“In the Heights” heartwarming city tale

HARTFORD — The most unexpected reality of living in a big city like New York is the old fashioned small town feeling you get from spending so much time seeing your neighbors face to face each day, rather than passing them from behind the wheel of a car in the suburbs.
This close-knit experience is evident in “In the Heights,” the 2008 Tony award-winning musical with an exuberant Latino twist, running at The William H. Mortensen Hall at the Bushnell Memorial Center through Sunday.
The story is a heart-felt, touching look at a Latino community’s every day struggles with family, money, and relationships.
The plot has a couple threads, with one girl, Nina, the first in her family to go to college, having difficulty with her first year at Stamford University, and struggling with the culture clash.
She tells a friend that when the college students say they are going to their cabin in the woods, it is a code word for “mansion.”
Nina is played by Arielle Jacobs who has a real college coed look about her and a lyrical but surprisingly strong sound. She falls for Benny, played by the energetic and powerful Shaun Taylor-Corbett.
Another is the orphaned Peurto Rican owner of a deli, or corner bodega, the rapper Usnavi, played by the fine Kyle Beltran. He’s shyly in love with the sexy Vanessa, played by Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, who has troubles of her own with her drug-addicted mother.
There’s plenty of Spanish mixed in with the predominantly English lyrics and dialog, giving the musical an authentic feeling, however there isn’t much talk of drugs and crime except when there is some looting during a city blackout.
The matriarch of the neighborhood is Abuela Claudia, convincingly played by Elise Santora, who can belt out a tune to match the younger performers.
She says when she sees Nina, “You are the watermelon of my heart.”
Rap isn’t really my thing, and there’s a lot of rapping in this show. I find it stressful to listen to. Sometimes the words spill out so fast when Beltran’s Usnavi gets rolling, there’s no telling what’s been said, particularly in the beginning until I adjusted my ears to a faster-than-usual pace.
But it isn’t all rap and there are some lovely ballads and slower paced songs, such as “Everything I Know” sung by Nina.
Gonzalez-Nacer has a fine alto sound which she gets to show off in songs like “It Won’t be Long Now.”
“In the Heights” was conceived with words and lyrics by former Wesleyan student Lin-Manual Miranda, who grew up near Washington Heights, in northern Manhattan. He was raised on theater and musicals there.
The set by Anna Louizos really looks like an ungentrified New York neighborhood, and has the height with the four-story brick facades that fill the Bushnell’s spacious stage.
The choreography with it’s salsas, hip hop, and jazzy syncopated rhythms reminded me of those dance competition television shows, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when I learned that Andy Blankenbuehler, the choreographer who won a 2008 Tony Award for “In the Heights” is a guest choreographer for the TV show, “So You Think You Can Dance.”
The costumes are a fabulous riot of brilliant, festive colors, by Paul Tazewell, brightening up a drab winter night, while the fireworks are well done, with sound by Acme Sound Partners and lighting by Howell Binkley.
The musical is set in the heat of the summer over July 4th — a welcome treat during these freezing, dark days of winter. So come in out of the cold and heat up with “In the Heights.”