature film adaptation in 2020, but not before PUERTO RICO ACTIVISM a substitute teacher at his old high school, it plays the Opera House in January 2019. and a job composing commercial music for Miranda spends whatever free time he political candidates, Miranda slogged it out somehow has looking out for his disaster as an extra on The Sopranos, and later made HAMILTON: stricken motherland, Puerto Rico. Following brief appearances in House, Modern Family AN AMERICAN MUSICAL the one-two punch of a debt crisis (which and Sesame Street. had the poverty rate as high as 45%) and Is there anything left to say about Hamilton? Hurricane Maria (which caused the largest The Broadway sensation picked up where power outage in American history), Miranda In the Heights left off: smashing box office became the face of protests for disaster records, blowing critics away, taking home relief. He also recorded a song with a chorus truckloads of Tonys and even winning an of other well-known Puerto Ricans to raise unprecedented Pulitzer. It had musical fans money, and in 2019 will reprise his starring onside with subtle references to Sondheim role in a new production of Hamilton on the and Rodgers and Hammerstein, while winning island, for which locals will pay $10.