Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Being Lin-Manuel Miranda: IN THE HEIGHTS: CHASING BROADWAY DREAMS & WE ARE FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME

• By drediman
• September 2, 2020
• No Comments

It seems that wherever you turn these days in the world of entertainment, there’s a good chance that you’ll come across the beaming face of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Make no mistake, I’m totally fine with this. Indeed, it’s refreshing for the industry to uphold someone of such genuine and blazing talent, intellect, and goodwill. He oozes charisma, to boot. If you’re finally getting tired of watching – and re-watching – Mr. Miranda in the excellent “Hamilfilm” on Disney Plus (you can read my review of it here), you can also currently stream even more Lin-Manuel via two documentaries that chronicle his propulsive ascent from struggling writer/performer to household name.

Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) and the company of “In the Heights” on Broadway.

Between the two, I would start with In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams (RECOMMENDED), which is available for free streaming here until September 4th via PBS’s Great Performances series. The straightforward documentary captures the inspiring success of Mr. Miranda’s breakout show In the Heights, for which he wrote the score and in which he starred (he would perform the same duties in Hamilton, plus writing its book). Released in 2009, the hourlong film documents the show’s young, relatively inexperienced creative team and cast on the verge of Broadway success. Interviews with Mr. Miranda, as well as talented performers like Christopher Jackson (who would originate, commandingly, the role of George Washington in Hamilton) and Karen Olivo (would go on to reign on Broadway as a striking Satine in this truncated past season’s Moulin Rouge!) – both relatively unknown at the time – candidly delve into their respective hopes and dreams, as well as their fears and insecurities. The exuberant In the Heights can be summed up as an arguably uncomplicated and unabashed love letter to Broadway and Mr. Miranda’s Latin heritage, two topics which the documentary also investigates. But we all know that the fairy tale doesn’t end there – after In the Height’s triumph at the Tony Awards and a healthy Main Stem run, Mr. Miranda’s star would continue its meteoric rise with the advent of Hamilton.

Lin-Manuel Miranda (left) and the members of Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway.

The more interesting Hulu documentary We Are Freestyle Love Supreme (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which was released this summer, addresses different aspects of Lin-Manuel’s craft and interests. If Dreams reveled in his love of the Broadway tradition and his Hispanic-American roots, Freestyle explores his deep appreciation of rap/hip-hop and improvisational theater. This is accomplished via the documentation of Freestyle Love Supreme, a scrappy outfit started by Mr. Miranda and a renegade group of wildly inventive, fearless young performers (which also included director Thomas Kail). The documentary also covers a broader span of time than Dreams (from roughly 2005 to 2019), charting the evolution of the collective – which would organically expand its membership over the years – from just-out-of-college experimentation (including an amusing trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), through In the Height‘s unlikely success, and finally through the Hamilton juggernaut. In 2019, Freestyle Love Supreme’s rousing improv act would ultimately land alongside Hamilton on Broadway for a limited run and enjoy a subsequent national tour. The tone of We Are Freestyle Love Supreme is less sentimental and more clear-eyed about the tough realities of the industry, including inevitable forks in the road, shifting professional (and personal) relationships, and, unfortunately, bitter regrets.

In concert, these two documentaries point squarely at Hamilton and its encompassing aesthetic. Watching them, I was also reminded of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, the 1981 musical which turns back the clock on its jaded characters until, at the end of the piece, it strikes upon the unalloyed idealism and enthusiasm that once drove their respective life’s passions. What’s remarkable is that, despite his mega-success, Mr. Miranda seems to have, like Peter Pan and unlike the characters in the cautionary Sondheim musical, kept this child-like part of himself protected and untarnished. I suspect that Hamilton‘s greatness is in part due to its being sprung from this purity of intention and imagination.