In the Heights trip
Sara and I finally got to make our trip to the Chicago area to see In the Hieghts. We went up there on Saturday, March 2nd.
Yes, I made it to my voice lesson with Megan Warren at Double Threat Studios in Bettendorf before hitting the road. And yes, I didn't really pack until I got home. I had clean laundry, mind you, so it didn't take long. I threw a pair of clothes into a bookbag. I also brought my laptop, as a last second impulse decision. I think I knew I was going to want to work on 2019: The Calm Before the Storm from the hotel room at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort.
Sara and I managed to get on the road right at about 11:56 am. We listened to the In the Heights soundtrack on the trip up, and even had the chance to swap out for disc 2, thanks to Sara being in the car, and available to swap out the discs.
I didn't eat much through the afternoon. I had taken Mason up to Hy Vee for a quick breakfast and to make a photo copy of his passport for his upcoming trip to Cancun. I grabbed a sourdough bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich with a Starry soda. I had a few bites of that while I was pumping gas at the Casey's in Sterling. This was key, because I wasn't going to be having dinner until after the show. And with it being at least two and a half hours, counting intermission, I wasn't going to be getting dinner until approximately 8:00. Sara would have bought me a snack inside Casey's if I had asked her, I'm sure of that. But I was covered. Wait a minute, I did have her grab me another water. I go through water like a camel. Not just on road trips.
Man, now that I think about it, it was really nice weather for March.
The interchange from Interstate 88 to 294 was as usual treacherous. But I managed to stay with the flow, even as the roadwork made it confusing what was an express lane, what was an exit lane.
I did make one wrong turn by way of missing the exit for the Marriott Lincolnshire. In my defense, I was looking out for the brown sign advertising the Marriott Theater. I had noticed that on my way up to visit Mike Scimeca and the gaming group in December on my way to Libertyville. Problem is, Sara pointed out we were past the theater according to the GPS.
So I got off at an exit and reentered Interstate 94, heading back south.
We still made it to the theater with time to spare.
Graffiti Pete took the stage first, leaving his tags on the service entrance gate to the bodega. Usnavi, played by Joseph A. Morales, followed him shortly thereafter. We learn that Usnavi is smitten with Vanessa. Played by Paola V. Hernández, we learn through song that Vanessa has never had to pay for a coffee, Usnavi's treat. And yet she is still pretty oblivious to the fact he's in love with her. Vanessa wants to start her own hair salon in Midtown. Though happy enough with her job as a hair stylist in Washington Heights, she still dreams of having a business of her own. She needs a co-signer. Usnavi could provide that for her. But, as he sings, "I'm going home, and home's what Vanessa's running away from."
Although, let it be known, Vanessa's not the one leaving for the Dominican Republic. She's quietly sad. She wishes she were mad. But she's quietly sad that Usnavi's leaving. Because unbeknownst to him, Vanessa's completely falling in love with him too. And she's only moving across town. I think she's waiting for him to ask her out.
Usnavi, for his part, has plans to start his own business back in the Dominican Republic. But that would require leaving Vanessa, whom he's only just worked up the courage to ask out on a first date, going out to the night club.
Usnavi is kind of torn between two worlds. On the one hand, he has his parents' homeland, on the other hand, he has a lot of people who depend on him here.
Addie Morales plays the part of Nina. She only has eyes for Benny. Yasir Muhammad played Benny. In as much as Joseph A. Morales and Paula V. Hernandez were the leads, and were great as the young couple embracing at the moment that they were primed to separate, I felt like Nina and Benny just electrified. They wound up loving each other even in as much as Nina's dad totally forbid it. And Nina admonishes Benny for thinking that she would just go along with whatever her dad wanted, and letting himself think of her as an entitled girl. Love wins. All Benny needed to do was face down Nina's dad with a show of his own character. Yes, Nina needed to understand why Benny was so afraid to move things forward and act on his feelings. That established, they had the least of barriers standing in between them. Just tell the dad it's what she wants, it would make her so happy, just like with Tzeitel and Motel the Tailor in Fiddler on the Roof. Forces greater than the dad were pushing them together in the first place.
If there were an equivalent matchmaker in this show, it'd be Abuela Claudia. Played by Crissy Guerrero, she had a lot of stage energy. To be fair, when it was asked of her, she was able to behave as if she were elderly. She was able to pass herself off as a woman who had emigrated decades ago, and had been to dance hallls with Mayor LaGuardia. She had seen things. She had lived her life. And I was deceived when she came hobbling onto the stage for her first entrance. She danced it up in her salsa number.
Abuela Claudia of course has a secret. Not just knowing that Usnavi likes Vanessa. She wins the 96,000 dollars. She gives about a third of that to Usnavi. Now how should he choose to spend that money? Should he go back to the Dominican and reopen his parents' seaside cantina?
Or maybe he could use it to fix up the store in Washington Heights, which gets picked over by looters during the power outage that happens at the intermission?
Or he could give some of the money to love of his life Vanessa? She after all stands to benefit a significant amount if he puts up some capitol and cosigns for a bank loan to get her midtown beauty salon up and running.
In the Heights is a 3 and 3/4th star musical for me. It's an A-. But it has wonderful, beautiful music with sharp, clever turns of phrase woven into the lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who mind you also did the score. The actors, though exhausted, and staring down an evening performance not ninety minutes later, did excellent.
After the play, we met up with Mike Scimeca and got some Cheesecake factory. Four cheese penne for me. Two glasses of Stella Artois. Yes, I had given up alcohol for lent. No, I haven't been very good about it. I wound up using up my fourth and fifth cheat night all in one night there. But it was excellent. Sara and Mike chatted about Star Trek and Doctor Who. Cross-stitch was also a topic of conversation.
In the morning, Sara grabbed me a coffee and croissant from the Starbucks onsite. We hit the road by 10 am, making one gas stop in Aurora, where I grabbed Peanut M&Ms and a Cherry Sprite, plus a Dr. Pepper for Sara, and I found a Chicago Sun-Times for myself.
Yes, I still buy hard copies of paper newspapers. I don't like all the pop ups and ads that come with the online articles. As for my Kindle Fire, it froze mid purchase of a Chicago Tribune in October or so of 2022. I was able to read about Joe Keery, Steve from Stranger Things who also has a musical career; and Richard Roeper's review of Kate Winslet's new Max series, The Regime.
Despite some breeze, we made it home by 1:30, so I had time to spare to make it to Centennial Hall for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra concert, replete with the Augustana Oratorio Society performing the Fauré Requiem.
I have made two payments on my Master Card since booking the tickets, which means the tickets are definitely paid off, plus eighty-two dollars of the Cheesecake Factory meal is paid down.
Yes, I made it to my voice lesson with Megan Warren at Double Threat Studios in Bettendorf before hitting the road. And yes, I didn't really pack until I got home. I had clean laundry, mind you, so it didn't take long. I threw a pair of clothes into a bookbag. I also brought my laptop, as a last second impulse decision. I think I knew I was going to want to work on 2019: The Calm Before the Storm from the hotel room at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort.
Sara and I managed to get on the road right at about 11:56 am. We listened to the In the Heights soundtrack on the trip up, and even had the chance to swap out for disc 2, thanks to Sara being in the car, and available to swap out the discs.
I didn't eat much through the afternoon. I had taken Mason up to Hy Vee for a quick breakfast and to make a photo copy of his passport for his upcoming trip to Cancun. I grabbed a sourdough bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich with a Starry soda. I had a few bites of that while I was pumping gas at the Casey's in Sterling. This was key, because I wasn't going to be having dinner until after the show. And with it being at least two and a half hours, counting intermission, I wasn't going to be getting dinner until approximately 8:00. Sara would have bought me a snack inside Casey's if I had asked her, I'm sure of that. But I was covered. Wait a minute, I did have her grab me another water. I go through water like a camel. Not just on road trips.
Man, now that I think about it, it was really nice weather for March.
The interchange from Interstate 88 to 294 was as usual treacherous. But I managed to stay with the flow, even as the roadwork made it confusing what was an express lane, what was an exit lane.
I did make one wrong turn by way of missing the exit for the Marriott Lincolnshire. In my defense, I was looking out for the brown sign advertising the Marriott Theater. I had noticed that on my way up to visit Mike Scimeca and the gaming group in December on my way to Libertyville. Problem is, Sara pointed out we were past the theater according to the GPS.
So I got off at an exit and reentered Interstate 94, heading back south.
We still made it to the theater with time to spare.
Graffiti Pete took the stage first, leaving his tags on the service entrance gate to the bodega. Usnavi, played by Joseph A. Morales, followed him shortly thereafter. We learn that Usnavi is smitten with Vanessa. Played by Paola V. Hernández, we learn through song that Vanessa has never had to pay for a coffee, Usnavi's treat. And yet she is still pretty oblivious to the fact he's in love with her. Vanessa wants to start her own hair salon in Midtown. Though happy enough with her job as a hair stylist in Washington Heights, she still dreams of having a business of her own. She needs a co-signer. Usnavi could provide that for her. But, as he sings, "I'm going home, and home's what Vanessa's running away from."
Although, let it be known, Vanessa's not the one leaving for the Dominican Republic. She's quietly sad. She wishes she were mad. But she's quietly sad that Usnavi's leaving. Because unbeknownst to him, Vanessa's completely falling in love with him too. And she's only moving across town. I think she's waiting for him to ask her out.
Usnavi, for his part, has plans to start his own business back in the Dominican Republic. But that would require leaving Vanessa, whom he's only just worked up the courage to ask out on a first date, going out to the night club.
Usnavi is kind of torn between two worlds. On the one hand, he has his parents' homeland, on the other hand, he has a lot of people who depend on him here.
Addie Morales plays the part of Nina. She only has eyes for Benny. Yasir Muhammad played Benny. In as much as Joseph A. Morales and Paula V. Hernandez were the leads, and were great as the young couple embracing at the moment that they were primed to separate, I felt like Nina and Benny just electrified. They wound up loving each other even in as much as Nina's dad totally forbid it. And Nina admonishes Benny for thinking that she would just go along with whatever her dad wanted, and letting himself think of her as an entitled girl. Love wins. All Benny needed to do was face down Nina's dad with a show of his own character. Yes, Nina needed to understand why Benny was so afraid to move things forward and act on his feelings. That established, they had the least of barriers standing in between them. Just tell the dad it's what she wants, it would make her so happy, just like with Tzeitel and Motel the Tailor in Fiddler on the Roof. Forces greater than the dad were pushing them together in the first place.
If there were an equivalent matchmaker in this show, it'd be Abuela Claudia. Played by Crissy Guerrero, she had a lot of stage energy. To be fair, when it was asked of her, she was able to behave as if she were elderly. She was able to pass herself off as a woman who had emigrated decades ago, and had been to dance hallls with Mayor LaGuardia. She had seen things. She had lived her life. And I was deceived when she came hobbling onto the stage for her first entrance. She danced it up in her salsa number.
Abuela Claudia of course has a secret. Not just knowing that Usnavi likes Vanessa. She wins the 96,000 dollars. She gives about a third of that to Usnavi. Now how should he choose to spend that money? Should he go back to the Dominican and reopen his parents' seaside cantina?
Or maybe he could use it to fix up the store in Washington Heights, which gets picked over by looters during the power outage that happens at the intermission?
Or he could give some of the money to love of his life Vanessa? She after all stands to benefit a significant amount if he puts up some capitol and cosigns for a bank loan to get her midtown beauty salon up and running.
In the Heights is a 3 and 3/4th star musical for me. It's an A-. But it has wonderful, beautiful music with sharp, clever turns of phrase woven into the lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who mind you also did the score. The actors, though exhausted, and staring down an evening performance not ninety minutes later, did excellent.
After the play, we met up with Mike Scimeca and got some Cheesecake factory. Four cheese penne for me. Two glasses of Stella Artois. Yes, I had given up alcohol for lent. No, I haven't been very good about it. I wound up using up my fourth and fifth cheat night all in one night there. But it was excellent. Sara and Mike chatted about Star Trek and Doctor Who. Cross-stitch was also a topic of conversation.
In the morning, Sara grabbed me a coffee and croissant from the Starbucks onsite. We hit the road by 10 am, making one gas stop in Aurora, where I grabbed Peanut M&Ms and a Cherry Sprite, plus a Dr. Pepper for Sara, and I found a Chicago Sun-Times for myself.
Yes, I still buy hard copies of paper newspapers. I don't like all the pop ups and ads that come with the online articles. As for my Kindle Fire, it froze mid purchase of a Chicago Tribune in October or so of 2022. I was able to read about Joe Keery, Steve from Stranger Things who also has a musical career; and Richard Roeper's review of Kate Winslet's new Max series, The Regime.
Despite some breeze, we made it home by 1:30, so I had time to spare to make it to Centennial Hall for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra concert, replete with the Augustana Oratorio Society performing the Fauré Requiem.
I have made two payments on my Master Card since booking the tickets, which means the tickets are definitely paid off, plus eighty-two dollars of the Cheesecake Factory meal is paid down.