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‘North of 96 Street’: Latinx Class Mobility and by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes

image of ‘North of 96th Street’: Latinx Class Mobility and In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes

Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical, In the Heights (2008), anxiously offers a counter-narrative to a history of stereotype on the Broadway stage, with the goal of convincing the predominantly white, highly educated tourists in attendance that the ‘other’ is one of ‘us.’ The musical displays an ambivalence about (re)educating the spectators, particularly in the songs, ‘In the Heights’ and ‘Blackout.’ The dynamics of choosing profit over people within the geopolitical locale of New York City ultimately trouble the work of creating audience affiliation within In the Heights.

Keywords: American Dream ; assimilation ; audience ; Broadway ; Dominican ; gentrification ; graffiti ; hip-hop ; middle-class ; model minority ; Puerto Rican ; racial unrest ; stereotype ; tourism ; upward mobility

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References

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References

  1. Broadway League (2009), ‘The Demographics of the Broadway Audience: 2008–2009 Season’, New York Times, https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/arts/NY2008-09revised.pdf. Accessed 15 May 2017.
  2. Chu, John M. (2021), In the Heights, USA: Warner Bros.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Code Switch (2013), ‘Photographing Puerto Rican New York, with a “Sympathetic Eye”’, National Public Radio, 26 October, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/10/26/231704827/photographing-puerto-rican-new-york-with-a-sympathetic-eye. Accessed 8 October 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Farrington, Dana (2013), ‘Photographing Puerto Rican New York, with a “Sympathetic Eye”’, National Public Radio, 26 October, http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/10/26/231704827/photographing-puerto-rican-new-york-with-a-sympathetic-eye. Accessed 28 Januray 2016.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Fricke, Jim, Ahearn, Charlie and George, Nelson (eds) (2002), Yes Yes Ya'll: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip Hop's First Decade, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.180
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Furman, Jill (2013), Introduction to In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes, Milwaukee: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Latinas En Queerantine (2021), ‘In the (Whiteshington) Heights’, 20 June, https://player.fm/series/latinas-en-queerantine/in-the-whiteshington-heights. Accessed 8 October 2021.
  8. Latinx on the Rise (2021), ‘In the Height's Apology/Update on Vanessa Guillen’, 18 June, https://player.fm/series/latinx-on-the-rise-2361051/in-the-heights-apology-update-on-vanessa-guillen. Accessed 8 October 2021.
  9. Machado Sáez, Elena (2018a), ‘Blackout on Broadway: Affiliation and Audience in In the Heights and Hamilton’, Studies in Musical Theatre, 12:2, pp. 181–97.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Machado Sáez, Elena (2018b), ‘Bodega Sold Dreams: Middle-Class Panic and the Crossover Aesthetic of In the Heights’, in C. Gallego and M. González (eds), Dialectical Imaginaries: Materialist Approaches to U.S. Latino/a Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 187–216.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Machado Sáez, Elena (2021), ‘In Pursuit of Property and Forgiveness: Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton and In the Heights’, in A. Y. Ramos-Zayas and M. M. Rúa (eds), Critical Dialogues in Latinx Studies, New York: New York University Press, p. 339.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Miranda, Lin-Manuel and Hudes, Quiara Alegría (2013), In the Heights, Milwaukee, WI: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Monteiro, Lyra, (2016), Interviewed by R. Onion, ‘A Hamilton Skeptic on Why the Show Isn't as Revolutionary as It Seems’, Slate, 8 October, https://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2016/04/a_hamilton_critic_on_why_the_musical_isn_t_so_revolutionary.html. Accessed 8 October 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Titrington Craft, Elizabeth (2020), ‘Can We “Leave Behind the World We Know?” Exploring Race and Ethnicity in the Musicals of Lin-Manuel Miranda’, in J. Sternfeld and E. L. Wollman (eds), The Routledge Companion to the Contemporary Musical, New York: Routledge, pp. 216–25.
     [Google Scholar]

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