New Venture Bursts with Latin Energy

On Thursday night, the Manship Theatre hosted the first of five performances by local theatre troupe New Venture Theatre, which produced In the Heights, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes.

In the Heights weaves together the stories of several friends and neighbors in Washington Heights, a bustling slice of northern Manhattan with strong Dominican roots. Usnavi—hilariously christened by his immigrant parents in honor of their first sight in America, a U.S. Navy ship—leads the cast as the young owner of a struggling bodega with dreams of returning to his parents’ native Dominican Republic.

Orphaned as a boy, he still looks after his former caretaker, neighborhood matriarch Abuela Claudia, and pines for the beautiful hairdresser Vanessa. Meanwhile, he serves as employer to his younger cousin Sonny, while their old friend Benny earns a living at Rosario’s Car and Limousine. Benny, the only character unable to speak Spanish, also spends every spare thought on a girl, this time on Nina Rosario, his boss’ daughter. And Nina has problems of her own; the first in her family to attend college, she comes home for the summer too ashamed to tell her parents about the loss of her scholarship to Stanford University. Several other characters also share the stage as mentors, students of life, and pillars of the fragile American dream.

Heights’ score and musical numbers—famous for sweeping the 2008 Tony Awards—match the density and fluidity of these stories; and New Venture pulls off a silk-smooth musical balancing act. Mastering hip-hop lyricism, thrilling gospel harmonies, and emotional, Latin-inspired instrumentals, the stage bursts with energy through its entire two-and-a-half-hours—a rare diagnosis in this age of grab-and-go entertainment (unless you’re The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, that is—which, coincidentally, supplies a few punch lines to an early rap battle between Usnavi and Sonny). The multi-cast song, “96,000,” is perhaps the best example of the musical’s gorgeous layering of savvy raps and powerhouse vocals. If you’re looking for something a little softer, well … just wait until you get to “Alabanza” and find your popcorn suddenly swimming in tears.

Still, the production elicits these emotions without suffocating audiences with sentimentality. In fact, much of the show relies on comedy, with Daniela, the gossipy salon owner, reigning over that genre. Even so, the show packs several punches to the heartstrings. An electricity outage spurs songs of fear and distress—and tons of metaphor—atop Sonny’s quiet tenor, “We are powerless.” Benny’s hard work goes to waste in his show-stopping exclamation, “Why learn the language if they still can’t hear you?” And Usnavi summons both power and pity as he sings to all his friends, “Maybe we're powerless, a corner full of foreigners./Maybe this neighborhood's changing forever./Maybe tonight is our last night together, however!/How do you wanna face it?”

The American dream, we find out, is one that is sought through compromise. What, whether, and how much—those are the ultimate questions.

Catch this (mostly) family-friendly musical while you still can. Thanks to the recent merger between New Venture Theatre (dedicated to bold productions with diverse, creative casts) and the Manship in downtown Baton Rouge, local talent can continue to recreate award-winning shows like In the Heights for years to come.

Details. Details. Details. 
September 11—14
7:30 pm Thursday through Saturday; special 2 pm matinee performance Saturday; 3 pm Sunday
$25; Purchase tickets at manshiptheatre.org