NY Anyone?...

Mmmkay,

It's Sham again...so I said to you all once before that one of my interests is theatre. What I didn't say is that I'm OBSESSED with it. I love being in, dreaming up and of course watching all sorts of interesting plays, especially musicals.

Recently, I was checking out information on an Off-Broadway show that one of my elementary school friends is working with. I was delighted to find that it's no longer OFF Broadway, but is now running with the big dogs on Broadway! (I think my inner dork is showing) Anyhow....that production is cleverly called [title of show] and, from what I can see, is amazingly witty and fun. Check it out here.

While perusing [title of show]'s YouTube videos (which, by the way, are a riot) I found a mini tribute to the opening night of In The Heights. Of course I went ahead and checked out the In the Heights videos to see what it was....

I haven't seen or heard of a show this innovative since Rent!. It's a musical about life in Washington Heights, NY. An area heavily populated with Latinos during the period the play is set in. (Since then the area's been suffering from gentrification...but that's a whole other post).

It deals with struggle, cultural pride, identity and belonging, while infusing the musical influences of traditional Latino music, hip hop and jazz.

In it's brilliantly defiant way, In the Heights contradicts the sometimes haughty image of Broadway that pervades the public and drops the jaws of it's spectators. Since it's opening on Valentine's Day of this year, In the Heights has swept the Tonys (Broadway's Academy Awards) winning :

• Best Musical
• Best Original Score
• Best Choreography
• Best Orchestrations
  

Anyhow...if all of my excited banter hasn't got you interested...take a look at their videos.

My favorites are the recording session and the commercial...I've GOT to see this show, anyone up for a trip to New York?