In the Heights (Albany Park Playhouse)

Last night SteelyKid, BFF M, M's mom, and I went to see In the Heights at the Albany Park Playhouse's outdoor Washington Park venue. This is a big ol' building of a certain era—I don't know what, but it's very distinctive (facade pictures from the contractor that recently renovated it)—with the stage built in front of the building, very cheap reserved seats in the flat section, and then free seating (bring your own blanket/chair) on the tiered grass (Google image of the whole thing). Here's my picture from last night of the stage, from our seats; we got there about six and were maybe 2/3 of the way up? We could have been closer and more in the middle, but then we would have been in the sun, and it was hot. The lighting pole (complete with lighting operator, who got applause upon climbing up) was a bit inconvenient, but not too bad, and we could hear just fine.

Anyway, the stage was mostly a bit that could rotate (Usnavi's store and a stoop on one side, the salon and car service on the other) with the scaffolding serving as the second story. The lighting around the edges of the floor enabled the walls to change color. The choreography and scene changes were all very fluid.

The Park Playhouse has already taken down its page for this show (because last night was its close), so here's archive.org with the cast list. I am amused that the Times Union's reviewer was so smitten with the actors playing Nina & Benny that he omitted the existence of the entire Usnavi/Vanessa relationship. They were very good, but it's a two-couple story! The reviewer does think Usnavi was over-acted; I couldn't say given the distance I was at. The only performance I had quibbles with was Nina's dad Kevin, whose big song seemed closer to spoken-with-note-changes than fluidly sung? This may have been a characterization choice but I found it distracting. I also wondered, as I always do, whether it's weird playing The Lin-Manuel Miranda Part; would the guy playing Usnavi sound that much like Miranda of his own accord, if there wasn't a Broadway cast recording out there? I'm very interested to see how the touring Hamilton, that we see next month, handles this (and many other very vocally distinctive parts).

(Vanessa the character, by the way, is not named after Miranda's now-wife Vanessa Nadal.)

( thoughts on the show itself; SPOILERS )

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