Lin-Manuel Miranda's IN THE HEIGHTS Opens Musical Theatre West's 65th Anniversary Season

Musical Theatre West celebrates its 65th ANNIVERSARY SEASON with an outstanding line-up of classic and contemporary Broadway masterpieces, opening with Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning production In the Heights, October 20 through November 5, 2017.

The season continues with White Christmas (December 1-10, 2017); followed by Frank Loesser's "Best Musical" Guys& Dolls (February 16 - March 4, 2018); George and Ira Gershwin's Nice Work If You Can Get It (April 6 - April 22, 2018); and the patriot new musical about the life and times of George M. Cohan, Yankee Doodle (July 6 - July 22, 2018). Tickets for In the Heights start at $20, or purchase a season subscription for all five shows for $80 - $260 for all five shows. Tickets are available at www.musical.org, call (562) 856-1999, ext. 4, or go to the MTW Ticket Office.

IN THE HEIGHTS

Before there was Hamilton, there was Lin-Manuel Miranda's cutting edge musical masterpiece In the Heights, the winner of the 2008 Tony Awards for "Best Musical," "Best Score," "Best Choreography" and "Best Orchestrations." With music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, the show captured the heart of audiences of all ages with its universal theme of chasing your dreams and finding your true home. The story is set over the course of three days in the vibrant New York community of Washington Heights - a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It's a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.

In the Heights became the toast of Broadway in 2008 and was recognized as a groundbreaking 21st-century musical, ushering in the next chapter in the classic American musical history. The show earned thirteen Tony Award nominations, winning four. The soundtrack went on to win a Grammy Award for "Best Musical Show Album" and earned a nomination for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. MTW's production boasts a cast of seasoned theatre professionals and television stars. Perry Young, who starred in the national tour of In the Heights, reprises the role of Usnavi, a role that earned him a BroadwayWorld Award for "Best Lead Actor in a Musical." His additional credits include Slim in iLLA: A Hip-Hop Musical (O'Neill NMTC and NYMF), and original Prince Naveen at Disneyland in Tiana's Showboat Jubilee. Perry is a founding member of the #Bars hip-hop workshop with Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Alyssa V Gomez (Nina) just finished the second Broadway National Tour of Motown the Musical. She has also starred in productions of Rent (Mimi), American Idiot (Whatsername), and Legally Blonde (Pilar). The cast also features Mario Rocha (Kevin), Elvira Barjau (Camila), Carleton Bluford (Benny), and Teresa Castillo (Vanessa), who starred as Sabrina Santiago for four years on the long-running soap opera General Hospital. (See full cast list following Calendar Listings). Benjamin Perez directs, with Dennis Castellano serving as Musical Director/Conductor) and Hector Guerrero as Choreographer.

Musical Theatre West's production of In The Heights is made possible thanks to the support of Season Honorary Producers: The Ackerman Family/Evalyn M Bauer Foundation, Ken & Dottie Reiner, The Schulzman-Neri Foundation, Don & Marlene Temple, and Kathy Baker Cambell and KC Wilson, Associate Producers Joan Wells and Jim & Liz Breslauer. The Arts Council for Long Beach serves as the Education Outreach Performance Underwriter, with Youth Performance Underwriters Dr. Ron & Sylvia Hartman, Kelly Janousek, and Craig Myers & Sherri Sobel. Paul Garman serves as Executive Producer/Director of Musical Theatre West.

MUSICAL Theatre West CELEBRATES 65th ANNIVERSARY

The 2017-2018 season marks the 65th anniversary of Southern California's premiere musical theatre company. Since its inception as the Whittier Civic Light Opera in 1952, the company originally produced two shows a year for just two days each. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the group remained an all-volunteer effort, producing one show a year, moving to La Mirada in 1977 where it produced its full season of shows. During the 1980s and 1990s, the company added professional talent and produced regional premieres and even a world premiere.

In 1993 the organization officially changed to Musical Theatre West, which was followed by the move to the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach in 1997. This season marks the 20th anniversary of MTW's partnership with the Long Beach landmark theater. The company quickly became the largest arts producer in the Long Beach area, and has continued to present world and west-coast premieres, with some of Broadway's and televisions greatest performers, from Davis Gaines (Phantom of the Opera), Andrea McArdle (Annie), and Susan Egan (Beauty and the Beast), to Sally Struthers, Adrian Zmed, and Carol Lawrence, to name a few.

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