50 Fun Facts About In the Heights

In In the Heights, the bodega owner's first name comes from which sight his parents saw arriving in America?

A US Navy ship was one of the first things his parents saw when they reached America, and they turned its lettering into a name. Lin-Manuel Miranda played Usnavi himself in the original cast.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the original stage Usnavi, plays a street vendor selling what in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Shaved ice drenched in fruit syrup, called a piragua, is what his character pushes around the block in a cart. Miranda only took the part after the screenwriter threatened to cut the vendor's song.

Which actor, the original John Laurens in Hamilton, plays Usnavi in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Anthony Ramos had already played Usnavi on stage, including a 2018 Kennedy Center production that Lin-Manuel Miranda watched and praised.

In In the Heights, how much is the winning lottery ticket sold at Usnavi's bodega worth?

$96,000 is the prize, and it gives the show one of its best-known numbers as the whole block imagines spending it. The 2021 film staged that song at a public pool with 500 extras.

Which director of Crazy Rich Asians and the Wicked films made the 2021 film In the Heights?

Jon M. Chu joined the project in 2016 after years of dance films, including two Step Up sequels. He shot most of it on location around 175th Street in Washington Heights.

In In the Heights, what does the word abuela in the name of neighborhood matriarch Abuela Claudia mean?

Grandmother is the meaning, though she is not related to most of the block. She raised Usnavi after his parents died and treats everyone on the corner as family.

In In the Heights, Nina Rosario is the first in her family to attend college; which university did she leave?

Stanford is where she spent one year. On stage she loses her scholarship after working two jobs; the 2021 film changes her reason to the racism she met there.

The 2021 film In the Heights reached cinemas and which streaming service on the same day?

HBO Max streamed it for its first 30 days in cinemas. At the box office it earned about $45 million against a $55 million budget.

Which star of NYPD Blue and The West Wing plays Nina's father, Kevin Rosario, in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Jimmy Smits plays the father who sells his business to keep his daughter in college. Star Wars fans know him as Bail Organa, the senator who adopts Princess Leia.

Which High School Musical star made his Broadway debut as Usnavi in In the Heights in 2010?

Corbin Bleu took over behind the bodega counter two years into the Broadway run. He had played basketball player Chad Danforth in all three High School Musical films.

In the 2021 film In the Heights, Usnavi dreams of reviving his late father's business in which country?

Dominican Republic is where he is preparing to move when the story turns. Murals honoring Abuela Claudia change his mind, and he stays to run the bodega.

In In the Heights, which family business does Kevin Rosario sell to pay for his daughter Nina's tuition?

A taxi company called Rosario's is what he gives up. The sale also crushes Benny, Nina's love interest, who works there and had hoped to manage it one day.

When the blackout hits in In the Heights, who joins Sonny in setting off fireworks to light the way home?

Graffiti Pete starts the story being chased off as a vandal, but his art ends it: on stage, his mural of Abuela Claudia persuades Usnavi to stay.

In In the Heights, how is Sonny, the teenager who works behind the bodega counter, related to Usnavi?

His younger cousin is the relationship, and the 2021 film gives Sonny a new storyline: he is undocumented, which puts college out of reach.

In In the Heights, salon worker Vanessa hopes to move downtown and build which career?

Fashion designer is her goal, and the 2021 film shows her getting started: she makes a clothing line inspired by the street art on her own block.

Which character from the stage musical In the Heights, Nina's mother, was cut entirely from the 2021 film?

Camila was dropped so the film could focus on two other matriarchs, Abuela Claudia and salon owner Daniela. On stage she has a solo, Enough, ordering her husband and daughter to make peace.

In the 2021 film In the Heights, salon workers Daniela and Carla, friends on stage, became what instead?

A romantic couple is how the film plays them. Their salon gets a new plot too: rising Manhattan rents are forcing it to move to the Bronx.

In In the Heights, which song is Abuela Claudia's big solo, recalling her childhood journey from Cuba?

Paciencia y Fe means Patience and Faith, which she credits for getting her through a hard life after leaving Cuba as a child. The 2021 film staged the song with vintage subway cars rented from a museum.

Which In the Heights song has Daniela, Carla and Vanessa trading neighborhood gossip at the salon?

No Me Diga, which translates as You Don't Say, turns a makeover for Nina into a round of rumors. It stops short when Nina admits she has left college.

For the 2021 film In the Heights, a lyric naming Donald Trump was rewritten to name which sports star?

Tiger Woods took his place in the lottery song. A second swap in another number traded Manny Ramirez for Big Papi.

Which actress played Abuela Claudia in the original Broadway cast and again in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Olga Merediz earned a Tony nomination for the part in 2008 and stayed for the entire Broadway run. Like the character she plays, she was born in Cuba.

Which actor, Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton, plays Nina's love interest Benny in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Corey Hawkins was the second lead to be cast, in January 2019. On Broadway he earned Tony nominations for Six Degrees of Separation and Topdog/Underdog.

Which Latin pop singer made her film debut as Nina Rosario in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Leslie Grace had never acted in a film; she broke through with a bilingual cover of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow that topped two Billboard Latin charts.

Which actress, later the lead of two Scream films, plays Vanessa in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Melissa Barrera came to the film from the Starz series Vida. She went on to play Sam Carpenter in Scream and Scream VI.

Which actress, Rosa Diaz in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, plays salon worker Carla in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Stephanie Beatriz worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda twice that year: she also voiced Mirabel, the lead in Disney's Encanto.

Which actress, the original Mimi in Rent on Broadway, plays salon owner Daniela in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Daphne Rubin-Vega already had a link to the show: she was one of the radio voices heard in the original Broadway production.

Which top-selling salsa singer has a small role as Gapo in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Marc Anthony plays Gapo, one of three characters invented for the film. He was born in Manhattan to Puerto Rican parents.

Which Orange Is the New Black actress plays Cuca, one of the salon ladies, in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Dascha Polanco played inmate Daya Diaz on the Netflix prison drama. She holds a psychology degree from Hunter College.

Which actor, the original Benny on Broadway, appears in the 2021 film In the Heights as an ice cream truck driver?

Christopher Jackson spends the film feuding with Lin-Manuel Miranda's pushcart vendor. He began on Broadway in the original cast of The Lion King and rose to play Simba.

Which American Idol winner played Nina Rosario for twelve weeks in In the Heights on Broadway in 2010?

Jordin Sparks joined the cast three years after winning American Idol at 17, the youngest champion the show had crowned.

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the first draft of In the Heights as a sophomore at which college?

Wesleyan University's student theater group staged it as an 80-minute one-act. Students and alumni who admired it then urged him to expand it with Broadway in mind.

Which playwright, later a Pulitzer winner for Water by the Spoonful, wrote the book for In the Heights?

Quiara Alegría Hudes joined the project in 2004 and later adapted it for the screen herself. She trained as a composer, studying music at Yale before playwriting at Brown.

Which director staged In the Heights on Broadway and later won a Tony Award for directing Hamilton?

Thomas Kail had admired the script of the student version before the pair met in 2002 and began reworking the show together.

Which choreographer won Tony Awards for Best Choreography for both In the Heights and Hamilton?

Andy Blankenbuehler won his first Tony for the show in 2008 and a third for Bandstand in 2017. He also choreographed the film version of Cats.

In the Heights earned thirteen Tony nominations in 2008; which award did Lin-Manuel Miranda personally win?

Best Original Score went to Miranda for his music and lyrics. His nomination for acting went unrewarded, but the show itself was named Best Musical.

The Broadway cast recording of In the Heights beat The Little Mermaid and Young Frankenstein to win what?

A Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album went to the recording, which was released in June 2008. The revivals of Gypsy and South Pacific lost out too.

In the Heights opened on Broadway in 2008 at which venue, later the long-running home of Hamilton?

Richard Rodgers Theatre on West 46th Street housed the show until January 2011. The building was known as the 46th Street Theatre until 1990, when it was renamed for the composer.

In which state did In the Heights get its 2005 tryout, at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford?

Connecticut saw the first professional version, at a conference for new musicals. Lin-Manuel Miranda was not yet playing the lead: Javier Muñoz was Usnavi that summer.

While developing In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda earned a living teaching which subject at his old high school?

English was his subject at Hunter College High School, where he had been a pupil. He also wrote restaurant reviews for a local paper and composed music for commercials.

Which Hamilton actor, in character as King George, introduced In the Heights at the 2016 Olivier Awards?

Jonathan Groff brought the king over from Hamilton for the night. The London production went home with three Oliviers, including one for Lin-Manuel Miranda's music.

Which real ice cream truck brand keeps stealing the Piragua Guy's customers in In the Heights?

Mister Softee is a real franchise, founded in Philadelphia in 1956. The pushcart wins in the end: the truck breaks down during the blackout and the block lines up for piraguas.

The music of In the Heights blends hip-hop and soul with salsa and which other Latin style?

Merengue sits alongside salsa in the mix. The stage arrangements were by Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman, who both returned to work on the music for the 2021 film.

In the 2021 film In the Heights, what does sueñito, the word residents use for their hopes, mean?

Little dream is the translation, and the film is built around them: each resident of the block is chasing a modest hope of a better life.

Which duet for Usnavi and Vanessa in the 2021 film In the Heights was filmed in one continuous shot?

Champagne was recorded entirely live on set. Elsewhere the film mixes live singing with vocals recorded before the shoot or redone in a studio afterwards.

Which Hamilton song plays as hold music when Kevin Rosario phones his daughter's college in the film In the Heights?

You'll Be Back plays as an Easter egg while he waits on the line. The same film hides Lin-Manuel Miranda's parents in the crowd during one of Nina's songs.

Which New York City public pool, opened in 1936, hosted the lottery number in the 2021 film In the Heights?

Highbridge Pool, in Washington Heights itself, hosted two days of filming with synchronized swimmers. It was one of eleven city pools funded by a New Deal works program.

In 2010 the In the Heights tour became the first Equity tour to play which Caribbean city?

San Juan got Lin-Manuel Miranda back in the lead for the visit. Both he and the show's book writer are of Puerto Rican descent.

Which Hocus Pocus director was attached to a film of In the Heights that Universal cancelled in 2011?

Kenny Ortega, who also made the High School Musical films, was to direct on a $37 million budget. Universal reportedly wanted a bankable Latino star instead of unknowns, and dropped it.

Which solo for Kevin Rosario in the stage musical In the Heights was dropped from the 2021 film?

Inútil, meaning useless, has him fearing he has failed his family just as his own father, a poor farmer, did. Five more stage songs were cut from the film with it.

Which original Vanessa in In the Heights on Broadway won a Tony a year later as Anita in West Side Story?

Karen Olivo, who now goes by KO, was the first performer to win a Tony for a role in West Side Story. KO later led Moulin Rouge! on Broadway as Satine.