Lights Up on Washington Heights: Review of In the Heights

Courtesy of IMDb

When I first started this blog, I posted about how much I love In the Heights. Since seeing it on Broadway in 2009, I've seen it twice more on stage. The first time was at a community college theater, where I took my older son to see it for the first time. I fell in love with it all over again, and he got really into it too. The second time was at a local professional theater, where Robin de Jesus (who I originally saw as Sonny on Broadway) was playing Usnavi. Another wonderful performance! So when I found out it was going to become a movie, I was ecstatic. It was originally slated for last summer, but due to the pandemic, it was postponed. However, I finally got to see it this past weekend....and it was amazing! Anything mentioned below will only be a bit of a spoiler if you've seen it on stage. (And I'm not including some aspects as to not completely spoil the way the movie plays out.)

There are a bunch of differences between the stage production and the movie, but I thought the movie did a great job of fitting the songs into the story in a different way. The songs were not in the same order as they were in the stage production. I first noticed this with "Benny's Dispatch" coming in before "Breathe." "Paciencia y Fe" was moved to after "Blackout" and before "Alabanza." "It Won't Be Long Now" came in after "No Me Diga." "Piragua" came before "When You're Home", etc. A few songs were taken out altogether, including "Inutil," "Sunrise," "Hundreds of Stories", "Enough," and "Everything I Know." Certain plot points were also changed as a way of excusing the songs from being in the movie. 

What they did with the songs that were included was nothing short of incredible. I loved how "96,000" was set at their local pool and all the choreography in the water. "Carnaval Del Barrio" was a lot of fun too, with Daphne Rubin-Vega (Mimi from the Original Broadway Cast of Rent) leading it as Daniela. I loved Lin-Manuel as the piragua guy singing his one song and somewhat duking it out with Mr. Softee, played by Christopher Jackson (Benny from the OBC of In the Heights and George Washington from the OBC of Hamilton). 

Anthony Ramos was perfect as Usnavi. He almost made me forget that Lin-Manuel originally starred in that role on Broadway. He had a very strong supporting cast and it just felt like everyone enjoyed each other's company the entire time. Most of the cast was new to me, but Olga Merediz played Abuela Claudia once again. I also was familiar with Jimmy Smits and thought he was great as Kevin (Nina's father). The kid who played Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV) was great too. He reminded me of Betty's nephew from Ugly Betty, at least in looks. I found out that he's only 16 in real life, but was probably closer to 14 or 15 when this was filmed. Both Corey Hawkins (Benny) and Melissa Barrera (Vanessa) were great and their voices had a Rent quality to them. I enjoyed watching Leslie Grace as Nina, as well. As I mentioned before, Daphne Rubin-Vega played Daniela and she fit the role better than I was expecting. I liked Stephanie Beatriz and Dascha Polanco (Daya from Orange is the New Black) as Carla and Cuca, respectively. I had no idea until later that Marc Anthony played Sonny's father! While I did miss Nina's mom, I get why they wrote her out of the story. 

The scenery made such a huge difference between seeing it on stage and seeing it on film. They really brought Washington Heights to life. I've never been in that part of NYC, but I enjoyed taking it all in. (I used to think the bodega was outside because of how it looked on stage.) I love how busy everything looked all the time, with people just going about their usual business while singing at the same time and everyone hanging out on their front steps. I really got a sense of community from watching everything play out on film. 

There was also an element of magical realism, which I wasn't expecting. I love how the wig heads were moving around during "No Me Diga" and how they were drawing things with their hands in "96,000." However, dancing and walking sideways on a building in "When the Sun Goes Down" just made me nervous. It had a La La Land quality to it though.

Since I knew all the songs, it was nice to be able to focus on everything else going on, but I still feel like I missed a lot because so much was happening. Like certain cameos from actors who were in the Broadway cast at some point. I did catch the Hamilton Easter egg though. That was hard to miss!

In the Heights is written in such a way that it could take place in a variety of time periods. It's fluid and doesn't have to be stuck in the early 2000s. This time around, there was more focus on Dreamers and being undocumented. This added an extra essence and some more depth to the story. 

Overall, I laughed, cried, tried very, very, VERY hard not to sing along, got caught up in the beauty and chaos, and just loved it so much. I already want to watch it again! If you haven't seen it yet (or if you have and missed doing so), watch to the very end for an extra special treat. ;) 

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The Goldbergs-Season 8 with SPOILERS

Courtesy of The Goldbergs Wiki

I'm keeping up my tradition of mentioning my top 10 favorite episodes of the most recent season. I am looking forward to season NINE! I worry that they're going to run out of references soon. Like I said last year, I hope they'll feature Can't Buy Me Love, Adventures in Babysitting, and maybe some other lesser-known classics like Moving Violations in the next season. Grease 2 is fair game, as well! (I know I'm repeating last year's post, but they still haven't covered these movies.) UHF would be another fun one to do.

Synopses courtesy of IMDb. 

1. Episode 1: Airplane!
Beverly surprises the family with an end-of-summer vacation to Miami; Geoff accidentally spills to Erica the real reason for the trip.

Airplane! is one of my favorite comedy films and I love how they paid homage to it. 


2. Episode 7: Hanukkah on the Seas
Pops surprises the family with an ill-advised winter cruise to Canada; Erica stirs up holiday trouble at home.

It's about Hanukkah. Need I say more? 

3. Episode 9: Cocoon
Beverly enlists Erica's help to sue her cookbook publisher after finding her book in the bargain bin at a bookstore; Adam and Pops bond while taking a trip on the wild side.

Pops was such a great character. RIP George Segal. Check out the tribute they did for him.

4. Episode 13: Mr. Ships Ahoy
Beverly is thrilled to have co-workers for the first time and sets out to make them all love her; Geoff competes in a beauty pageant to prove to Erica that he can be seen as desirable by other women.

5. Episode 14: Love Triangle
As Adam's girlfriend, Brea, heads to visit her cousin at the University of Virginia, Beverly projects her own insecurity onto Adam, convincing him to make a grand gesture to prevent Brea from choosing UVA for college.

I love how Barry and Joanne join forces in this episode. It's so funny to watch them together.

6. Episode 18: The Dating Game
Erica goes on a date with a guy from the coffee shop, while Geoff ends up on an episode of "The Dating Game"; Beverly is thrilled to learn that Murray has spontaneously purchased a shore house.

Geoff was really funny on The Dating Game! I also love how Beverly was trying to pretend the beach house was better than it actually was. 

7. Episode 19: Daddy Daughter Day 2

Following Erica and Geoff's breakup, Murray decides to take Erica out on a daddy-daughter date to cheer her up. Meanwhile, Adam is excited to participate in the school senior prank until his conscience catches up with him and he enlists Beverly's help to get him out of it.

While working on this post, I realized that I somehow missed this episode. That was remedied and I'm glad I finally saw it. So cute and funny!

8. Episode 20: Poker Night
In order to take her mind off of her heartbreak, Erica takes a trip to to see her best friend; after getting caught taking part in an underground poker game, Adam gets sentenced to Pop-Pop duty, which turns out better than expected.

I loved seeing Lainey again!

9. Episode 21: Alligator Schwartz
Erica fears that Geoff has moved on from their breakup and started dating someone else. Meanwhile, Adam decides to find Dave Kim a date to prom, once he remembers his pact with Dave that they won't go to prom if they both don't have dates.

The Paula Hogan mix-up was great! 

10. Episode 22: The Proposal
Geoff shares with the JTP that he is planning on asking Erica to marry him and gives them the engagement ring for safekeeping. Like any good romantic comedy, several miscommunications and misunderstandings between Geoff and Erica's friends and family result in a potential derailing of the proposal, forcing Adam to step in to keep the couple's special moment alive.

Such a sweet and fun episode. I also loved the huge misunderstanding.

A cozy little cabin

 A long time ago, I posted about a camping trip I took with my family. (It was part of a longer post about holidays and other stuff.) Well, over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take a different kind of camping trip. This time, we went glamping! 

We stayed at a place I found on Vrbo, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Weirdly enough, I had been looking at another place at the same time that we were also interested in (due to the location), but I accidentally reserved this place instead of the other one. It ended up being a happy accident because we all loved it. It was so cozy and rustic, but had lots of amenities, such as a kitchen, TV, bathrooms, etc. There was a fire pit outside, as well. Alexis Rose would have said the cabin was so cute and done her trademark facial expression and hand gestures.

My husband took this picture and dolled it up a bit

After we settled in, we took a walk to a nearby lake. We were the only people at the lake, so it was nice and peaceful. My husband and younger son busied themselves with skipping stones across the lake. The rest of us enjoyed taking pictures and enjoying the scenery.

When we got back to the cabin, we had a cookout over the fire pit, with hot dogs and s'mores. It was a lot of fun. It started raining a bit after we had finished our meal and then we spent the rest of the evening playing Loaded Questions. It was a long game, but we love it and usually come up with a lot of inside jokes each time we play. We stayed up pretty late, but we were able to sleep in a little bit the next morning before we had to pack up. 

On the way back home, we stopped in downtown Frederick. It's a nice town with lots of art displays and a river running down the middle. We even saw some ducks. :) It was a gorgeous day out. Only half the people walking around, including us, were wearing masks, but no one bothered anyone else either way.

We had a really nice overnight stay and we already want to do it again!