Opening Night

            This past Tuesday night, October 18,2011, I went to Eisenhower Auditorium where the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State presented the Tony-winning best musical, In The Heights.  The show started at 7:30 but my advisor, Laura Brown had reserved tickets for the special living option I’m involved in, Discover House.  I didn’t have a ticket but lucked out and was able to go in place of someone else on the floor that could not attend. How lucky am I?  We arrived an hour early to talk to two of the main members of the cast, Celina Clarich Polanco and Benjamin Perez.  Both were brilliant in presenting the musical accurately.  They are both so engulfed in their roles and are most obviously passionate about their careers, specifically in this musical.  Celina even described to us the process she took to land this role, including seeing the musical 36 times and auditioning 16 times.  They are a part of this tour, the second national tour for this musical, which we were told is rare in the theater industry, for a second national tour to be produced so largely and precisely like the original.  Fortunately for Penn State, they chose to start off here in State College with Tuesday night’s performance as opening night.

            The musical, In The Heights, is set in Washington Heights, New York, a Latino neighborhood.  Seeing that most of them speak English and Spanish, the musical incorporated both languages a lot.  They executed the use of the languages so well though that even those who knew no Spanish, like myself, could follow the plot and events easily.  The music was brilliant! A mix of hip-hop, rap and Latin, it was like none that I’ve heard.  It was very inspiring and the choreography was phenomenal.  I personally loved watching the dancing that took place throughout the entire musical because that is my favorite form of art, dance, most likely because I am a dancer myself and have been for most of my life.  The overall effect of the musical was wonderful.  I felt connected with the characters and the events that happened were ones that almost any family could relate to in some way or another.  For me, I identified most with one of the main stars, a young girl named Nina who struggled with finding herself and affording college at Stanford. Virginia Cavaliere, an amazing young actress, singer and dancer who really brought her character to life for us, played Nina’s role.  The entire musical was one to be remembered and I would recommend it to anyone to see if they had the opportunity.