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    Jon M. Chu Waited 20 Years for the Chance to Direct ‘Wicked’

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    On a recent morning, Jon M. Chu was in his office in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, describing what it was like to direct “Defying Gravity,” the thrilling finale of his forthcoming adaptation of “Wicked.” In the Broadway version of the scene, the green-hued Elphaba, a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West, rises above the stage atop a huge platform, its mechanical guts hidden behind an enormous black cape. Onstage, the effect is showstopping.In Chu’s version, however, Elphaba really flies, crashing through windows and barnstorming Oz. “We’re whipping her around with C.G. monkeys and C.G. backgrounds on a physical set,” Chu said. The Wizard’s guards are rushing in, the wind is blasting, and Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, is performing the signature song live, “even though I said she didn’t have to.”“That scene took all of us,” Chu said. “But without Cynthia, who is just a powerhouse, it would have been all for nothing.”Directing a film adaptation of “Wicked” would be a plum assignment for any fan of American musicals. Since its debut in 2003, “Wicked” has become one of Broadway’s most beloved shows, winning three Tonys and playing to more than 63 million people worldwide, from London’s West End to Tokyo. So how did Chu, who’s done lots of movies with music, but not a whole lot of musicals, get the gig? “I really am a newbie in the musical world,” he admitted. “So I feel like I’m living the theater kid’s dream.”Scenes from a career: Chu’s credits include, clockwise from top left, “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” “Step Up 2 the Streets,” “In the Heights” and “Crazy Rich Asians.”Indeed, Chu, 45, has been a lover of musicals dating to his earliest days. As a boy, he regularly saw shows in San Francisco and grew up on a steady diet of film musicals, including “The Sound of Music” (“That was on all the time in our house”) and “Singin’ in the Rain.” An early viewing of “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the 1942 George M. Cohan biopic, inspired the young fan to start signing his name “Jon M. Chu,” in tribute.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      10 Movies That Capture the Essence of New York

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      With the Tribeca Festival around the corner, it’s a fitting time to look back at the memorable ways cinema has given New York City a featured role.What makes for a strong New York movie? The standouts are often, like the city itself, unpredictable, a little shabby around the edges, sometimes exasperating but always compelling.The Tribeca Festival, which runs Wednesday to June 18, has loved this kind of work since its beginnings and has made it a point to celebrate the films set right in its backyard. This year will feature one such movie made by one of the festival’s founders.“A Bronx Tale” (1993), the directing debut of Robert De Niro, will close the festival with a 30th anniversary screening that Mr. De Niro and the movie’s writer and co-star Chazz Palminteri (a Bronx native) are scheduled to attend. The film shows a reverence for the neighborhood in which much of it takes place, and Mr. De Niro brings a knowing eye to the material.As the festival has prided itself on being a hometown one, it’s a fitting time to look back at the memorable ways cinema has given New York City a featured role. Below, in alphabetical order, are 10 noteworthy movies that have helped to capture the city’s warts and all.Griffin Dunne, left with Teri Garr, plays the office worker Paul Hackett in “After Hours.”Warner Bros.‘After Hours’ (1985)A kinetic example of the one-wild-night movie, this dark comedy from Martin Scorsese carries its lead on a tidal wave of late-night mishaps through SoHo. Griffin Dunne brings just the right level of measured pathos to the office worker Paul Hackett, whose overnight journey kicks off with a near-calamitous cab ride and goes downhill from there. Anyone who has stayed out late enough in New York to know how weird things can get should be able to relate.John Malkovich, left, and Catherine Keener in “Being John Malkovich.”Universal City Studios‘Being John Malkovich’ (1999)The narrative of this movie (written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze), about a puppeteer who finds a portal into John Malkovich’s consciousness, is so original that it sometimes feels like it is inventing itself in front of your eyes. But in addition, the film does a great job of showcasing some of the city’s quirkier sides. The low ceiling of an office building’s seventh-and-a-half floor, which one can only get to using good elevator timing and a crowbar, is a great visual gag that, in its own way, mirrors the process of trying to find affordable housing in the city: trial but mostly error. The film throws in a New Jersey Turnpike joke for good measure.Spike Lee directed and starred in “Do the Right Thing.”Universal City Studios‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989)When it’s hot in the city, watch out. Spike Lee’s masterpiece uses a sweltering summer day to zero in on the boiling racial tensions between the residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood Bedford-Stuyvesant. But as bleak as it can be, it is also a love letter to the richness and brashness of personality this city holds. Its character ensemble includes the smooth-talking Mookie (Mr. Lee), the sly D.J.-chronicler Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson), the bold Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), the disgruntled pizzeria owner Sal (Danny Aiello) and a host of others that keep the film’s energy building to a breaking point.Al Pacino’s character, Sonny, robs a Brooklyn bank in “Dog Day Afternoon.”Moviestore/Shutterstock‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975)Speaking of summer heat, a sweaty, off-the-deep-end Al Pacino generates plenty of his own in this nerve rattler from Sidney Lumet. Chaos finds its home in the character Sonny (Mr. Pacino), who robs a Brooklyn bank and sets the screen afire along the way. The actor has taken hits for giving too much in some of his performances over the years (“hoo-ah”). But here, more is just enough. The city can certainly be a place to find spectacle, and Mr. Pacino is working overtime to provide it.“In the Heights” is an adaptation of the Broadway musical.Macall Polay/Warner Bros. Entertainment, via Associated Press‘In the Heights’ (2021)From its songs to its winsome performances and overall sense of place, Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes is as alive as it is poignant. Using the neighborhood of Washington Heights as its canvas, the film paints a breathtaking city portrait through dynamically choreographed numbers and surreal flights of fancy. A Busby Berkeley-inspired scene at the city pool and a softer sequence that has two characters dancing right up the outer walls of an apartment building capture the wonder lurking around the city’s corners.Catherine Keener, right, in “Please Give,” Nicole Holofcener’s comedy of errors.Piotr Redlinski/Sony Pictures Classics‘Please Give’ (2010)There’s a darkly funny moment in Nicole Holofcener’s comedy of errors that I often think about: The lead character Kate (Catherine Keener) sees a Black man in a ski cap standing outside a nice restaurant. Sensing he must be homeless, she offers him her doggie bag. He tells her he’s waiting for a table. Ms. Holofcener is excellent at painting New York characters like this who think they’re doing the right thing but are often getting it wrong. That tension between compassion and entitlement propels this thoughtful feature.Carey Mulligan stars with Michael Fassbender in “Shame.”Abbot Genser/Fox Searchlight Pictures‘Shame’ (2011)As rewarding of a place as New York can be, it can also beat you down. That comes across most apparently in the British director Steve McQueen’s tale of a sex-obsessed city dweller (Michael Fassbender). The film’s Manhattan melancholy is embodied in a slow, sad yet depressingly magical rendition of “New York, New York” performed by Mr. Fassbender’s co-star, Carey Mulligan. Sometimes being a part of it helps when you can spend some time apart from it.Will Smith, second from right, in “Six Degrees of Separation.”RGR Collection/Alamy‘Six Degrees of Separation’ (1993)A double-sided Kandinsky and a multilayered performance from Stockard Channing fuel this bitter tale of New York elites on the Upper East Side who are transformed by Paul (Will Smith), a young man who claims to be both friends with their college-age children and the son of Sidney Poitier. It’s a sharp, satirical look at the ways that wealth and class can bruise relationships.Robert De Niro in “Taxi Driver,” directed by Martin Scorsese.Moviestore/Shutterstock‘Taxi Driver’ (1976)“All the animals come out at night,” a disgusted Travis Bickle (Mr. De Niro) says early in Mr. Scorsese’s film. What he sees as a bug is really a feature in this nightmare story by Paul Schrader that makes the city pulse with an irresistible vibrancy and vigor. Mr. De Niro is captivating as both our city guide and its conscience. And Bernard Herrmann’s score brings a majestic method to all of the madness.“Wild Style” was directed by Charlie Ahearn.via Music Box Films‘Wild Style’ (1983)Featuring Lee Quiñones (and having a retrospective screening during the festival), this film from Charlie Ahearn captures the pulsating soul of early 1980s New York, with lovingly graffiti-plastered subway cars and joyful hip-hop beats. The party that closes out the film is just about guaranteed to get you moving. More

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      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Great Performances’ and ‘In the Heights’

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      PBS’s “Great Performances” debuts a Halloween-themed episode. And “In the Heights” airs on HBO.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Oct. 25-31. Details and times are subject to change.MondayPOV: THINGS WE DARE NOT DO 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). A teenager pushes against gender expectations in a small village in western Mexico in this documentary from the filmmaker Bruno Santamaría. The film follows a young Ñoño, who begins exploring femininity, leading to difficult conversations with conservative family members, and challenges from others in the community.TuesdayTHE LAST O.G. 10 p.m. on TBS. In the Season 3 finale of this comedy series, Tray (Tracy Morgan) was the victim of a violent attack. In Season 4, which will debut with a pair of new episodes on Tuesday night, Tray returns to his Brooklyn community determined to better his life. This season will be the first without Morgan’s original co-star, Tiffany Haddish. It’s something of a mirror of the series’s first episodes: The show started with Tray returning home after 15 years of incarceration.WednesdayPOLTERGEIST (1982) 7 p.m. on AMC. Channels have spent the month of October airing an array of spooky movies. Take advantage of the final week with a double feature of horror classics: “Poltergeist,” about a suburban family plagued by ghosts, and THE EXORCIST (1973), about a possessed child, which airs on AMC at 9:30 p.m.ThursdayFrom left, Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny and Adam Driver in “The Dead Don’t Die.” Abbot Genser/Focus FeaturesTHE DEAD DON’T DIE (2018) 5:30 p.m. on FX. The undead take their flesh with coffee and chardonnay in “The Dead Don’t Die,” Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy. Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny star as members of a small-town police department. In this world, a climate change driven apocalypse is set in motion by “polar fracking,” which disrupts the earth’s rhythms and causes the dead to awaken. There are familiar faces among the living and undead alike: Jarmusch assembled an unusually recognizable ensemble that includes Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, RZA, Steve Buscemi and Iggy Pop. “This is an end-of-the-world party with an appealing guest list and inviting, eccentric décor,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times. “The consumption of human flesh just keeps it interesting,” Scott added, “and the crepuscular light — shot by the ghoulishly gifted cinematographer Frederick Elmes — gives it a bewitching, Halloween ambience.” In this apocalypse, even the beheading of a ghoul manages to feel coolly understated.WALKER 8 p.m. on the CW. Cordell Walker, the fictional Texas Ranger played by Chuck Norris in the 1990s show “Walker, Texas Ranger,” supplements his badge, cowboy hat and belt buckle with a smartphone in a saddle brown leather case in this modern-day reboot. The Season 1 finale saw this new version of Walker (played by Jared Padalecki) revisit the site of his wife’s murder along the U.S.-Mexico border, and gave a shocking revelation about who killed her. The second season debuts on Thursday night. In an interview with The New York Times in August, Padalecki hinted at what the show’s second season might have in store for his character. “Now he realizes he needs to be there for his kids, for his parents, for his brother, for his work partners, and for himself,” Padalecki said. “We’ll see in Season 2 that Walker has found some degree of closure.”FridayGREAT PERFORMANCES: NOW HEAR THIS 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The violinist and conductor​​ Scott Yoo brings a group of musicians to a historic manor home in the Berkshires to record works by Beethoven in this latest entry of PBS’s “Great Performances” series. But like any Halloween-weekend program worth its candy corn, this one has some spooky twists: The group performs a seasonally-appropriate piece in Beethoven’s Op. 70, No. 1, the so-called Ghost Trio, and the episode also brings in dramatized fictional conversations between Beethoven and Sigmund Freud. (Apparently nothing is scarier than confronting one’s inner demons.)SaturdayMelissa Barrera and Anthony Ramos in “In the Heights.”Macall Polay/Warner Bros.IN THE HEIGHTS (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO. Since this movie adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical “In the Heights” debuted in July, Miranda’s best-known work, “Hamilton,” has returned to Broadway. For those who enjoy the comforts of a sofa, “In the Heights” can bring a taste of Broadway-scale spectacle to your living room. Directed by Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”), this lavish movie musical stars Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, a New Yorker who runs a bodega in Washington Heights. Usnavi dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic, where he lived as a child. He sings about the pursuit of that dream, and his neighborhood harmonizes with him. Though the musical opened on Broadway in 2008, the film version feels “as permanent as the girders of the George Washington Bridge,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times. “It’s a piece of mainstream American entertainment in the best sense — an assertion of impatience and faith, a celebration of communal ties and individual gumption, a testimony to the power of art to turn struggles into the stuff of dreams.”SundayDOCTOR WHO 8 p.m. on BBC America. Jodie Whittaker will return for her third and final season as the protagonist of this long running British sci-fi show on Sunday night. The new season will kick off with a Halloween-themed episode, and is also set to be the final one for the show’s current lead writer, Chris Chibnall. He has taken on a new challenge for the occasion: This season will tell a single story in six episodes. More

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      in Movies

      ‘In the Heights’ y el colorismo: lo que se pierde cuando se borra a los afrolatinos

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      La película, ambientada en un barrio neoyorquino conocido como la Pequeña República Dominicana, no incluyó a latinos de piel oscura en los papeles principales. Críticos y reporteros del Times analizan cómo repercute esa ausencia.In the Heights, la muy postergada adaptación de Hollywood del musical de Broadway, se presentó como un avance para la representación latina en Hollywood, pero ha suscitado una conversación sobre el colorismo y el reparto de la película.El barrio neoyorquino en el que se desarrolla la historia, Washington Heights, es predominantemente afrodominicano. En una entrevista, Felice León, productora de video para The Root, le preguntó a Jon M. Chu, el director, y a algunas de las estrellas sobre la falta de protagonistas de piel oscura en la película: “Como mujer negra de ascendencia cubana, específicamente de la ciudad de Nueva York”, le dijo, “sería negligente por mi parte no reconocer el hecho de que la mayoría de sus actores principales son personas latinas de piel clara o blanca”. Chu dijo que se trataba de una conversación pendiente y de algo sobre lo que necesitaba educarse. Al final, dijo, trataron “de conseguir a la gente que era mejor para esos papeles”.Lin-Manuel Miranda, integrante del equipo creativo de la película, que incluye a la escritora Quiara Alegría Hudes, abordó las críticas la semana pasada en un comunicado en Twitter. Se disculpó por quedarse corto al “intentar pintar un mosaico de esta comunidad”. Varios latinos destacados salieron en defensa de Miranda, incluida la pionera actriz latina Rita Moreno, que más tarde se retractó de sus comentarios. No es la primera vez que Chu tiene que responder a cuestionamientos de identidad. Su éxito de taquilla Crazy Rich Asians también tuvo que enfrentarse a cuestiones similares en lo que respecta al elenco de asiáticos y asiáticoestadounidenses en la película. (El actor principal de esa película, Henry Golding, es birracial).Pedí a cinco críticos y reporteros del Times que opinaran sobre las críticas y lo que significa para la representación en las artes. Estos son extractos editados de la conversación. MAIRA GARCIAEl equipo creativo de la película, en el que participan Jon M. Chu, a la izquierda, y Lin-Manuel Miranda, enfrenta acusaciones de colorismo.Macall Polay/Warner Bros.Mi primera ida al cine desde que comenzó la pandemia, como la de muchas personas, fue para ver In the Heights en la gran pantalla. Fue un momento de gozo, después de un año lleno de cosas sin alegría. Era emocionante ver cuerpos morenos cantando y bailando en la ciudad que ha sido mi hogar durante casi una década.Durante mucho tiempo ha habido una falta de representación latina en Hollywood, e In the Heights pretendía ser un avance para rectificar. Sin embargo, la entrevista de León planteó importantes cuestiones sobre el colorismo en el reparto de la película, que se centra en un barrio que tiene una gran población afrolatina. ¿Hizo el equipo creativo lo suficiente en lo que respecta a la representación?CONCEPCIÓN DE LEÓN En mi opinión, no. Desde que salió el tráiler me preocupaba el tema del colorismo en la película. Aparte de Leslie Grace, la actriz dominicanoestadounidense que interpreta a Nina, una estudiante universitaria puertorriqueña que tiene dificultades para encajar en la comunidad de la Universidad de Stanford, ninguno de los papeles principales lo interpreta un afrolatino. Hollywood lleva mucho tiempo valorando y destacando a los latinos de piel clara por encima de los afrolatinos, negándoles a menudo papeles que reflejan su cultura. Es una representación limitada e inexacta de los latinos, que son diversos en cultura y aspecto.Pero lo que hace que estas decisiones de reparto sean especialmente indignantes es que la película está ambientada en Heights, una zona que se conoce como la Pequeña República Dominicana. Al menos el 90 por ciento de los dominicanos somos afrodescendientes, según un reciente estudio de población. Entonces, ¿por qué no aparecemos de forma destacada? En cuanto a lo que el equipo podría haber hecho de forma distinta, parece sencillo. Podrían haber contratado a más actores negros y latinos, no para llenar una cuota de diversidad, sino porque eso habría reflejado la realidad del barrio. O, al menos, podrían haber sido más claros y decir que esta película no pretendía representarlos.SANDRA E. GARCIA Los dominicanos son afrodescendientes, son un pueblo negro y no vi que eso se representara. Los latinos que vi eran del tipo que Hollywood siempre ha favorecido: latinos que se parecen a Jennifer López y Sofía Vergara. Los latinos como yo, en los que no hay ambigüedad sobre su negritud, los que llevan su negritud en la cara, apenas pasan el corte en alguna producción, ya sea de Hollywood o de Univisión. Hay una razón por la que mi madre sabe los nombres de todos los presentadores de noticias de piel oscura en Telemundo y es porque es raro verlos en los reflectores. In the Heights continúa con el gaslighting o manipulación que los negros latinos han soportado desde que tengo memoria. Tenemos una cultura hermosa, tenemos una música es hermosa, pero no somos lo suficientemente dignos para que se nos destaque junto con ellas. Todo lo que creamos, como el salchichón y el mangú que se muestran en la película, o el merengue y la bachata, son dignos de celebración, pero nosotros no.Varias banderas aparecen en la escena del ‘Carnaval del Barrio’, pero no muchos rostros negros.Warner Bros.MAYA PHILLIPS Debo reconocer que no lo noté al principio; mis ojos estaban demasiado encandilados por la felicidad de ver un gran y brillante musical en una pantalla grande. Pero sí empecé a notar la ausencia: por ejemplo, en el número del Carnaval del Barrio (que está muy bien coreografiado, por cierto), hay una parte en la que la cámara se desplaza para mostrar a diferentes grupos de residentes que llevan varias banderas, y me di cuenta de la falta de rostros negros. Y Benny me llamó la atención porque aparentemente era el único personaje de piel oscura ¡en todo el barrio! A veces, mi madre y yo vemos una película o una obra de teatro, o simplemente estamos en algún lugar del mundo y jugamos a un juego llamado “Encuentra a los negros”, como “¿Dónde está Waldo?”, pero menos divertido, ja. Parece que muchas artes y reuniones públicas hacen como si los negros no existieran.Me pasa lo mismo, Maya. Soy una gran aficionada a los musicales y a la música latina, así que creo esto en parte nubla la realidad de este barrio: que es predominantemente afrolatino y que la falta de rostros negros se ha convertido en una omisión más flagrante.ISABELIA HERRERA He visto justificaciones que dicen que In the Heights no es un documental y no pretende representar al verdadero barrio dominicano de Washington Heights sino que se trata de un barrio latino de fantasía. Claro que entendemos que se trata de un musical, una historia con elementos surrealistas y fantásticos. Incluso si aceptamos la opinión de que una fantasía no tiene que ser representativa, ese argumento supone que de todos modos, los latinos negros no pertenecen a estos mundos imaginarios. Al mismo tiempo, el director, los actores y los productores han utilizado el lenguaje de la celebración comunitaria y la historia cultural del barrio real de Washington Heights para comercializar la película. Esto parece una contradicción, y una que para mí resulta muy reveladora.¿Qué significa el colorismo en la comunidad latina y cuáles son las formas en que se manifiesta? ¿Qué perdemos al no tener un amplio espectro de representación en las artes?DE LEÓN El colorismo en la comunidad latina se manifiesta de forma parecida a como sucede en la comunidad negra estadounidense: cuanto más clara es tu piel, más hermosa y deseable se te percibe. Mi complexión era siempre un tema de conversación cuando era niña, y a mis primas que son más oscuras que yo les iba peor, a menudo ridiculizadas con palabras denigrantes como “mona”, que están normalizadas pero tienen un trasfondo racista.En República Dominicana y en otros lugares existe el concepto de “mejorar la raza” al salir con blancos, para blanquear el linaje. Es una noción que tiene sus raíces en la colonización, cuando España implantó un sistema de castas en la isla de La Española, que la República Dominicana comparte con Haití, donde se situaba a las personas de ascendencia europea o mestiza más arriba en la escala social y se les permitía más oportunidades de progreso. Aunque este sistema ya no existe, todavía hay rastros de él en la forma en que se ve y se trata a los latinos negros. Son más pobres y tienen menos acceso a educación de calidad, vivienda o salud que los latinos de piel clara. Al borrarlos en la pantalla, estamos perpetuando este daño y fomentando la narrativa de que solo lo blanco es adecuado.En mi familia (soy mexicanoestadounidense), soy de piel más oscura que algunos de mis parientes y eso me ganó el apodo de “Prieta”. Tengo hermanos y primos que son más blancos que yo, incluso que pasan por blancos. Aunque algunos podrían considerar que palabras como prieta son términos cariñosos, también pueden ser muy perjudiciales, ya que transmiten una diferencia: no eres la norma, es decir, blanco.GARCIA Como alguien que ha existido como latina de piel negra toda la vida, el colorismo está en todas partes en la Latinidad, un término académico que dice que los latinos comparten hilos comunes de identidad. Las cicatrices de la colonización y de un dictador que se ponía polvos en la piel para parecer más claro siguen siendo visibles en la cultura dominicana. Para la gente como yo, esas cicatrices todavía se viven de forma muy visceral. Creo que los dominicanos están despertando a una negritud que se les ha enseñado a evitar, y creo que ahora más que nunca hay más espacio para los dominicanos de piel oscura. Dicho esto, el statu quo es que los latinos de piel más clara son mejores y mucha gente no está dispuesta a renunciar a eso, por la razón que sea.A.O. SCOTT Ese parece ser el caso de gran parte del cine y la televisión latinoamericanos. Es raro ver protagonistas negros o indígenas en las películas del Caribe o de Brasil, y más raro aún encontrar directores de esos orígenes.PHILLIPS Creo que todo esto refleja la visión terriblemente estrecha que tiene nuestra sociedad de la representación racial, que una persona latina debe tener un aspecto muy específico y una persona negra debe tener un aspecto muy específico, y que esas identidades no pueden cruzarse. Es como si existiera miedo a que tener ese amplio espectro de representación pueda ser confuso.Leslie Grace, a la derecha, es la única afrolatina entre los protagonistas de “In the Heights”, entre los que se encuentra Gregory Diaz IV como un ‘dreamer’.Warner Bros.La película no contaba con grandes estrellas en los papeles principales porque el equipo creativo quería arriesgarse con nuevos talentos. Parece que podría haber sido la oportunidad perfecta para evitar los problemas de colorismo. Chu dijo que seleccionaron a los mejores actores para los papeles. ¿Qué le pareció su respuesta? More

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      in Theater

      With ‘In the Heights,’ Jimmy Smits Sings a Little but Gave It a Lot

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      He doesn’t have a musical theater background, so he worked hard to make one line — “Good morning, Usnavi” — ring out. Now that’s how he’s being greeted.Why shouldn’t your morning stop at a bodega be worthy of a break-into-song moment? That’s the winning way “In the Heights” introduces Jimmy Smits’s character: He strolls into the corner store run by Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) to pick up his café con leche while cheerfully crooning, “Good mooorning, Usnavi!” In a musical filled with all sorts of twisty wordplay from the lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, somehow this simple line is the most sublime — and hey, who knew the Emmy-winning actor from “N.Y.P.D. Blue” and “L.A. Law” could carry a tune?Directed by Jon M. Chu, the screen adaptation of the Broadway show casts Smits in the supporting role of Kevin Rosario, a car-service owner who’s determined to put his wavering daughter, Nina (Leslie Grace), through an expensive college education. But is that his dream and not hers? The characters have an awfully complicated clash that Smits was eager to take on, but first he had to make it through “Good morning, Usnavi,” the line that loomed above all others. Last month over Zoom, Smits told me just how much went into that brief moment.These are edited excerpts from our conversation.Are you prepared to have people singing “Good morning, Usnavi,” to you for the rest of your life? Have people already started?I’m actually OK with that! On the family text thread that my kids and everybody’s on, that’s the way they’ll say hi now: Instead of, “Hey tio” or “Yo pops,” they’ll go, “Good morning, Usnavi.”That’s your very first line in the movie. I would imagine there was a lot of pressure to nail that moment in cast read-throughs, since people don’t really know you as a singing actor.That’s when you get, “Have you been in a musical before? I didn’t know you sang.” And I don’t! I don’t sang with the S-A-N-G. There’s some people in that cast, they can sang — I just tried to hold my own. All I know is that when I got through those first couple of lines, everybody was smiling. There were no people looking down at the scripts.Still, you’ve done a little bit of in-character singing before in episodes of “N.Y.P.D. Blue” and “The West Wing.” And I know you did a cameo on “Cop Rock” back in the day, but I couldn’t find out whether they made you sing or not.You’re embarrassing the hell out of me. No, I didn’t sing on that.Jimmy, you appeared on “Cop Rock” and you didn’t sing? What’s the point?That’s exactly right. Oh, man! Even on this, I had six lines that were musical, and I had four different vocal coaches. Warner Bros. was telling my agents like, “Really? Does he have to have two vocal coaches on each coast?” Yeah, because I wanted to be on point as much as possible!And even though it’s just a few sung lines, they do convey a lot.I appreciate you saying that because even with the three lines that are in that song, we did this whole character-based, psychological approach. It’s a switch-up from the rhymes that are happening, and it’s more your traditional thing. Originally I was like, “I’m going to make this count, and I want it to be big!” And they were like, “No, no, no. Let’s talk about the character and what’s going on there.” It was part of the exact same things that I had to do with the back-and-forth dramatic scenes in the family.Smits grew up in Brooklyn, but from age 10 to 12, he lived in Puerto Rico: “Everything that I am now as an adult relates to that experience.”Ryan Pfluger for The New York TimesWhat did you do on set to get yourself into that musical mode?I like to use music a lot, especially when I’m in prep for something, and I was playing my boy Carlos Gómez [who originated the role onstage]. I was playing “Inutil” over and over again, which is the song he sings from the Broadway version. So Carlos, he was with me the whole time.And he does a pretty great “Good morning, Usnavi,” too.Pretty great? It’s incredible!Do you remember when you first met Lin-Manuel Miranda?There was a friend of mine who worked at the Drama Book Shop who told me, “There’s these kids from Wesleyan doing stuff in the basement here. Jimmy, they’re the real deal.” And then a couple years later, I was at 37 Arts with my lady, seeing “In the Heights” Off Broadway, and we realized, “Oh, this is the kid that Stu was talking about. This is the new wave.” Next thing I know, he’s spitting rhymes for Barack and Michelle.I remember telling them when they went to Broadway, “Anything you need from me …” He gave me a call one day and said, “We’re going to do the commercial for the show. Could you do the voice-over?” “Come on, man. Yes, I’m there!” During my first meeting with Jon, I actually referenced Michelle Yeoh in terms of “Crazy Rich Asians,” and I was saying, “I want to do what she did for that film. I want to help in any way I can.”You grew up in New York. Could you relate to what these characters are going through?I grew up in Brooklyn, but I lived all over New York, and we moved to Puerto Rico from 10 to 12. I went from listening to Motown and R&B and the Beatles to boom, I’m in Puerto Rico listening to Trio Los Panchos. Everything that I am now as an adult relates to that experience: Where do you fit in? I think all of the moving around has something to do with me doing what I do.Smits in “In the Heights.” He didn’t even get to sing when he appeared in a cameo on “Cop Rock.”Macall Polay/Warner Bros.You had to learn how to play different sides of yourself to different types of people.Absolutely. And in Puerto Rico, it was traumatic because I was the Yankee! But everything that I hold dear to me in terms of culture comes from that time that I can trace back. The speech that Kevin has about shining shoes? I shined shoes in the plaza in Ponce, I know what that was like as a kid and how it resonates. Even when I do Shakespeare and Shaw and Pinter, there are parts of me culturally that make all of those roles unique, but here there are things that I can really relate to because I can channel my tios, my uncles, and my parents and all their expectations and hopes and dreams on a wonderful level.How did your family feel about you becoming an actor?Well, I don’t come from a musical or theatrical kind of background. It’s not like my parents took me to the movies — I wound up doing the bulk of my work on television, and I think it has something to do with the fact that the TV set was the thing that we coalesced around as a family. But they were always very supportive, and I joke around about the fact that they would come see me do something like a Shakespearean play and go, “That was nice. Why does everybody talk like that?”Did you know as a kid that you wanted to do this?I knew pretty early. I went to George Gershwin Junior High School in Brooklyn, and if you did good in school, you could be part of the musical — “Damn Yankees” and “Carousel” and all of that stuff. After that, I went to Thomas Jefferson High School in a not-great neighborhood in East New York, and there happened to be this English literature teacher who I’m still very friendly with and he took us to plays. Seeing Raul Julia and James Earl Jones for the first time, they probably were the most inspirational to me, because I saw the parallels there: “That guy is from the same place Mom is from, and he speaks with an accent!”And then there was another professor who was working at Brooklyn College, Bernie Barrow, who encouraged me. He said, “You’re showing this interest in the classics and you probably could go to L.A. and be the crook of the week on ‘Hill Street Blues,’ but you should think about graduate school and adding some tools to the toolbox.” So he helped me navigate applying to all these schools and I wound up at Cornell, which had a very small, almost monastic M.F.A. program. But for me, that was joy. That was the right thing to do, even when it was 6 a.m. and I was at the ballet bar, wondering if I made the right decision.If you were singing and dancing at Cornell and aspiring to be in those musicals in junior high, then this is something of a full-circle moment for you.Absolutely. This is the whole thing about the business, you’ve got to keep your instrument in tune. When I took all those dance and voice classes, it’s not like it went to the wayside, but I wasn’t using that as much here in L.A. because I was doing television. But I should have still been doing it. I kick myself about that now.See, that’s just more proof that they should have let you sing on “Cop Rock.”Exactly! More

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      Lin-Manuel Miranda responde a las críticas sobre el elenco de ‘In the Heights’

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      La película generó malestar por presentar actores latinos de piel clara en los papeles principales, a pesar de la prevalencia de latinos de piel oscura en el barrio donde se rodó.Lin-Manuel Miranda reconoció las críticas de que la adaptación cinematográfica de su musical In the Heights no había representado adecuadamente a la población afrolatina de piel oscura de Washington Heights, el barrio del Alto Manhattan en el que está ambientado, y también se ha disculpado por quedarse corto al “intentar pintar un mosaico de esta comunidad”.La película, adaptación del musical de Broadway, ganador de un Tony por mejor guion, sobre el propietario de una bodega que sueña con volver a República Dominicana, se estrenó en los cines y en HBO Max la semana pasada, obteniendo críticas positivas y elogios por todo lo alto.Sin embargo, la película también suscitó críticas en internet por la decisión de los cineastas de seleccionar actores latinos de piel clara para los papeles principales, a pesar de la prevalencia de latinos de piel oscura en el barrio donde se rodó la película.Miranda, que formó parte del equipo creativo de la película, dijo en su declaración que estaba prestando atención a las opiniones en línea, incluidas las muestras de pesar y frustración por el colorismo y por “sentirse aún invisibles” en la película.“Empecé a escribir In the Heights porque no me sentía visto”, escribió Miranda en un comunicado publicado en Twitter el lunes por la noche. “Y durante los últimos 20 años todo lo que quería era que nosotros —TODOS nosotros— nos sintiéramos vistos”.“He oído que sin suficiente representación de afrolatinos de piel oscura”, continuó, “la obra se siente explotadora de la comunidad que tanto queríamos representar con orgullo y alegría”.“En los comentarios puedo escuchar el pesar y la frustración por el colorismo, por sentirse aún invisibles”, dijo en el comunicado.La película, un proyecto que tardó una década y que tuvo un presupuesto de 55 millones de dólares, fue protagonizada por Anthony Ramos como el dueño de la bodega, Melissa Barrera como una aspirante a diseñadora de moda y Leslie Grace como Nina, una estudiante de Stanford en dificultades.En una entrevista reciente, la guionista de la película, Quiara Alegría Hudes, habló de la decisión de hacer de Nina un personaje afrolatino en la versión cinematográfica. “Quería hacer conscientemente que Nina fuera afrolatina en esta versión de In the Heights. Desde que estrenamos el espectáculo en Broadway, se ha producido esta conversación nacional en torno a las microagresiones y cosas realmente interesantes que siento que serían aplicables a la situación de Nina”.Corey Hawkins, que interpreta al interés amoroso de Nina y empleado del servicio de taxis de su padre, es negro, pero no latino (algunos también criticaron a los realizadores por eliminar un punto de la trama, que había existido en el musical, en el que el personaje de Hawkins dice que el padre de Nina no cree que sea lo suficientemente bueno para ella). More

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      They Fought to Make ‘In the Heights’ Both Dreamlike and Authentic

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      The creative team of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Jon M. Chu explain what it took to create a euphoric spectacle that stayed true to its cultural roots.Lin-Manuel Miranda still believes it was a miracle that “In the Heights,” the musical homage to Latino culture through the lens of the Washington Heights neighborhood, made it to Broadway. Back in 2008, before striving for inclusion became the entertainment industry standard, he and the playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes were unknowns peddling a joyful narrative about unseen people.Their exuberant show inspired by their families and neighbors finally reaches the big screen (and HBO Max) this week after stumbling through multiple studios. Warner Bros. and the director Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) were ultimately entrusted with the project.In retrospect, Miranda said, it was naïve to think that getting the show from the stage to the multiplex would be easy. It took more than a decade.“Some of the hurdles were about Hollywood’s unwillingness to take chances on new talent and invest in that,” Miranda said. “When you watch this movie that Jon has so beautifully directed, you see a screen full of movie stars, but some of them you may not have heard of before. They were movie stars without the roles they needed to become movie stars.” More

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      ‘In the Heights’ | Anatomy of a Scene

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      Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera.Film directors walk viewers through one scene of their movies, showing the magic, motives and the mistakes from behind the camera. More