The Truth About The Shows That Closed, Part Two.

Here’s part two. Go back and read part one. I’m not linking it.

‘HAIRSPRAY,’ closed Sunday — Monster hit, and deservedly so. Spawned a far less successful retread (I mean Crybaby – and retread is unnecessarily harsh, sorry) and a not-nearly-as-good movie (although Amanda Bynes was super adorable, as always). Made $265 million on Broadway alone, not to mention the tours and everything else. Ran for six and a half years. You can certainly say that this show could have run longer in more ideal conditions (especially since they could bring in any number of stars {I saw George Wendt, Naturi Naughton, and Tevin Effing Campell} to keep it going), and you might be tempted to call it a victim, but it’s not the kind of victim you spend much time crying over. Tracy had a great run.

‘IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS,’ closed Sunday — Limited run, huge hit, possible future life. Exceeded expectations. No victim.

‘LIZA’S AT THE PALACE,’ closed Sunday — Limited run, big hit, extended twice. Could have run as long as the theater stayed available and her body could hold out, I’m sure. Still, I might call this one a slight victim; some weeks they only sold about 80% capacity when you might have expected this to be completely sold out. It’s a moneymaker though, and not a surprise closing — if anything, those two extensions buck the trend.

‘THE NEW MEL BROOKS MUSICAL YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN,’ closed Sunday — You can call this a victim, and it was, on some level. If the economy was better, it might not have closed. The writing had been on the since the Times review came out. The show’s troubled history has been well-documented, and the closing notice really came as no surprise. If this show is a victim of anything, it’s the success The Producers: all anyone wanted (and would accept) from it was to be as good or better as the biggest hit in recent Broadway history. It wasn’t. Still, they held on for over a year, and although they probably lost a ton of money (the show was astoundingly expensive to run each week), they’ve got a national tour announced for the fall. Closing was inevitable. Not a victim.

‘SLAVA’S SNOWSHOW,’ closed Sunday — This show didn’t sell all that well, from what I can tell, staying between 60-80% for much of its run. I’d say that they could have done better with more stability in the economy, but you definitely can’t say that the closing is a result of the economy: it was a limited run. This show had been successful Off-Broadway for years (and internationally for more than a decade), and the Broadway run probably didn’t break any financial backs. We can call it a moderate victim, and assume it won’t be back next year.

‘SPAMALOT,’ closes on Jan. 11. — $175 million dollars grossed. Recouped in six months. Ran for almost four years. Ongoing national tour with the kind of show that can pop in another name (Richard Chamberlain! Gary Beech! Clay Aiken!) and sell tickets in Cleveland and beyond. Certainly a victim — there’s no reason to believe that this show couldn’t have wrung out a few more years under ideal economic conditions — but not a particularly sad one.

‘SPRING AWAKENING,’ closes on Jan. 18. — I really should see this before it closes — I won’t get to, but I should. Somehow, this one flew entirely under the radar for me, even when it was the hottest show in town. You can imagine this show running longer, but then again, most folks wouldn’t have imagined it lasting this long in the first place, not to mention the national and international tours. It made its money back over a year ago, and was probably (speculation here) hurt somewhat by In The Heights and Passing Strange (although it’s hard to believe that the latter’s ticket sales put a dent in anybody’s profits). This is a victim, yes, but one that had already outperformed original expectations.

Let me take a second to explain why I think the outperformed expectations label is relevant. There’s this expectation in the United States that things can always grow, that business can always be better. It’s part of what got us into this whole economic mess in the first place. You can’t expect that every Broadway show is going to run forever. Shows close all the time — there are only so many ticket buyers to go around. So while it’s easy to say that all these shows would have stuck around without the economic downturn, it’s not realistic. Many, if not most, had long runs and were running their course. It’s impossible to say what would have happened otherwise, but it’s worth noting the shows that were financial successes when forced to shut down.

‘13,’ closed Sunday — If there’s a real victim in all this, I’d say it’s this show. In an ideal world, this show could have done exactly what it hoped to: capitalize on High School Musical and Hannah Montana and the entire tween culture of singing and dancing and precocious yet entirely chaste “rocking.” In an ideal world, they would have been the only such show in town (Wicked sort of fits that bill and Shrek might have bitten into that market, but Grease and Hairspray were a little too risque to really count), and they’d have tapped into the kind of repeat business that turns unassuming properties into monster megahits. But these aren’t ideal times, and the reviews weren’t great, and the buzz never got going. Tickets weren’t moving (around 50% capacity when they announced the closing date), and the kids just never started loving it the way they would have had to for the show to have legs. It’s hard to say that 13 would have been a huge hit (again, the reviews weren’t great, or to be more specific, the Times review wasn’t great), but it’s not at all difficult to imagine that it could.

So what have we learned? Some of these shows would have closed anyway. Some of these shows had long fruitful runs. Some of these shows were always planning to close, and some closed just a bit earlier than expected.

And what does that mean?  The hell if I know.

RENT. One.

It’s 1996, probably February sometime.  I’m in the second semester of my first year at NYU.  I’m part of the Gallatin Scholars, a group that gets to go to cultural events as part of our scholarship package.  We get tickets to this show at New York Theater Workshop.  We sit in the front row.

Let me back up for a second, actually.  My original plan when I came to NYU was to study acting and psychology, but when I get to New York City, I see the life of the student/actor, and I know it’s not for me.  Luckily, I’m in a flexible program; I decide to transition into a more broad-based approach to my studies, with a steady helping of theatrical education as a basic structure.  I’m studying the History of Drama and Theater, mostly dramatic literature, just sort of starting to understand that there’s a whole lot more to the theater world than the stuff they teach you in college.

So I’m excited when we go see this show at NYTW.  I’ve heard about it.  There’s buzz, although at the time I’m not quite aware of exactly how much buzz there is.  A few weeks later, the show would hit the cover of Newsweek.  At the time, this doesn’t seem all that unusual to me.  It also kind of doesn’t seem entirely unusual that this is a show about young people in the neighrborhood I happen to be sitting in–there’s lots of New York theater about New York, right?  So we sit down, and the theater’s kind of small (compared to Broadway, but big compared to lots of the Off-Off houses I was just starting to discover), and the stage is HUGE (feels like the stage is as big as the house), and we’re in the front row, and the lights go down.

And it takes a little while for it all to get going.  The first few songs have fun moments and rock guitar, silly humor (in the form of Mark’s mom on the answering machine), an incredibly sweet meet-cute (between Angel and Collins), some sexiness in the form of Daphne Rubin-Vega (a brief aside: years later, I’d meet Daphne whil working for Joe’s Pub.  I attempted to introduce her to our staff, including our graphics designer, who was a good friend of mine.  I completely — legitimately — forgot my friend’s name while making the introduction.  Daphne has that kind of presence.), and a lot of goodness going for it, but it hasn’t yet blown me away.

And then…it blows me away.

I’ve said this before, and nothing will shake my faith in it: the first quarter of Rent is pretty good, the last quarter is pretty terrible (seriously), but that half in the middle, starting with “Today for You” and ending with “I’ll Cover You (reprise)” is remarkable, incredibly, devastatingly good and relevant and important and powerful.  It hit me there in the theater, and it stays with me to today.  I can’t even express what it is, but that middle chunk gets it right, so right — it’s the kind of thing that musical theater could be and can be and should be, the kind of thing that In The Heights and Passing Strange got right in chunks and pieces, the kind of thing that Crazy for You did as well as anything I’ve ever seen, only with more heart, more real soul, and more of the voice of a group of people who actually exist.  That middle chunk of Rent is a time capsule, and it was a time capsule from the moment it was created — it gets that world right, or as right as you can get it in a musical theater context.

So it’s 1996, and they’re singing La Vie Boheme, and Maureen is mooning Bennie (and they’d go on to get married in the real world), and I’m maybe ten feet from her ass, and she pulls up her pants, and I swear she winks at me.  And then it’s intermission, and I’m shell-shocked, not from the bare ass, but from what I just saw — something that felt real to me, and was full of emotion and subversion on some level, even though it’s a big musical and therefore how subversive can it really be?  But it is, and they’re singing about stuff that I don’t even know what it is but I know that in the fact that they’re mentioning it, it’s important, and I’ll come across it someday (and then last year I finally read Vaclav Havel, and lookie lookie: it leads to a name for my blog) and it’ll impact my life when it does.

And then they line up across the stage at the top of Act Two, and it’s “Seasons of Love,” and I swear they’re a foot away from me, and Taye Diggs spits on me (in the act of singing, of course), and I’m right up close in their eyes, and they’re singing this song about dead friends, and it’s written by their dead friend, and they’re singing it for him — you can see it, they’re singing that song for Jonathan Larson, and I mean — how am I ever going to settle for creating theater that isn’t founded on that close a relationship?

And also, there in the middle of it, there happens to be one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever see — and it’s a gay couple’s story.  And you have to realize that I’m 18-years-old, coming from suburbs (not far from Mark’s mom’s house, actually), and I’m only now meeting my first gay friends, and as a straight boy/athlete from the burbs, you’re not exactly conditioned to expect to be moved to the core by a gay relationship — but there it is, in front of me, and Collins sings the “I’ll Cover You (reprise),” and good god, it’s maybe the most beautiful moment I’ve ever seen onstage.

And it ends, and I’m shaken, and everything has changed, yet I’m still not sure that anything has changed beyond me, if you know what I mean.  I’m still not quite understanding the cultural significance of what I just saw.

A few months later, it moved to Broadway.  So I saw it again.

(I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.)

This Week in New York Theater.

1.  So they’re casting for the Spider-man musical, and I’ve got say that I’m excited about the potential of the whole project.  If you haven’t heard, Julie Taymor is directing/creating, and U2 (or at least Bono and The Edge) are doing the score.  I’ve heard good things from folks involved.  The casting notice is interesting for a couple of reasons, first of which is the line “all ethnicities are encouraged to audition.”  Now, while my friend Burl would make a perfect Spidey (and I’ve got the pictures to prove it), are we really going to see a Spider-man or even Mary Jane of color?  The fanboys wouldn’t stand for it, I don’t think.  (Although if Stephanie Beatriz was Mary Jane, I’d be there, no questions asked.)

The other weird tidbit from the casting notice is this mysterious “Principal Woman,” described as “Sinead O’Connor with a Middle Eastern/Bulgarian/Greek twist.”  Okay.  I have absolutely no clue what that’s all about–a new villain?  Should they really be adding to the cannon like this?  Maybe a Spidey fan will read this and school me on how this character fits into everything, and I definitely will reserve judgment, but I’m already questioning where they’re taking this.

2.  Whoopi is the new Rosie, as she signs on to join the cast of Xanadu shortly after doing a good job hosting this year’s Tony’s (go back and check out the running diary if you haven’t already).   The difference, of course, is that Whoopi already has a Tony.  I was pretty excited about seeing Xanadu even before this announcement, and I’d like to see it with Whoopi in it, but I’ll probably wait out the crowds and check it out after she leaves.  Xanadu is an interesting case right now–the theater is almost full every night (at least as of the latest Variety charts), but ticket receipts are only about half of what they could be.  Lots of discounted tickets to that show.  So Whoopi would, it would seem, allow them to start selling more full price tickets, hopefully while maintaining that seating capacity.  I hope Xanadu keeps doing well–I didn’t want it to win the Tony (for obvious reasons), but it sounds like a fun little show.

3.  Tickets are still available for Passing Strange’s closing weekend, including the two shows Spike Lee is going to film.  Seriously.  Buy tickets.  See the show.  Be there for the taping and/or the closing.  I’m looking into it myself.  You’re going to be real sad when you watch the filmed version and realize you could have been there.

4.  My boy Rajiv wrote a play about origami.  Yes.  Origami.  It’s called Animals Out of Paper, and it’s pretty damn good.  Full disclosure: I recently wrote a piece about this play for the Brooklyn Rail (should be out soon), and I served as the (super informal) “hip-hop consultant” for the show (I didn’t write the rhymes, just discussed them, and basically just quoted Eminem lyrics at that).  So yeah, I’m biased.  And one of my favorite actors in the world, Utkarsh Ambudkar, is in it–you may remember him as Nelson from The Lark production of Welcome to Arroyo’s.  Either way, this is a play with a lot of heart, some great performances (from what I saw in the first reading), and a deceptive simplicity that pulls back to reveal incredible emotional complexity underneath.  It’s like origami, come to think of it.

5.  Also happening right now in NYC is 12 Ophelias by the wildly prolific Caridad Svich.  If you saw Aya Ogawa’s Oph3lia, you kind of have to see this one, if only to make it a total of 15 Ophelias this summer (plus, of course, Lauren Ambrose, who makes 16–sixteen Ophelias!  *cue Count Von Count’s thunder*).  It happens to be free and site-specific in Williamsburg’s McCarren Park Pool (or as El Puente students would say “MacCarrien Park” — there’s an awfully inside joke for you), and it features bluegrass and a Hamlet with a black eye, so go see it already.  Here’s a blog review of it if you haven’t made up your mind.

I know there’s a lot more, but I’m stopping there–oh wait, no I’m not.

6.  Hair.  It’s in Central Park starting July 22.  I’m a little bummed about only having ten days or so to try to see it (and my birthday is right in there, so that knocks a bunch of nights out of the realm of possibility), but I am going to find a way to make it happen.  It’s Hair, people.  And it’s in Central Park.  Outside.  And there’s a war going on–a war with a “back-door draft.“  I’m not going to tell you about the virtual line, because (a) I’ve already written about it (I think) and (b) I don’t want you beating me to the punch.  I’ll link it all up after I’ve seen it, suckas.

7.  This last one isn’t theater, but it’s the biggest deal in entertainment this summer.  I will be seeing the IMAX.  Somehow.  Possibly at 2am next week.

PASSING STRANGE Announces Closing.

I just woke up from a little impromptu nap, and I check my e-mail, and I’ve got this message from my buddy and sometimes semi-idol Eisa Davis (links added by me):

so we’re closing with a bang, with the Spike Lee shoot.

thanks for taking this ride with us. if you haven’t caught it, hope you can get here before we close.

as Stew says in the show: is it alright?

and as I say back: yes, it’s alright.

eisa

www.passingstrangeonbroadway.com

This is sad, but not unpredictable news. Passing Strange never found its audience, struggling with a title and some marketing materials that didn’t really represent the show perfectly or highlight its strengths. It was also a tough sell on Broadway, a black rock musical that didn’t have an obvious hook for the suburban moms and tourists who make up your major ticket-purchasing block on the Rialto (look at me, getting my Variety on). The Tony Awards seemed to be the show’s big chance, but timing was a problem there, as In The Heights became sort of destined for Best Musical, and Lin-Manuel’s performance in that show may have split the Best Featured Actor vote with Stew (just a theory), leaving that award to Paulo Szot, not that I think anything other than Best Musical would have made a huge difference anyway. The fact that this show made it from Joe’s Pub to the Public to Broadway, and lasted as long as it did (185 performances including previews) qualifies as a huge success in my mind, even with the certain financial hit the producers have taken.

I was describing the show in an e-mail just now, and I said it was the most interesting “hip” young black show since Noise/Funk, and I was struck by the comparison–both were shows that came out of The Public, yeah, both were somewhat overshadowed and eclipsed by other shows that they were linked with in articles about the new cultural zeitgeist of their given time period (Heights now, Rent, of course, then), and both, from some kind of objective standard at least, were better shows then their counterparts. I say “objective standard” because Rent and Heights are two shows with great personal value to me, although I think both are kind of messy and not as consistently strong as the Public shows. The other thing with that is that both Strange and Noise/Funk are untraditional musicals at heart, turning away from what a regular Broadway show tends to do, and ultimately, that’s the commercial downfall of these pieces. But these aren’t commercial shows–just shows that happened to have some success commercially (and certainly did better critically than commercially, especially Strange).

Screenwriter William Goldman has said that he is amazed that a good movie ever gets made in the Hollywood system, because there is so much that could go wrong at any given moment. I tend to think the same thing about great Broadway shows–the odds are against a production going really well, against a show capturing some kind of great moment or aesthetic or thought and making it all the way to the Great White Way with its integrity and heart still attached. There are just too many places where it could go wrong. Passing Strange got almost everything right; the downfall, sadly, was in the most critical area for keeping the show running: the audience.

But still, I celebrate this show, this cast, this creative team, this man named Stew. If you have a chance, go see this show this week. (If you want to buy your favorite blogger a ticket to the Spike Lee shows or even the closing, I wouldn’t turn them down.) You’ll have to film version of this to remember it by, but you’re going to want to have the actual memory too.

Shameless, Unabashed Free PASSING STRANGE Press.

This is an e-mail I got from my homegirl Eisa Davis, who stars in Passing Strange (far right in the picture below). I’ve mentioned it a million times, but this show needs your support. Spike Lee digs it. So should you (ignore that he also digs the Knicks). Go see this show. Now. In The Heights will be there later.

Spike Lee to film Broadway’s ‘Passing Strange’

Jul 3, 2008, 01:43 PM | by Nicole Sperling

Categories: Theater, TV Biz

Spike Lee is going to Broadway. The Oscar-nominated writer/director will be spending part of his July filming the Tony-winning production Passing Strange. Lee will film the musical by singer/songwriter Stew over the course of a weekend, shooting two shows with audiences and then a third one without. (He did a similar thing with his 2000 concert film The Original Kings of Comedy.) Passing Strange’s producers are financing the production, and while no distribution deal has been set, sources believe it will air on cable television upon completion. The musical centers on a young black musician who sets off on a journey to find “the real” after being raised in a church-going middle-class Los Angeles neighborhood. It was originally developed at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab.
http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/07/spike-lee.html

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/119228.html

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PASSING STRANGE

So you hate Broadway? You’ll love this show. It’s black and it rocks. Hard. From its punk roots in South Central, to the hash bars of Amsterdam, to the anarcho-socialist-performance artist squats of Berlin, it’s the story that’s never been told on the Great White Way. Yeah, it’s the best reviewed musical in years, and it’s won a Tony and a couple Obies and some other awards. Even though they like it, you NEED to see it. It’s about identity and the masks we wear, about making art and how art makes you. It’s a concert and a play, a riot and a heartbreaker. It’s PASSING STRANGE, and it was made for you.

Already seen it? See it again. And bring your whole crew.

Check a video here.

www.passingstrangeonbroadway.com

The Belasco Theatre, 111 W 44th St between 6th Ave and Broadway

Oh, and the soundtrack is now available too…

USE THIS DISCOUNT CODE THRU AUGUST 3!!!!

PSGNA28

http://www.broadwayoffers.com/go.aspx?MD=2001&MC=PSGNA28 and hit “FIND TICKETS”

A Quick Look at New York Theater.

This will hopefully be a semi-regular feature here on Smichovsky Compensation Syndrome (side note: I haven’t had a single person ask me about the name of the blog, which is awfully surprising. I assume either you all immediately get the reference–which I know is not the case–or you’re all researching it and coming away satisfied. Or you just don’t care). I post on this “general discussion” message board sometimes (okay, a lot of times), and every once in a while I throw up what I call an EASILY IGNORED THEATER POST, since most of the folks who visit that site aren’t really checking for theater like that. But now I have a blog where people show up to read about Rent and Idina Menzel and The Tony Awards (tag tag tag), so hopefully this will be a more effective public service.

1. Not surprisingly, a bunch of shows have posted closing notices after missing out on Tony Awards and ticket bumps. Passing Strange remains my big concern. As of the week ending June 22 (the last week of receipts available on variety.com AND the first week after the Tonys), the show is only playing to 60% full houses, and only pulling in about $260K — one third of its potential net receipts.  As a comparison, In The Heights is up to 99% capacity houses and making over $900 grand a week–just about maxing out.  Now of course, Heights won Best Musical, and the buzz there is undeniable, and there’s no way to compare expectations for one show against the other.  But Strange simply isn’t finding its audience, and its a shame, because as I’ve said here before, it might be a better show top-to-bottom than Heights.  So here’s my last ditch plea: go see Passing Strange.  A lot of these other shows will be around for a while.  You’re going to kick yourself if you miss it.

2.  Other interesting stuff to note from the returns: Grease got a $105K bump after the Tonys — did that performance really convince people they needed to see this show?…Gypsy, to no one’s surprise, had a huge bump after Patti won her Tony, bringing in an additional $125K (or half of what Strange brought in total) for the week.  That show will be close to sold out as long as she sticks around…Legally Blonde also got a MASSIVE bump ($117K), and I’m sure it had to be some kind of coincidence–was there some MTV related activity going on that week?

Okay, enough Broadway.

3.  New York Theatre Workshop has announced its 08-09 season.  I’m reserving judgment a bit.  They’re only doing three full productions, plus an Encores! kinda thing for underappreciated Off-Bway musicals and some political work around the election.  They’ve got some limitations this year due to some budget issues (losing the income from Rent certainly doesn’t help), so the lightened schedule makes sense.  I’m not super excited about anything in the season just yet (which is troublesome, since The Public has such a lights out lineup), but I’ll keep my eyes open.

4.  In a Variety story that will only interest some of you and then only in passing (Strange, go see it), New York is considering tax breaks for Broadway producers.  This is kind of a big deal (c) Ron Burgandy.

5. The Summer Play Festival kicks off this week at The Public.  They’ve limited the slate (now I’m talking like Variety) to just two shows a week (down from four in the olden days on Theatre Row) for a total of just eight shows (down from sixteen–and even more the first year, I believe).  I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for SPF.  Some of you reading this will remember seeing Welcome to Arroyo’s way back in the 2005 Festival.  The folks at SPF and Arielle Tepper Productions always treated the artists well, and certainly knew how to throw a party (or six).  That said, there are limitations to the festival’s structure: it’s great for small, self-contained plays that can easily be produced in two weeks with a little bit of money, but it doesn’t give larger plays a whole lot of time to find their way.  I’ve seen more than a few plays come off poorly at SPF simply because they were too big to get on their feet in the time alotted.

So basically, what I’m saying is this: go to SPF.  See a bunch of shows.  Tickets are cheap.  The shows are usually well-selected and diverse.  You’ll have a good time.  Just keep in mind that the shows are far from finished productions (the SPF people don’t always remind audiences of this).

On a last SPF note, my long-time buddy (we used to play the most ridiculous ER-based speculation game on the planet in college) Caitlin Moon is directing Tio Pepe by Matthew Lopez in the festival’s last week.  Go see it.

Let’s Talk About The Tonys.

The Tony Awards snuck up on me this year.  If I had planned ahead, I would have done a whole week of pre-award analysis, but I’m late, so I’ll bang this stuff out now, then comment again Monday after everything is announced.  The Times has their predictions up, so I’ll riff off that as I do my own.

Musical: I’ve got this sinking, stinking suspicion that Xanadu is going to steal this away from In The Heights and Passing Strange, which happen to be the two most exciting, most important Broadway shows of the last who knows how long.  But both of those shows happen to be young and Brown, and while I don’t think that those are exactly problems for voters, I do think there’s a possibility–more than a possibility–of them canceling each other out, sending the vote to the silly, fun film adaptation that a lot of people really enjoyed.  I haven’t seen Xanadu, but it’s clearly the safer show–and I hope it doesn’t win.  Heights seems the likely juggernaut, but I think Strange was the best show I saw this year, and certainly could use the ticket boost that the Tony would bring.  As long as we’re looking at one of the two, I’ll be happy.

Heights should win best score, if only for numbers like 96,000, which might be the coolest example of melding hip-hop and Broadway that you’re ever gonna get.  My mom thinks they should perform that song on the Tony broadcast, and I agree–it’s something that starts out like nothing on Broadway, then becomes exactly what you expect from Broadway, but with a ton of musical sounds that are still like nothing you’d expect from Broadway.  Strange has a great score too, and is probably more consistent all the way through, but Heights is unabashedly a Broadway show (for better or worse), and that’s what the Tonys should celebrate.

And I’ll say this much: If Lin-Manuel Miranda doesn’t win for Leading Actor, there is no justice in the world.  He’s giving a truly groundbreaking performance in that show, one that people will be studying for the rest of Broadway history.

Plays: I haven’t seen any of the plays this year, but I kind of don’t need to–August: Osage County has everything locked up.

Revivials: I saw Gypsy and Sunday in the Park with George, didn’t love either one, and I’m not sure I’d have loved South Pacific if I had seen it either.  Lupone is a lock for Lead Actress though, and I think South Pacific is almost a lock for the big prize.

And you know what–I’m stopping here, because I realize that I only care about the two musicals in this race, and I hope to hell that voters look at them as two completely different shows that share an energy that Broadway desperately needs right now: young people of color with understandings of popular music and a respect for Broadway traditions but a willingness to shatter them when needed. 

Passing Strange spoke to me like few things speak to me on stage–the story of a young artist, confused, not sure where to fit in, not able to stand in a safe straightforward upbringing, and that’s a simple story that we’ve heard a million times, but this is complicated by race, and class, and religion, and a need to do things exactly your own way, to fail and fall hard in hopes of finding new ways to climb.  It possesses an incredible beautiful cast of incredibly beautiful people of color, and it’s not about race at all, but race is infused in every second of it, and it’s race the way race really is–complicated, invisible, impossible to avoid.  In another year, this would be the hands-down favorite thing I saw, and it’s close even this year.

In The Heights made me cry, and made me cry repeatedly (well, not cry, but tears in my eyes intermittently from the moment the music started), not because of the touching stories of love and acceptance and keeping life going in the face of all kinds of hardships (because honestly, the storylines are nothing we haven’t seen before), but because–and forgive the emotion here, but the emotion is really the point–GOD DAMN IT THOSE ARE PUERTO RICAN FLAGS UP THERE, and Dominican flags, and some Mexican and Cuban, and that’s Washington Heights, and it’s really Washington Heights, and that dude is starting the show by rapping, and it’s good rapping, really good rapping, really real rapping, and there’s a b-boy, and a real b-boy, and the Spanish fits, and no pare, sigue sigue is just, it’s just, god damn it, it’s perfect.  And we’re not gang members or drug dealers or even Lothario Latin lovers–we’re people, hard-working people who struggle with gentrification and self-worth issues and questions of leaving home and putting our pasts behind us to succeed or clutching madly to keep them close and push us even higher.

And I was in the audience on Mother’s Day, and this, I can’t stress this enough, this is what I want Latinos to do on Mother’s Day, I want them to go see In The Heights, all dressed up, full families, and I want them cheering when the lights go down, and I want them cheering and “oooooh”-ing when Nina and Benny kiss on the fire escape, and I want little Puerto Rican and Dominican boys to feel like Usnavi is looking right at them when he’s rhyming the way I felt like John Leguizamo’s Miggy was looking right at me all through Spic-o-Rama.  And you know what?  I’ve got tears in my eyes (just barely, son, just barely) even right now–right now–as I’m writing this.

Damn.  That wasn’t my plan for this at all.

Anyway.  Tonys.  Sunday night.  To say there’s a little bit riding on this year’s awards is an understatement.