BroadwayCon '18 Lin Manuel Miranda "In The Heights" 10 years later Pt 1 #bwaycon2018

[Applause] guys as you know this is duck Catherine happens my name is Luis Medina I'll be sort of your moderator today but actually I'm doing no talking all I did with sunflower pond and Holly my man I want to start with a question for everyone in the heights cast I want each of them to introduce themselves but actually talk about Wendy's then they join the in the heights product so that we have a sense of where people were jumping into this wonderful project called in the head so we're gonna start with Chris Jackson I like watching watch me talk about meeting boyfriends long as it got job together time in December of 2002 which is a long time to fully recognizing that some of you in this room weren't born when that happened in the basement of the drama book shop he was downstairs playing something on the piano and Thomas scale was there [Applause] I was like oh wow there's somebody writing a musical we rented it there yeah then we do the show several things happened from reading to stage reading Jesus Christ it was a lot I remember why it's doing well introduce you to your wife what who was a Cupid in that situation everybody in the heights [Music] mannequins all a hi I started with in the heights in 2004 when I got a call from my agent that said there was a new show being written by Latinos and with starring Latinos and they were interested in me coming in to to meet with them in the basement of the drama book shop Alex and tell me you were in the basement and so I met with them and I think there's some stuff and then I did the reading right after that and I remember sitting around the table and I was sitting by Obadiah and and we all had our books open and then said I know you guys don't know any of the music so I'm just gonna sing it all so we started he started to sing and it was emotional Heights and it was like electric in the room and I had never seen anybody like Lynne and never met anybody like the creative team and I knew that I wanted to be a part of it forever do you remember what the Benny Nena song was at that point in 2004 was it long way around or was it there's like 50 versions of dependence of bata so amazing driving her home from the airport oh yeah yes I have four seats in Hell remember I don't remember but I do remember at the reading that I was like so early we just sat the first act and then it said they're gonna kiss and I was like so Chris I like you know are you gonna kiss me or like what cuz I didn't know it was like no that's all right do you mind if I ride by your side so much better when she sees it yeah I think you thinking of that what I'm gonna be keep coming back to you with cleanliness honest okay [Applause] I had just finished doing a play off Broadway called Beauty and the Father and there was this little unknown actor a little buzz Scott so the show closed and we were having lunch downtown and he said listen I want you to come to my friend's house and he had some friend on the West Side Highway one of those glass places and I went to this apartment and we went out into the little balcony or rooftop and there was this woman and she approached me and she said hi my name is Jill Fuhrman and I'm doing this show called in the heights and I was wondering if you would be interested in reading the script or yeah but I respond to that to any job but anyway so I read the script and she said I'll send it to you so then when I somehow I got it I guess she said that I don't know I got it she said that and she sent a CD so now I'm in the in the car picking up my daughter from school or whatever and I said look I got the CD yeah we put in the CD and the music starts and I'm driving it was an accident she grabs the wheel she goes mom you gotta do this show you have until this show what I would why you really like it you did yeah it's really great so we listened to him so burn some wood and before I knew it you know I was in love hearing this music so the next thing I guess I must have got in touch with her I'm now going down to I think it was at Bernie tell thank you and this one comes out with with Alex lack of war now these are too beautiful you know you know men with big black eyes and one had this strength but as his curly hair so it was the yin in the end I said this is for me and we all need happily a master it's your turn okay so it was 2005 and I had I was trying to throw in the towel quit the business and take I took a job as a general manager in a restaurant on tenth Avenue in Manhattan and a friend from college had written a musical and was badgering me to to do this reading of it and I thought you know cool I'll just that'll be the last thing I do and then I'm just gonna you know figure something else out and and so at the very first rehearsal there's an actress in the room and she's staring at me I don't she's the only one I don't know in the room and the next day I get a message on my deeper voicemail it's a long story dark ages and it's her and she she says on the message that that she's she's part of this the development of this new musical would I be interested they're auditioning for a role but I be interested in sort of like you know meeting with her and talking about it and so you know I actually thought like that's that's a sign so I invited her to the restaurant and after my shift we sat at the table she handed me the script and she also had to me a CD and I popped it into my CD player and I listened to the first song and that it was the opening number of in the heights and it was this guy rapping and yes indeed and and I and and I heard it and thought yeah let me take this home and read it listen to a novel and let's talk tomorrow and that was it I went home I listen to the entire recording of that CD I read through the script I saw it was like it was like I was looking at people who were just my family authenticity integrity hard-working you know family and and there was no drugs and no crime and no caricatures there was dignity in this piece music [Music] and that's it I said yes and Bobbi you auditioned for Lincoln yes it was an accident was a character that Nina had a brother I had a brother and his name was Lincoln and I auditioned for Lincoln in the room with with with with the entire you know dream team and so I also joined in Heights in 2002 in the basement of the drama book shop I had just moved up from Miami it was my first audition in the city ever and I walked down the steps of the drama book shop and there was Lynn behind the piano prompting courts and he's like come sit next to me and he's like okay enough to be with the project since that early on and see very many incarnations of it always beautiful and joyful and heartfelt in the things that you [Applause] I don't really remember reading this ad pretty sure I got one but I think I was I think I was actually I think I was actually coming off tour and I think that who are you are was before she was losing Twitter battles with way [Applause] yes I just let it happen and I'll wash it off no I think it was actually fruit a little who didn't remember me when she came to the house okay this is getting so good anyways back to a living story we went home no so I know I got a script I don't got to see I don't think I really listen to it and actually I did listen to the first one I was like this is gonna be cool and I remember coming into rehearsal I do remember the first day of rehearsal I forgot I was wearing my gold grills my tops and my bottoms and apparently apparently I scared you in it at first to our show I was living in the Bronx so but I do remember coming in the first day of rehearsals we were at 37 yards I'm just seeing the diversity in the room and just like feeling the vibes and I was like this is gonna be cool and then I spoke you might forgotten I have my girls and I scared like everybody else but you know it was just amazing and ice to me off Broadway was still one of my favorite times because it was just such we were all in the same dressing rooms all the guys and all the girls all the smells all the emotions and as crazy as that sounds it was one of the most to this day one of most beautiful times I yeah tiara Emme Chiara it's the other side of the creative team I came from Billy I came to New York the labels I came to Newark to in August 2004 and in September 2004 I had a reading of a play I wrote that was set in North Philly which is kind of like the equivalent of Washington Heights and pretty sure heard it and I said can I pass her a number along some one and then a few weeks later I had a script in my hand that was like 120 pages a script that you have written and CD and it was awesome and I loved it and they were like will you write script I was like I but it's what do you asking me to do I don't understand so basically Lynn had been working on this for years and every time the producers gave him story notes he would write a new song but what he wanted to save his operatic instincts for Hamilton so they wanted to they wanted a scriptwriter who wanted to dig into some play writing stuff and so we did that we met at a diner market cafe the market cafe we talked about our dad's work in the community we talked about our Willa's and the oral histories of the island that were passed on to us that way we talked about generations going to college and all that stuff and I was like I want to do this and I thought I could bring a little flavor of my own I'm just trying to get in like as much female Latino strength as possible [Applause] amp it up and you know and then you know fast-forward to and then I was temping at the time and Tommy Cal would send me I would be like send them scenes like well here's an idea I have and then Tommy Cal would send it back to me every like syllable with ideas and responses and edits I was like oh my gosh this is really overwhelming and so I quit my temp job my husband was like this is for real you should just do this spend more time on this so I did it and then yes fast forward two sets Grylls and they made this really cool they made this really cool first of all I just want to say how happy I am to be here with what this one is this amazing amazing cast and all of you that are that have supported us through the years and with this amazing project I first started I think Lincoln correct me if I'm wrong I can't remember but I think I started at the MTC workshop that's right and out your plane coming up at that point I was praying Camilla the mother and you you were my son and you guys were brother and sister right yep and for that for that workshop and you know my agent called me and he said you know it's the show they're wrapping its these kids I don't know and I said what do you mean wrapping and anyway but then I heard the music and I fell in love with the whole story and the music and I just and then after a while I guess I they were looking for an older lady right but you couldn't find an older lady to play out with Claudia and so I just couldn't find anyone who could sing the song period it's so your color it's not simple no it's not simple for me what it would that song it cost me because it would get me in touch with my my roots my family and my Cuban roots and so it was very emotional it was very hard for me to sing it every night not so much technically but emotionally it was it was tough to do but I did it with I'm it was very passionate for me and I was just just happy to to do it every night and then I have to thank you for it [Applause] [Music] I don't want to talk about the first time that I came in contact with in the house because I think it's boring we won we want to hear the glory and they excited but insecurities because I think the audition is really because when I heard the music I was like yeah this is gonna be awesome but I like who says dude like who's letting this dude do this and like in my mind I it made him up to be like something that he he was a superhero in my head right so then I walk into the first audition 4:37 ours and it's a dance call it's the club number and they pair us up and I get stuck with this guy and they're like ok so this is what's gonna happen it's gonna be like a dance improv you're gonna like go to this club and like all the guys where I dance with you but you're like the best dancer and so like let's just see how it goes I'm like all right so we start dancing I'm probably dancing like all on the one like it's a mess it's a horrible horrible mess I don't like I'm trying to get it to it and my dance partner is just like acting nervous and I was like yo this dude's gonna cost me this job so I ditch the guy and I started dancing with the best dancer which was Luis ah God oh I think Louise it was like yeah it was someone who was killing it I was like later dude I started him but nothing that stops us up you want to dance with this guy I was like I was like nervous and I was like all right I'll make it work that tells you everything about our relationship [Applause] lin-manuel when you coming back with this show okay I will give you the very short version I was at Wesleyan University was I was a sophomore in college I wanted a life in musical theater and I knew I couldn't dance well enough to play Bernardo or Paul and I started writing this sort of my dream show and and I think the reason I started writing it was one it was sort of the first Latin pop boom this is pre this besito this is Ricky Martin and this is my enemy yes it was cos it was just it was funny for me to see the mainstream world embracing people I had been listening to my entire life I've been listening to mark anything like Ricky Martin's menudo and I've been writing musicals but they all I never brought anything from home into that and I think a big part of growing up is sort of bringing all of yourself into a space not just the part that relates to the people in the room and so I started I put everything into that first draft as an 80-minute one active version I've been the heights and it was hip-hop and it was Latin music and it was show tunes so it was sort of this weird mix of of rent and Marc Anthony album and like a black sheep album and it was a huge hit at Wesleyan because I couldn't find enough Latinos in the theatre department so I had to do this big call and so again theatre kids will relate to this everyone came to the show because everyone had a friend in the show gospel choir is in the show we got to go so it expanded beyond sort of the twelve people who were doing theater every weekend and and so that was a huge success I met Neil Stewart and John Buffalo mailer and we're seniors who saw the show and they're like kid we're starting a company when we graduate like we want to produce ourselves okay ultimate [Music] productions at the beasts in the drama book shop with Tommy Cale and Anthony Reese on the screen for these aliens and so that's where it started and at Tommy we started the conversation that is still happening even today and he is still circling my notes and having an idea for every word on the page and and little by little this came together I mean you are seeing a small portion of hundreds of actors who worked on in the heights it was a really long journey to get here and it was many different plots I mean you know janae Hernandez is the amazing actress who played played Vanessa for many incarnations and Bobby to us you know Jill Furman and Kevin McCollum and Jeffrey seller and so you know we are we're sort of the the starting lineup but there's a lot of people who put a lot of blood sweat and tears into the show and I'm grateful to like millions of people so thank you for being where we have the five-year union that we did a concert about the United powers we had 75 people who had play part in the heights throughout the country that joined for the ending number of in the height so it was all of you and 75 other actors who came from all over the country who had been playing in the height in schools in video theatres but one of the things that I want to ask all of you I know that you'll Emmanuel there's at least 50 plus souls that never made it into the show or that were in the show at different intervals through its development do you guys remember any of those songs do you miss any of those songs or at the end the songs that made it were the right one your answer requires singing anything that yeah [Applause] fire escape this is the one place on earth where I feel safe this is my corner I am live day after year living 3,000 miles away the best year of my life but it's good to be home where I know the faces I pass on the street this is home and I know the arc of the Sun in the sky when I hide from the heat I know I know where I dreamed about flying away this was my view every day and I better get used to [Applause] [Music]

Channel: HERONEWS.ORG

Views: 172,276

Keywords:

Id: Q82jPOIPT8U

Length: 27min 1sec (1621 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 27 2018