I went to see this musical with a group of friends this week. It's playing at the Pantages in Hollywood and features Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is the creator of the show as well as starred on Broadway as Usnavi. The theatre was packed to the rafters on the Wednesday night that I was there. The show is set in Washington Heights among a group of neighbours and shopkeepers who sing about their life's troubles. The rap-inflected music is wonderful! I'm not a huge rap fan, but this is mainstream enough that I think anyone would enjoy it. The wonderful dancing has a hip-hop/Latin flavour to it. I found the story a little weak, there were so many threads they were trying to follow that no one story gets its proper dues. This is a typical immigrants' tale and while you're not going to come away from seeing this show with any real revelations or insights, you may be humming and tapping your toes as you leave the theatre. This show recently on the Tony award.
Before the show, we had dinner at Fabiolus, which is within walking distance of the theatre. This is a casual Italian restaurant, featuring some wonderful specials the night we were there. They are well versed in timing your meal to get you to the theatre on time.
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