#IN THE HEIGHTS INTERMISSION PLUS#

#IN THE HEIGHTS INTERMISSION PLUS#

It’s a section of the city that’s “made of music,” according to the movie’s protagonist, Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), and Miranda himself, who explains to AC that the area has that reputation “because it’s loud! That’s literally the inspiration for the musical - my neighborhood has more music in it than everybody else’s.”Ĭhu was attached to the project in 2016, prior to the success of his feature Crazy Rich Asians, and he asked Brooks to join him on the feature while the two were working together shooting the pilot of the Apple TV Plus series Home Before Dark ( AC July ’20). The story’s plot centers on a part of New York City that is rarely explored or celebrated in the media: Washington Heights, a predominantly Dominican and Latinx neighborhood in the uppermost part of Manhattan. The project itself, a feature adaptation of the Tony Award-winning stage musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes, had also been two decades in the making Miranda completed his first draft of the piece in 1999, while he was still a student at Wesleyan University. Chu and choreographer Christopher Scott was a creative pinnacle the trio had unknowingly been climbing toward for their entire careers. PicturesĬinematographer Alice Brooks’ collaboration on In the Heights with director Jon M. Photos by Macall Polay, courtesy Of Warner Bros.

At top, largely shot on practical locations, the film's depiction of the Washington Heights neighborhood comes alive. Shot by Alice Brooks, this modern musical celebrates a New York neighborhood’s vibrant culture.

In the heights intermission