IN THE HEIGHTS Makes Sarasota Premiere

IN THE HEIGHTS, winner of four 2008 Tony Awards and the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, is coming to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on Sunday, November 27 at 7:00 pm.

IN THE HEIGHTS tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood - 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 addition to winning the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show's creator, won the Tony Award for Best Music and Lyrics, Andy Blankenbuehler won for Best Choreography, and Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman won for Best Orchestrations. The original cast recording won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. In The Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams a Great Performances special chronicling the personal stories of composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Broadway cast of IN THE HEIGHTS in the months leading up to opening night, premiered on PBS stations across the country in May 2009. The Washington Post said IN THE HEIGHTS is "PURE BROADWAY. AN EVENING OF OLD-STYLE, INNOCENT PLEASURE" and Ben Brantley of The New York Times enthused IN THE HEIGHTS is "AN EXUBERANT, ANIMATED SHRINE TO THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY TIES AND BEING FAITHFUL TO WHERE YOU COME FROM."

Ticket prices range from $30 to $70. IN THE HEIGHTS is a Van Wezel Family Night (Buy a full-priced adult ticket and get a FREE ticket for a young person age 6-18, while Family Night tickets last). For more information and to buy tickets, contact the Van Wezel Box office at (941) 953-3368 or log onto www.vanwezel.org.

Sponsored by Wilde Lexus of Sarasota and ABC 7.