In the Heights

As promised for her birthday, Nica and I watched another award-winning Broadway musical show, In the Heights.

The yellow girls at Maniosa, taking our dinner before the show.

It grabbed everybody’s eyes when the beam of light on stage illumined Usnavi, the mellow cool rapper acted by Nyoy Volante. The man was named after one of the first sights of his parents in America, a US Navy ship – but his was spelled Usnavi. I honestly am no fan of Nyoy because his songs, seasoned with so much “art” and tone curls, were never appealing to me. Nevertheless, his performance last night, my first ever encounter of him onstage, changed everything. He’s but a wonderful actor!

Main casts of In the Heights

By choice, I didn’t read online reviews before watching this musical comedy. I wanted to discover if this show would qualify my standards as one of the audience there. I would like to understand the story by mere watching the entire cast singing their dialogues. I read about the casts, however, and found out that this is really a star-studded event. VJ K-La, who is one of the Star Power aspirants too, shined her best as Nina Rosario. Known by the people there, she’s the town’s apple of the eye because of the American dream they aim for her. Her loving parents, played by Calvin Millado and Jackie Lou Blanco are business owners of Rosario Car Service. For the record, it’s Jackie’s first time to perform as singing stage actress and she’s just better than best! Ima Castro also did something spectacular that night. Portraying the character of Vanessa whom Usnavi is fascinated with, her powerful voice bagged the audiences’ expectations. The artists songs were never-ending. They delivered every line with smoothing melody. They all were great performers.

I love the night. Sharing such a lovely experience with Nica is simply relaxing after a busy week. I must tell she liked the show as much as I did. Hoping to watch more with my surrogate sister along.

Posted in: best of friends,extra-curricular,on stage