"In the Heights" Plays Chicago's Cadillac Theater as Part of Broadway in Chicago on December 19th

"In the Heights" is now showing in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theater. I had the opportunity to see this Best Musical Tony Award Winner of 2008 on December 19^th. I had just seen "The Addams Family," which is supposed to be this year's big hit when it leaves for the Great White Way, and I had just seen "Young Frankenstein" for the second time (once in New York City and once in Chicago). For me, since I don't speak Spanish and never have lived full-time in a large city, it was merely an okay play experience. It certainly can't hold a candle to "Wicked" or "Jersey Boys."

This production would appeal more to Hispanic audiences and full-time city-dwellers (I'm a part-time city dweller), as the story revolves around a neighborhood in the Washington Heights area of New York City that is changed when one of its residents buys a winning lottery ticket and shares the wealth. I'm also not a fan of rap music, but I have to admit that it worked surprisingly well to advance the plot.

The music is a combination of rap, Latin rhythms, and more conventional melodies that tell the story of a young girl from the 'hood who earns a scholarship to Stanford. Her proud Mom and Dad own and operate a limo service and employ Benny (Rogelia Douglas, Jr.), an African-American dispatcher who has worked for her parents since he was a very young man. There are romances amongst the residents of the 'hood and there is conflict revolving around whether the prospective Stanford grad will stay the course. The opening song, "In the Heights" is lively and song's like "Breathe" and "Sunrise," "Hundreds of Stories," and "Paciencia y Fe" ("Patience and Faith") were crowd pleasers.

Onstage, the set consists of a beauty shop, a bodega, and a neighborhood grocery store, with an interesting mixture of characters (one is Graffiti Pete, played by Jose-Louis Lopez) that frequent the shops in the neighborhood. One of the best things about the play was the authenticity of the sets.

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the music and lyrics and conceived the story, but, with no "name" performers onstage, for me it was not the Best Musical of the Year. I'm looking forward to "Dreamgirls" on January 23^rd much more. The last play of Chicago's Broadway in Chicago series will be "101 Dalmatians" on February 23^rd. After seeing a television documentary about how the Dalmatians used in the film were all rescued from animal shelters, I'm also looking forward to that one.