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New York — David Mendizábal fondly remembers sitting in the audience for the last performances of playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights”. Almost two decades later, Mendizábal directs the musical that was once a “portal to the theater.”
“It was the first time I heard or saw a world that looked like mine on the American stage,” Mendizábal told The Associated Press, referring to the 2008 musical that was a landmark for Latino production and won four Tony Awards.
With a new cast of Latino artists, New York City Center presents “In the Heights” for a limited three-week run through November 15th. This is the first major revival of the first musical debate at a time when, to Mendizábal, it is essential to show people the “depth and breadth” of Latino communities.
“I think at this particular time we need a big balm of joy, and this show will provide that,” said Mendizábal.
Miranda, who also starred in the original production, recalled his experience reviving his groundbreaking work. Its songs and lyrics, along with writing by Quiara Alegría Hudes, won best original music and best original score in its first year.
“I’m very proud of the work that Quiara and I did to make it speak across generations,” Miranda told the AP Wednesday at a red carpet event celebrating the opening ceremony. “And it makes a lot of sense that this generation is picking up the mantle.”
The show’s revival comes amid ongoing federal immigration enforcement operations that have affected Dominican and Cuban families like those featured in the musical. An operation in Manhattan last month involving a Dominican national who was shot in the neck by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, as his five-year-old son looked on, prompted widespread protests and criticism from local and state elected officials.
When Jenny Gersten, vice president and artistic director of downtown New York, was deciding on the musical range for the gala show, she remembered wrestling with the question “what would be a good balm for these times?”
The answer came quickly, Gersten said. “In the Heights is true joy.”
The high-energy reggaeton romance is set just a 30-minute subway ride north of downtown New York, in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights. The story follows three touching summer days in the lives of a cast of characters from this community: as bodega-boy Usnavi, played by Matte Martinez; facial salon neighbor Vanessa, played by Ashley De La Rosa; and the loving matriarch of the block Abuela Claudia, played by Natalie Venetia Belcon.
From its three-year run on Broadway to its musical debut in 2021, “In the Heights” has been hailed as “a passionate celebration of the Latino immigrant experience.”
Eighteen years after its debut, the show is “still holding up,” Miranda told the AP.
“The songs still hit. Sonny’s rap is more relevant than ever. And it still speaks to people.”
The musical number Miranda is referring to is “96,000”, the act one song in which the team dreams about what they would do if they won the lottery. Sonny, played by Ishmael Gonzalez in the 2026 revival, dreams of investing in the community, where “the ghetto has a million promises for me to keep.”
“Sonny talks about gentrification, he talks about immigration, he talks about racism within politics,” Gonzalez said in an interview Friday. “In some ways, Sonny’s rap feels like the newest part of the show, the most present of the time we live in.”
For Gonzalez, who uses the pronouns they/them, the character also symbolizes the “unrequited hope” of young Latino leaders.
“We are here, and we are a part of this country and this world. Our work and our love support the backbone of this country,” they said.
Chris Jackson, the actor who portrayed the character Benny in the original Broadway series, has passed a baton of sorts to his wife, actress Veronica Vazquez-Jackson, who plays Camilla in the 2026 revival. The two met in 2003, at one of the earliest stages of “In The Heights” off-Broadway.
“It’s a full circle moment in ways I can’t express,” Jackson told the AP at Wednesday’s gala.
“We are literally keeping the light on for so many who still want to be a part of this society, our country, our culture, and also not to forget who they are,” said Jackson.
