On Stage This Week: "In the Heights"

Broadway comes to Huntington this week with a performance of In the Heights. My pal Dave Lavender files this preview:

It's kind of ironic that when British dancer and actress Chloe Campbell moved to New York City, the dance company she was performing with was located in the vibrant Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights.

Campbell has, since September, gotten to know that colorful Latino community inside, outside and upside down.

She's one of 38 people in the young, talented cast, crew and band that is crisscrossing the nation with the energy-packed musical, In the Heights, which won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical as well as the Grammy that year for Best Musical Show Album, beating out such shows as Young Frankenstein and The Little Mermaid.

Called "a groundbreaking 21st century musical" by New York Times, In the Heights is coming to the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, as the Marshall Artists Series continues to celebrate its 75th anniversary season.

Tickets are on sale now for $58/$50/$45 and may be purchased at the Marshall Artists Series Box Office, in the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, or by calling 304-696-3326, or at any Ticketmaster location, including online at www.ticketmaster.com. The main show sponsor is Chesapeake Energy.

Called "Pure Broadway" by the Washington Post, In the Heights is a moving, funny and uplifting new show about a community of hard-working immigrants seeking a better life and trying to find their place - their home - in their new country. Filled with such great tunes as "96,000" (about winning the lottery) and the heart-warming ballad "When You're Home," In the Heights fuses Latin rhythms and hip-hop beats to tell a traditional story in a new way.

Campbell said that, as the musical tells the passionate story of the Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights, it makes you reassess what you think of as home and tradition.

"I actually got to see the show in 2008 when it first opened on Broadway and I fell in love with it," Campbell said. "I feel like it resonates no matter where you are from. I'm from London and I knew nothing about Washington Heights, but it is all about family and home and feeling part of a home no matter where your roots are. Every night we are singing about home and finding my place which is home and which was not my home before."

Campbell said part of the magic of this resonance is the true voice of its writer.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who grew up in a close-knit Puerto Rican family, was a sophomore at Wesleyan University in Connecticut when this postcard to his colorful neighborhood came spilling out.

A co-founding member of Freestyle Love Supreme, Miranda, who has toured comedy festivals with his group's fusion of hip-hop, storytelling, improv and musical theater, began the arduous seven-year-long journey of creating a full-length musical that found a home at off-Broadway's 37 Arts Theatre where he polished the show.

While Miranda was teaching middle school English and composing commercial music for political candidates that included Eliot Spitzer, he drew in director Thomas Kail to rework and restage the campus hit for a larger audience and a team of producers who'd put up such ground-breaking shows as Rent and Avenue Q.

After more than 200 off-Broadway performances, In the Heights spent four years on Broadway before it began touring nationally and internationally.

"I think the thing that stands out for this show in particular is that there is so much passion in it," Campbell said. "Just raw passion and energy. When I first saw the show, it just hit me in the face. I was so taken in by the passion, and I think that is what Lin-Manuel was able to create when he was in college. You are in a different place in college, and you are struggling and finding your way and wanting more, and I think that totally comes through in the lyrics and the music because it is blending so many types of music - salsa, hip hop and traditional musical theater, as well. That is why it is so appealing and that is what makes it raw and different, blending all of these different things."

Campbell, who moved to New York City to work in theater, said it's been a fantastic journey to be able to share this unique, but universal, show about just one of some 300 neighborhoods in NYC's five boroughs.

"A lot of people may have never been to New York, and if they have been to New York they have been to Times Square and haven't really seen the actual communities," Campbell said. "People forget there are communities there. It's such a crazy, rush-about place, but it is so nice that there are communities here and such a sense of home and family and having fun. I guess a lot of people look at it as a place that you just see in the movies all the time, so it is nice to show there is that heart and soul."

If you go

WHAT: Chesapeake Energy and the Marshall Artists Series presents the national tour of In The Heights, the 2008 Tony Award-winning Best Musical

WHERE: Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, Huntington

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21

HOW MUCH: $58, $50 and $45

GET TIX: Tickets may be purchased at the Marshall Artists Series Box Office, located on the right side of the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, or by calling 304-696-6656. Patrons can also visit www.marshallartistsseries.org for ticket information. Tickets can also be purchased at any Ticketmaster location, including online at www.ticketmaster.com.

ON THE WEB: www.marshallartistsseries.org.

ABOUT THE SHOW: A moving, funny and uplifting new show about a community of hard-working immigrants seeking a better life and trying to find their place -- their home -- in their new country. The show features a young cast as well as Tony Award-winning dancing and score.

WHAT THEY SAID: The Washington Post said In the Heights is "Pure Broadway. An evening of old-style, innocent pleasure" and Ben Brantley of The New York Times enthused "In The Heights" is "an exuberant, animated shrine to the importance of family ties and being faithful to where you come from."

ON DECK @ THE ARTISTS SERIES: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 1 - Larry King: Standing Up. King in his first stage performance since completing his 25-year run on the award-winning CNN program "Larry King Live." Also, at the end of the night, audience members will receive the rare opportunity to have their very own Q&A session with the star. Tickets are $57.50 and $35.

6:30 and 9 p.m. Friday, April 13 - "OH! What A Piano Can Do." Spend an intimate evening under the stars at your table on the Keith-Albee stage starring master pianist, Duke Thompson. Tickets are: $45 each or table of four for $225 (includes beverages and appetizer for four).

7 p.m. Sunday, April 29 - Mountain Stage Salutes 75 Years of the Marshall Artists Series. Join Larry Groce, host and artistic director of the iconic West Virginia radio program "Mountain Stage" as he helps salute the 75-year legacy that is the Marshall Artists Series. Artists so far include Arlo Guthrie and Paul Thorn. Additional artists to be announced. Tickets are $35.