Save the date: June 18, 2021. That’s when the eagerly awaited film adaptation of In the Heights will premiere simultaneously on HBO Max and in movie theaters.
It features a score by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a screenplay by the musical’s original book writer, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and an all-star cast including Miranda and Jimmy Smits, in a Jon M. Chu film production, for Warner Bros.
The show is about life in Washington Heights, where Miranda grew up – as did NYCOTC Editor Evelyn Kanter.
When I grew up there, it was a community of European immigrants and refugees from Italy, Ireland, Germany and Austria, before it became a community of Latino immigrants primarily from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
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In the Heights features:
Anthony Ramos as Usnavi,
Corey Hawkins as Benny,
Melissa Barrera as Vanessa,
Leslie Grace as Nina,
Olga Merediz as Abuela Claudia,
Daphne Rubin-Vega as Daniela,
Jimmy Smits as Kevin Rosario,
Lin-Manuel Miranda as Piragua Guy.
The movie version of the award-winning Broadway show was scheduled for release on June 26, 2020, but plans were scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic.
The joint release on a streaming service and in theaters is part of a new strategy for Warner Bros. Pictures, which will premiere its entire slate of 2021 films this way.
In the Heights will be available concurrently on HBO Max and in theaters for the first month of release. After that, the film leaves the streaming platform and continues in theaters.
There’s no word yet on ticket pricing, or whether HBO Max will offer a discount deal before the release to encourage new subscribers.
Evelyn Kanter is a native New Yorker who has written for the NY Times, NY Daily News, NY Post, New York Magazine, and is a former on-air reporter for WCBS Newsradio 88 and WABC-TV Eyewitness News.
NYCOTC Editor Evelyn Kanter also is the author of several NYC and Hudson Valley guidebooks, including my latest, 100 Things to Do in NYC Before You Die.
Purchase autographed copies by emailing evelyn@nyconthecheap.com
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