The universal message of In The Heights of achieving the American dream has proven to resonate with audiences across the nation, and across ethnic and cultural lines. Currently playing at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, local audiences are no exception. Much has to do with the exceptional performances in the 2008 Best Musical Tony award-winning musical. One of those exceptional performers is native Angeleno, Danny Bolero.
Creator, composer and performer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is reprising his role of Usnavi for the L.A. production, conceived the characters of In The Heights based on people he knew while growing up in the neighborhood of Washington Heights. The characters of Nina, Kevin and Camila Rosario are perhaps, the strongest of the concurrent storylines told, and the one without the simplest ending.
Bolero is Kevin Rosario, Nina's (Arielle Jacobs) overprotective father, who only wants to insure his family has everything they want. Committed to have Nina be the first to attend college in the family Kevin, with the help of his wife Camila (Natalie Toro) proudly help send Nina off to Stanford University. Nina returns to Washington Heights with the shame and disappointment of having dropped out.
Commitment to family is something Bolero knows full well – through his own father’s commitment to his family. “He worked three jobs to put us through private school,” said Bolero. “My parents would go without so much, to provide for us.”
Bolero lost his parents to Alzheimer’s disease over ten years ago. Before they died, he took four years off from his career to take care of them full-time. “For me,” said Bolero, “it’s in honor of them that this character takes place.” He dedicates his performances to his parents, and – spiritually -- he brings them on stage every time he performs. “They were at every show. They supported me all of their lives even though they thought I would grow out of it [the acting bug].”
Impressed with how Latino audiences in Los Angeles have embraced In The Heights Bolero says, “The Latino population is hungry to hear their voice on stage. They get the jokes. They get the cariño.” Adding that in New York, he saw more of the universal messages of family and tradition reaching non-Latinos. “This type of show is needed and this is history in the making.”
This isn’t Bolero’s first performance in a Broadway production. Before In The Heights, he performed on Broadway in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He also has a rich history of local performances including playing Che Guevara in numerous productions of Evita and Cesar Chavez in Ed Begley’s Cesar and Ruben. His performance of Cesar Chavez was so real that UFW leader Dolores Huerta recommended him for the part of Cesar in the 2008 documentary Viva La Causa.
Aside from his parents, Bolero credits his success to his first acting teacher, Margo Albert. He said he was lucky at the age of 15 to be accepted to her acting class and receive the guidance of a legend who took the time to show kids in the barrio of Lincoln Heights, her craft. Margo Albert was a film actress and dancer who gave acting classes to young talent in East Los Angeles and helped found Plaza de la Raza – an educational, arts and cultural center in Lincoln Park – forty years ago. After she passed away, the original acting group fell apart, but Bolero said he realized “he had to just trust the rules she gave me and jump out of the nest.” And he has -- from Lincoln Heights to Washington Heights and from Broadway to Hollywood.
Margo Albert and Bolero’s parents would be proud.
Playing at the P:antages Theater in Los Angeles through July 25, 2010
Running Time: 2 Hours 15 Minutes
Purchase Tickets: HERE http://ticketsus.at/BLARef?CTY=37&DURL=http://www.ticketmaster.com/venueartist/90160/1089137?brand=pantagesca
Or Call 866-755-3075 M-F 10-5 PST for availability and ordering.
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