Hitting The Heights

The movie version of the Broadway musical IN THE HEIGHTS is getting a sizzling welcome. Film critics are falling all over themselves to find superlatives. Audience members are lathering on social media. And I have to say, I agree: this is one of my favorite movies since the pandemic began. Definitely see it — and as the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern urged, see it on the biggest screen you can find. (His hint: bigger than the one you have at home.)

I’m a fan, but with one major caveat, coming in just a moment. This thing is kinetic, joyful, uplifting, bursting with energy — it’s really what we need just now, so in one sense it’s fortunate that Covid delayed its release. 

My reservation is something I’ve heard only in passing. More than one person has told me that, as much fun and as well received as it is, IN THE HEIGHTS the movie is nothing compared to IN THE HEIGHTS on stage. But I wouldn’t know, because I missed it.

Through the good offices of my brother, an executive with sponsor Sprint, I got to attend the Tony Awards in 2008, the night IN THE HEIGHTS won Best Musical, probably the ceremony’s most important award (at least at the box office). At the Rockefeller Center afterparty, I even bumped into Lin-Manuel Miranda in the tunnel of tarp that led to the men’s room. So I guess I was one of the first civilians to congratulate him. “I still can’t believe it,” he said, and I believed him.

But I had passed on the show twice, in its off-Broadway run and then after its move uptown. You can’t see everything. I had never heard of Miranda — this was way before HAMILTON — and the shorthand was basically “RENT with rap,” set in a Dominican barrio. True enough, but it turns out that’s like praising Meryl Streep for her fine memorization skills: you’re perfectly accurate, but you’re missing the point. 

What I missed wasn’t the songs and dancing: they’re right there in the film. What I missed was the immediacy of a live performance, which is almost always way more powerful. There’s a long history of filmed versions of musicals coming up short: I’ve heard that from people who were there for the original SOUND OF MUSIC or CAMELOT or MY FAIR LADY. I myself can attest the same regarding HAIR: the “opened-up” movie is not even remotely related to the incandescence of the original stage production. Only the songs remain. RENT too: trust me. THE FANTASTICKS. And don’t forget about CATS the movie: I didn’t care for the stage show, but those who did — and there are legions of ‘em — had to be disappointed.

That’s a shame, because it’s always the movie that survives into the future, not your own thrilling memory. I’m not saying films are a lower form of art than theatre. I’m saying they’re a different form of art. And where big stage musicals are concerned, it’s an uphill battle to preserve the lightning on celluloid. A original musical created for film, like THE WIZARD OF OZ, WILLY WONKA or THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, doesn’t carry the same comparative burden and tends to hold up much better over time because a movie is what it was in the first place.

So I’m definitely among the appreciative crowd celebrating the rollicking good time of IN THE HEIGHTS. But I still only know the piece second hand. It’s unthinkable that it won’t be revived on Broadway one day, and when it is I’ll happily be in another crowd, expecting to have my mind blown at a whole new level.