(upbeat dance music)
- So glad you could be here.
I'm Tamsen Fadal.
Well, before there was Hamilton,
there was In the Heights,
the first Broadway musical from the mind
of Lin-Manuel Miranda,
held back a full year by the pandemic.
Now, the wait is finally over.
♪ Lights up on Washington Heights ♪
♪ Up at the break of day ♪
♪ I wake up and I got this little punk I gotta chase away ♪
♪ Pop the grate at the crack of dawn ♪
♪ Sing while I wipe down the awning ♪
♪ Hey y'all, good morning ♪
- It is the movie musical event of the year,
certain to be one of the biggest movies of the summer.
In the Heights is a love letter
to a New York City neighborhood.
Starring Anthony Ramos, in a star-making turn as Usnavi.
It's the story of the mostly Latino community
in Manhattan's Washington Heights community,
during a very hot summer on a quote,
"Block that was mostly disappearing."
The Broadway show won four Tony Awards,
including Best Musical.
It's about regaining hope,
and perhaps a perfect film for this moment in time,
as New York City, and the world,
begin to come back to life.
So let's get to it.
Not long ago it would have been
almost impossible to believe,
but for two years in a row
arguably the biggest movie of the summer
comes straight from Broadway.
Right, Paul?
- That's right, Tamsen. The wait is over.
Last summer, Hamilton helped so many of us
get through the pandemic.
And now after a COVID-19 delay,
the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's
first Tony-winning hit,
In the Heights, is finally here.
I got to chat with the stars
prior to the June 11th premiere
in theaters and on HBO Max.
♪ I am Usnavi and you probably never heard my name ♪
♪ Reports of my fame are greatly exaggerated ♪
♪ Morning, Usnavi ♪
♪ Pan caliente ♪
♪ Café con leche ♪
- I got to see you, a few years ago,
play Usnavi at the Kennedy Center,
and you were so good.
And I remember saying to you,
"You gotta do this on Broadway."
But, hey, you one-upped that,
you're doing the movie.
- It's just, it's a dream, you know like.
And also to be able to share this
with like people I love too.
My mom is in the movie,
my sister's in the movie.
You know, like that kind of stuff,
that kind of stuff is so special to me.
And you know,
as much as it would have been amazing
to play the role on Broadway,
it was really special to play,
to play this part in the film version, man,
and to actually be filming in the streets of New York,
and to actually like, you know,
be getting after it, you know,
for the five months that we did,
working on this movie.
It was a dream man.
It really was.
It really, really was.
It was one of the best experiences
I've ever had in my whole life.
- What do you connect to about this guy, Usnavi?
He's just a guy in a bodega.
He has a crush.
He's trying to figure out his future.
What do you connect to about him?
- Aren't we all just a guy working somewhere
or person working somewhere
who has a crush just trying to figure everything.
Right? Like, aren't we all to some degree that person?
We could say right there,
"That's how I relate to him."
But I mean, he's a dude that loves his family.
You know, he cares about,
cares about his family.
You know, he cares about his community.
He reminded me of this dude who,
this man who ran this bodega
around the corner from where I grew up.
His name was Leo.
And Leo like,
Leo knew all the gossip.
He knew everything that was happening on the block.
Everybody was coming in and out of his store.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, you know Leo was, you know,
he was giving candy to the kids, you know,
all of that, all of that.
So he was like that dude that you looked forward to,
to seeing when you came into the bodega.
It was like that little piece of like joy.
And I think Usnavi represents that, in spite of like,
whatever he's going through in his own life.
You know, he's like,
he's just like this beacon of hope.
And what's so amazing is that he doesn't,
he's not even the kind of guy that would see himself
as a hero or see himself as like a,
"lead" per se. Right?
Of anything.
It's just like,
"Yo, I'm just like,
I'm just trying to make it out here.
I'm trying to say what I see, you know,
through these songs, through this verse.
And I'm just trying to like bring y'all into this world."