Broadway: In The Heights - It's About Time

Last night I went to see In The Heights with my roommates. I have been waiting for weeks to see this show, due to all the hype about it. It’s another one of those “I liked it, but it’s not my favorite” kinda shows. I thought the set was amazing, the female actors were very talented, and the dancing was by far the best part. It had some really funny moments, but then there were parts where they spoke in Spanish and a lot people in the audience laughed, but it went right over my head.

The music is pretty good, but I think there are only a few of the songs that really resonated with me. One feature of the show that makes it a little different is that the main character, Usnavi, raps all of his songs. While it most definitely gives the musical a unique tone that matches the story, I couldn’t understand a lot of what he was saying. I think I should buy the soundtrack just to learn what he was talking about.

I thought a lot about the show today, and came to the conclusion that it really doesn’t have the best plot. I will have to agree with Leah that the second half is kinda boring, but the first half was really good. There were some scenes that just didn’t seem to help the progression of the plot.

So what’s my conclusion? I’m glad I went to see it and it was fun to hang out with the roommates. We don’t do much together anymore. I would be very surprised if Cry-Baby or Zanadu beat it for best musical. While I did like those shows a lot, I feel like In the Heights was a better production. I’m not sure about Passing Strange. Some people are saying that it could beat In The Heights, but I really hope it doesn’t. I feel like more people would enjoy In The Heights over Passing Strange. Well, the Tony’s are this weekend, and we will see what they think.