In The Heights a living tribute to a dying culture

by Dwight Casimere

The story of the new Broadway In Chicago musical, the Tony Award winning “In The Heights” at the Cadillac Palace Theatre through January 3, has all the trappings of a rags to riches movie.

In fact, as the curtain went up on the opening night at the Palace, both Variety and the Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Kenny Ortega, the famed director of Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” and the “High School Musical” trilogy and choreographer to the 1987 film, “Dirty Dancing”, would direct the film version for Universal with writer and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda reprising his starring Broadway role.

“In The Heights “ was conceived and written by Miranda while a sophomore at Weslayan University, a liberal arts college in Middletown, Connecticut, near New York City.

He and director Thomas Kail developed a workshop version for the National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in nearby Waterford, CT. It then enjoyed off-Broadway success and the rest, as they say, is history. Miranda went on to star in the original Broadway production where it was nominated for 13 Tony Awards. It won for Best Musical at the 62^nd Tony Awards in 2008.

The national tour has been underway since October after opening in Tampa, Florida and, from what I saw at the Cadillac Palace, this is a first-rate production.

“In the Heights” is a unique window into a largely unknown culture to those of us who live outside of New York, the Dominican-American community of Washington Heights in Manhattan. The neighborhood is more like a small village than the satellite to a larger community. It is a world unto itself, and for two and quarter hours; we are privileged to drop into it for a helicopter’s view of its rich, but bittersweet reality.

The play spans three days in the life of ‘the heights’ through a musical kaleidoscope of salsa, meringue, hip-hop and soul.

Washington Heights is located at the highest point of Manhattan on its northernmost end. It is above Harlem, near the George Washington Bridge. Named after Fort Washington, a fortification occupied by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, it was the site of General George Washington’s single, humiliating defeat against the British.

Since that inglorious beginning, the area has been a virtual march through the travails of twentieth century history. Beginning with the Irish fleeing the potato famine of the early 1900s, to Jewish refugees escaping the Nazi Holocaust of the ‘30s and ‘40s, its cracked pavement has been the highway to freedom and a pathway to dreams for a steady succession of immigrants.

The ‘50s brought Cubans fleeing Castro’s regime. Puerto Ricans, seeking a new life, arrived in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Then, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, immigrants from the Dominican Republican arrived to put their indelible stamp on these well-trod streets.

The play has similarities to some of its Tony-endowed antecedents. The characters introduce themselves individually in vocal and dance soliloquy ala A Chorus Line. The ramshackle sets are straight out of RENT; substitute the street corners of upper Manhattan for a tenement loft in the East Village. The dance numbers and the star-crossed Romeo and Juliet romance of the Ben and Nina characters are straight out of West Side Story.

Miranda plays our heartstrings to captivating Latin beats that sweep us along on his journey of self-discovery. Although we know exactly where he’s going, we willingly jump into the Salsa line and dance behind him.

The characters are very well drawn and beautifully performed. Up and coming actor Kyle Beltran is Usnavi, the title role originated by Miranda. He’s owner of the bodega (a tiny open-air corner convenience store that sells every thing from sweet morning café’ con le’che to masking tape from its crammed shelves and busted drinks cooler.) “My parents named me after the first ship they saw in New York Harbor,” he tells a compatriot. “Actually, the letters on the ship read ‘U….S…..NAVY! But, you gotta work with what you have!” That self-deprecating statement tells you everything you need to know about Usnavi’s personality. Don’t you just LOVE him already!?

Usnavi’s dream is to win the lottery and move back to the Dominican Republic. He had a chance to move once before, but realized that the barrio was his true home. He’s in love with Vanessa (Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, a Broadway veteran whose credits include 3 Mo’ Divas, Roller Derby, Corridos Remix (CAN-Best Actress), Cabaret and West Side Story). She works at the gossip factory of a salon next door with unrealistic dreams of moving downtown.

Dreams are central to the story of “In The Heights” and it is this motivation which makes the play so captivating. We instantly identify with the characters and are drawn to them and their fragile humanity.

Nina (Arielle Jacobs, ‘Gabriella ‘in the national tour of High School Musical) is the daughter of the macho-proud, vainglorious Kevin (Broadway and Regional Theatre veteran Daniel Bolero) and his wife Camila (a feisty Natalie Toro of Les Miserables and A Tale of Two cities on Broadway), who dreams of opening a local restaurant.

Nina is the first to go to college in her family and perhaps in the whole neighborhood. Everyone looks up to her until they learn she’s dropped out of Stanford because she couldn’t make the grade or connect with the preppy, upper-classed culture, a secret she kept from her parents for months. It becomes a real source of conflict early in the play. To heighten tensions more, she gets involved with a Benny (Rogelio Douglas Jr., most recently on Broadway starring as Sebastian the Crab in Disney’s The Little Mermaid), the only Black youth in the neighborhood, who works for her father’s livery company, Rosario car service. Owner Kevin considers him unworthy of his daughter’s company, because he isn’t Latina, even though he’s practically been a surrogate father to him. And there you have the ‘West Side Story’ element of star-crossed lovers playing out their doomed romance against the backdrop of the barrios.

Benny/Rogelio and Nina/Jacobs engage in a heart-wrenching duet on the fire escape of their tiny love nest that nearly brings tears to your eyes.

The character of Kevin also makes a selfish decision on behalf of his daughter that threatens to tear both his family and the community asunder.

Other characters give sterling performances, including those of some of the minor players, including Jose-Luis Lopez as Graffiti Pete, a local vandal who actually turns out to be a kind-hearted, but frustrated artist who later evolves into the conscience of this drama and Shaun Taylor-Corbett as Sonny, Usnavi’s precocious cousin who works for him at the Bodega. Sonny is either the next Che Guevara or the next Master OC, depending on the time of day and who’s listening to him. Other outstanding players include David Baida as Piragua Guy, the owner of an illegal street-vending cart who fears being put out of business by his more legitimate competitor, Mister Softee. He sings a brief, but sprightly, Salsa-infused song that is one of the delights of the show.

Veteran Elise Santora, who joins the tour directly from the Broadway show, reprises her role as Abuela Claudia. Abuela means grandmother in Spanish and is often used as a term of endearment and respect. Her character is the matriarch of the family as well as the community. She virtually raised Usnavi and becomes his co-conspirator in a scheme to resurrect their own fortunes as well as members of their extended family. She is a pivotal character in that she, unknown to them, holds the key to all of their future success in her hands (or at least, her bosom) as she reveals in a heart-searing aria that stops the First Act in its tracks. Y Arriba!

Sadly, in reality, urban gentrification has taken its toll on ‘The Heights.’ The Dominican population has dispersed to other, more stable, neighborhoods in the Bronx, a sign of their ascendancy and assimilation. The musical is fast becoming a living monument to a time and place that will soon only live in memory.

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Stewart Goodyear at Symphony Center: A new 'Tiger' emerges

by Dwight Casimere

So, Tiger is gone from the national scene. I turn your attention now to his near look-alike, Stewart Goodyear, the "Canadian Cannonball' who blew into Symphony Center just as a cold front from our shared northern border dropped the outside temperature below freezing.

Goodyear is a musical 'Masters' winner in anybody's book, if there were to ever be such an event. His recent performance at Symphony Center was as athletic as anything seen on a golf or basketball court, but with a grace and intellectualism that no brute athletic contest could achieve. At the conclusion of his outstanding recitative, one patron in the front row could be seen simply holding his hand over his heart in the midst of the thunderous applause. Goodyear acknowledged the gesture with a respectful bow in his direction.

Goodyear can well afford to be humble. He is clearly the best at what he does, and, over the course of the years, thanks to the excellent programming of the CSO staff, I've seen all of the greats!

Goodyear chose to play the same Hamburg Steinway as did Vladimir Feltsman in his sterling performance of November 8.

Beginning with the enigmatic Alexander Scriabin's Piano Sonata No.1, Goodyear was at once explosive and serene. He then launched into Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata in E-flat Minor, a kaleidoscopic work originally written for the great Vladimir Horowitz as a special commission for the 25th anniversary of the League of Nations. Maybe they should have flown Goodyear to Oslo to play for Obama when he received the Nobel Peace Prize!

His fingers danced across the keyboard at dizzying speed. At times, caressing the notes in the composer’s whimsical melodies then, with wrists arched, launching a full frontal attack that brought passages to their thundering conclusion.

His cross-hand work in the post-intermission Beethoven Piano Sonata No.29 in B-flat Major was a marvel to behold. He captured the sensitivity of the composer’s inner being and brought forth hidden meanings and inner voices. After displaying his total command of Beethoven’s unique musical language, he finished the sonata with a commanding flourish.

The best, and the most heartfelt renditions were saved for last. Encores began with Chopin's Polonaise No. 6 in A-flat Major, Op.53 ‘Heroique,’ the bane of every piano student, played here with ease and authority. Passages that befuddled even the most accomplished player were, in Goodyear's hands, the height of artistic expression. Chopin wore his pride and love for his ancestral homeland, Poland, on his sleeve and Goodyear afforded it all the dignity it deserved. I had forgotten how introspective and melodic some of the middle passages were. Goodyear gently reminded me. An Earl Wild transcription of Gershwin's "Embraceable You" brought the focus into the realm of the present and showed what a fine interpreter of the more popular genre Goodyear can be. To conclude, a special treat, a window into the great performer's own soul as a composer, a Debussy-inspired, Impressionistic composition called "August." As a final encore, Goodyear had a bit of fun with Strauss/Schulz-Evler’s Concert Arabesque on Motifs of “By the Beautiful Blue Danube” that showed both his sense of humor and a touch of Liberace-like showmanship, but not too much. After all, that patron in the front row was still motioning to Goodyear with his hand over his heart, and the performer was all too willing to oblige!

The Apollo Chorus at Symphony Center in Handel's "Messiah"

by Dwight Casimere

Since its premiere performance in Dublin in 1742,George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" has been performed around the world as an annual rite of passage into the Christmas Holiday Season. Famously, according to legend, King George of England was so moved that he stood during the singing of the "Hallelujah" chorus at the conclusion of Part Two and the practice has become customary to this day.

Performances of the work are a holiday staple at churches around the city, from the Presbyteries of north Michigan Avenue to the Baptist sanctuaries of South King Drive. Of all, none is more revered than the performances of the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, which has presented Messiah since 1879.

Orchestra Hall has been the scene of 137 of the choir's presentations over the work's 131-year history in Chicago.

Music Director and Conductor Stephen Alltop, a veteran of 13 Messiah's assembled a stellar quartet of soloists to tackle Handel's demanding oratory, Irish soprano Maire O’Brien, a star of New York City Opera and the Kennedy Center, American mezzo Lauren McNeese, recently of Los Angeles Opera, the brilliant young tenor Mark Van Arsdale, the hit of the 2009 Tanglewood Festival in Don Giovanni under Maestro James Levine and the leonine baritone James Maddalena, best known for his portrayal of the title role in the World Premiere of John Adam's Nixon in China, directed by Peter Sellars. I almost don't need to continue writing a review for you to know that this was a transcendent experience.

King George must have felt as I did, when I stood at the start of the Hallelujah chorus from my center box seat. The music is that stirring. The deft conducting of Maestro Alltop and his superb collaborators made it even more so.

Alltop kept tempos brisk, without rushing, paying particular attention to Handel's nuances of tempo restraint and tonal color.

The Apollo Chorus is one of the seminal wonders of the music world. The individual members of each vocal section partner so well, that they sing as one voice. Their breathing almost indistinguished from one phrase to the next. Alltop finished each section with a burnish, like a crafter of fine English carpentry who polishes the seams to such a finish that the joiner work is invisible to the eye.

Among the orchestra members, principal Bass Jerry Fuller provided a firm, fluid line for Handel's lilting contrapuntal melodies to soar above. Principal Timpani Vadim Karpinos provided bright tonality and rhythmic precision throughout and added a ringing punctuation to the finale. Concertmaster and First Violin Jeri-Lou Zike provided heartfelt solos and support for an absolutely captivating duet with soprano O'Brien in the Part Three aria "If God be for us, who can be against us?" It was like two beautiful tropical birds in flight. Add to that, Zike's visual appeal; dressed in a sleeveless gown, she has the best-looking arms this side of Michelle Obama!

Handel used the darker voices of the alto and baritone to convey his deeper message. In Part One's Aria, "For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth," baritone Maddelena navigated Handel's difficult minefields of lengthy, complex, intervaled phrases and runs with the skill of an infantryman in combat. Sadly, he seemed almost ready to be cut down in the heat of battle by the H1N1 virus in the Part Three showpiece Aria "The trumpet shall sound." His vocal chords began to constrict. Turning red-faced, he fought mightily against the intrusion. He managed to regain his footing and reached the conclusion with the flourish of principal Robert Rieder's sylvan trumpet ringing in the background.

In my childhood, I had a favorite aunt who took me with her every year to see her perform Handel's Messiah in the Alto section of our Lutheran Church Choir. Sadly, a violent intruder took her from my family some thirty years ago. I thought of her as the choir began the beautiful counterpoint to the concluding Amen. She would have loved to be singing it with them and, in my mind's eye; I think I might have heard her.

McCoy Tyner and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra in Jazz at Symphony Center

by Dwight Casimere

It was a meeting of two prolific jazz minds, with a combined repertory of more than three-quarters of a century between them. Nearly 50 years ago, pianist and composer McCoy Tyner burst on the jazz scene as the explosive sideman for the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane, in one of the most celebrated collaborations in jazz history. For more than 30 years, Jeff Lindberg, Co-Founder, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, formerly the Jazz Members Big Band has made a career of transcribing and performing the largely unwritten orchestrations of jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, among others. His work has been held in such high esteem that many of the greats of our time, most recently piano legend Dave Brubeck, have commissioned him to commit their early-improvised works to paper. So it was that the fourth installment of the Jazz at Symphony Center series would bring these two giants of the jazz world together in a sublime evening of music, recreating Tyner’s big band charts of his Blue Note days and beyond. A more apt collaboration could not have taken place.

Tyner strode somewhat tentatively onstage, apparently showing the effects of an extended illness that had sidelined him a couple of years ago. Once seated at the Steinway, he began to make his way around the familiar territory of the keyboard and by the second half of the concert, was playing the kind of stormy, contrapuntal complexity that is his signature. Accompanied by his stalwart trio of Gerald Cannon on Bass and Eric Kamau Gravatt on Drums, Tyner plowed through the Latin-fusion original composition “Suddenly” before delving into the stride waters of Duke Ellington’s “In A Mellow Tone.” Tyner showed his unique ability to identify the melodic ‘shape’ of a tune and then expand it through a series of complex voicings, dense chord progressions and daring improvisational leaps to create a mind-bending listening experience. Guaranteed, your mind will not drift during a McCoy Tyner solo!

The second half of the program brought the piece de resistance, McCoy Tyner in a big band setting with Jeff Lindberg’s esteemed 13-piece ensemble. From the opening notes of Tyner’s signature composition, the blues based chord changes of “Blues on the Corner”, which Tyner later explained to the audience, had been written for “some dudes who were singin’ doo wop on the corners back in Philly when I was growing up”, was a raucous, supercharged romp through the creviced streets of his childhood and the gritty influences that shaped his later work. It was straight ahead jazz at its finest. The crisp solo trumpet of Derrick Gardner, the angular permutations of Tom Garling on Trombone and the ‘Trane channeling muscle of Ari Brown made this a romp through the history of modern jazz from the blues, to Be Bop and the Avant Garde. Lindberg’s conducting of this, and the subsequent number, “Update” arranged by Tyner’s former drummer Dennis Mackrel, cut right to the heart of the matter. Lindberg’s unique quality is his ability to take music that is completely scripted and make it sound wholly spontaneous. That is the very essence of jazz performance.

Passion Dance, Tyner's maiden compositional effort after his break with John Coltrane is his exuberant Emancipation Proclamation. Lindberg & Co played it with all the manic fervor it deserved, reminding one of Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring. It was the highlight of the evening.

Tyner was in his element. He sounded like his old self. Close your eyes, and you were transported back to the Village Vanguard, circa 1968. It was all there, the percussive left hand and the explosive ‘chops’ in the right with polyphonic juxtapositions of chords and avalanches of sound.

The following original composition “No Frills” brought forth a stunning Alto saxophone solo from John Wojciechowski. “Woj” unleashed a torrent of rapid-fire 1/16^th and 1/32^nd notes that wove a tapestry of sound, unfolding in a feat of circular breathing that defied the very laws of nature.

Tyner graciously provided the audience with a solo encore, the Sam Lewis and Fred Coots classic, the plaintive ballad “For All We Know.” He played it with emotional depth and stunning technical facility, even evoking the sound of rushing waters in the lyric’s line “We come and go, like the ripples on a stream.” It was divine.

This was the best performance of the Jazz at Symphony Center series to date and one of the best overall to emanate from the Armour Stage.

Broadway In Chicago-The Addams Family World Premiere

by Dwight Casimere

There was a special feeling in the air as patrons walked the Red Carpet outside the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, for the World Premiere of the new Broadway In Chicago musical The Addams Family. With television news crews doing live shots on the sidewalk and camera crews and paparazzi poised to photograph local celebs, it truly felt like a precursor to the success the musical is certain to enjoy when it moves to Broadway to begin previews on Saturday, March 4, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it is scheduled to open Thursday, April 8.

With two-time Tony Award winners Nathan Lane (The Producers, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and Bebe Neuwirth, a familiar face from her TV role as the stern psychologist Lilith in TVs ‘Cheers’ and ‘Frasier’(Sweet Charity, Chicago) in the leads as Gomez and Morticia, the musical brings the beloved haunted family of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams and the campy ‘60s TV series to delightfully ghoulish ‘life.’

The music by Drama Desk Award-winner Andrew Lippa, evokes the raucous theme of the TV series, even prompting a clap-along response from the audience. The direction and design by Phelim McDermitt and Julian Crouch (Metropolitan Opera’s upcoming Satyagraha) is a brilliant recreation of the Addam’s Gothic mansion and the choreography by Serigo Trujillo (Jersey Boys) let’s the brilliant cast shine, particularly the gifted Neuwirth who gets an opportunity to unleash her considerable terpsichorean talents (how does she ever keep that dress on with its cleavage “to Venezuela” as Gomez lustily points out in the opening scene).

The plot scheme is a simple one, designed to emit belly laughs. The macabre Addams Family is put to the test when outsiders, the parents of their daughter Wednesday’s Ohio-bred boyfriend are scheduled to come over for an introductory dinner. The straight-laced Beineke’s don’t have a clue as to what’s in store. Needless to say, the results are a madcap night of deliciously macabre mayhem with some terrific singing and dancing as the centerpiece.

There are outstanding performances throughout. Carolee Carmello, the 20-year Broadway veteran and two-time Tony Award nominee, as Alice Beineke, delivers the vampingest torch song ever in ‘Waiting’ and Morticia/Neuwirth showcases her considerable dancing skills (and terrific legs) in “The Swordfight/Tango!” that recalls the glory days of dance legends Cyd Charisse and Rita Moreno.

The Addams Family, A New Musical runs through Sunday, January 10.

Chicago Symphony becomes the world's best Baroque band!

by Dwight Casimere

For one glorious night, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra became the best chamber orchestra anywhere, led by British conductor and harpsichordist Nicholas Kraemer, whom Chicago audiences know as the principal guest conductor of Music of the Baroque.

It was the kind of music you’d like to listen to while sitting by a roaring fire with your favorite Christmas blankee covering your toes and a mug of warm coffee with nutmeg and perhaps a splash of cognac and a dollop of whipped cream at your side. In short, just the tonic for the bitter cold weather that almost had the Art Institute lions hunkering down for warmth under their holiday wreaths across the street.

With the exception of the overzealous audience members who insisted on beginning their applause before the final notes of Strauss’s evocative Metamorphosen reverberated from the fingerboards of the CSO strings (“it’s become a weekly occurrence!” declared the Chicago Tribune’s critic, John von Rhein as he exited the hall), it was a musically and spiritually satisfying experience.

In spite of the intrusion, the radiant musical glow of the evening still resonates deep within the soul.

Kraemer began the program with selections from Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major, a work not heard at Symphony Center in more than thirty years. Composed when Mozart was just sixteen, the music is a snapshot of the volcanic genius that would later erupt in full-scale operas and symphonies.

Kraemer and company gave the work its due, playing it with a bright sound and sprightly tempos. The flute solos were well executed with supporting counterpoint from the oboe and bassoon. Dynamics were well observed, particularly in the second movement, Adagio, in which Kraemer allowed the inner voice of the violas to shine through with their lovely, achingly beautiful melodic line. He truly let their voices ‘sing.’ The horns, after a slightly tentative entrance, quickly gained their footing to deliver an impeccable performance. The minuet was a study in equipoise, with the flute and cellos performing a delicate balancing act against a chorus of horns. The interplay was perfection in motion.

Haydn’s masterpiece, Symphony No. 88, was conducted with vigor and authority. Kraemer allowed for plenty of breathing room in his unfolding of the Adagio and kept the tempo of the subsequent Allegro in check so that it did not appear rushed. Largo, the second movement is among the most magnificent slow movements written by any composer and Kraemer allowed its beautiful melody to unfold with reverence.

After the interval, the subscription audience got the treat they had come to see, Kramer conducting from the harpsichord in Telemann’s Selections from Tafelmusik II.

Its obvious that he is right at home behind the keyboard. The harpsichord has practically become an extension of Kraemer’s being. There’s scarcely a heartbeat between his keystrokes on the instrument and his downbeats to the musicians. The final movements, Minuet: Allegretto and Allegro con spirito were studies in the contrasts of tempo and timbre. The flute and oboes soared above a bracing supporting line from the strings.

Kraemer had each of the violinists stand in the manner of soloists for Richard Strauss’s contemplative Metamorphosen. Written against the backdrop of war-torn Germany in the final days of World War II, with the Third Reich breathing its last gasps in a bunker and the great music halls and opera cathedrals of Strauss’s beloved homeland in flames, it was the composer’s farewell to a life that would be no more. If only we could have savored his memorial for one brief moment.

Young Frankenstein good medicine for Holiday ills

by Dwight Casimere

Since laughter is considered the best medicine, it would be a good idea for the White House to pass out free tickets to see Broadway In Chicago’s current production of The New Mel Brooks Musical, Young Frankenstein. In the absence of a national health care bill, the musical, now at the Cadillac Palace Theatre through December 13, is a guaranteed tonic for what ails you.

Tony Award winners Roger Bart and Shuyler Hensley reprise their Broadway roles of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (or Franken—STEEN, as he insists) and The Monster in the first national tour.

The musical spoofs every convention of musical comedy from the early days of Yiddish Theatre ahnd Broadway to the present day. There’s Al Jolson-ish hamming and Marx Broithers styled slapstick. The only thing jmissing is a pie in the face. Just when things start to cross the line into hokey-ville, something magical happens toi bring things back into side-splitting focus.

Corey English as Igor practically steals the show early on in “Join The Familyu Business, when Frederick arrives in Transylvania Heights to answer a proposition to take over Dr. Frankenstein’s monster factory when his grandfather passes away. Anne Horak as Inga is the vampy lab assistant who is introduced in the humorously risqué number “Roll In The Hay.”

It all seems to culminate in Act Two with some terrific production numbers Directed and Choreographed by Susan Stroman. The dancing is factastic, as are the sets and costumes. The entire production just sparkles from the opening laser-light ‘thunderbolts’to the closing strobe-lit Finale Ultimo.

This remarkable show is one of the best of the Broadway in Chicago bunch. It’s surte to score with audiences just as Brook’s earlier hit, ‘The Producers’ did some years ago.