Three Hot Days, In the Heights Opens City Center's New Season
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes's Washington Heights musical takes West 55th Street from an October 28 gala through November 15, with Matte Martinez as Usnavi
The block of West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues is about to get very hot, and it will not be the weather. On October 28, New York City Center opens its 2026-27 season with In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes's musical about three sweltering summer days in Washington Heights.
It is a good choice for a room that likes to stage American musicals as events. The show is City Center's annual gala presentation, which means the first night is a benefit and the run that follows is for everyone else.
The Night Itself
Opening night is a Wednesday. According to City Center's listing, the gala performance starts at 6 p.m. and is followed by dinner and dancing at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. The theater says only a limited number of gala tickets remain.
After that, the show settles into a three-week run. The first week brings evening shows Thursday and Friday, two shows on Saturday and two on Sunday. Weeks two and three run Tuesday through Sunday, closing on November 15. When the season was announced in March, BroadwayWorld reported a closing date of November 8. City Center's own calendar, the one to trust, now runs a week longer, to the 15th.
Two nights stand out for the people the show is about. An ASL-interpreted performance is set for Thursday, November 5, and a Community Night follows on Friday, November 6.
Who Is Behind the Counter
Matte Martinez plays Usnavi, the bodega owner who watches his block change around him. Natalie Venetia Belcon plays Abuela Claudia. Jaci Calderon is Nina, Ashley De La Rosa is Vanessa and Linedy Genao is Daniela. Ishmael Gonzalez plays Sonny, Ivan Hernandez is Kevin and Cedric Leiba Jr. is the Piragüero, according to City Center and Playbill's casting report.
David Mendizábal directs. Mayte Natalio choreographs and Alejandro Senior is the music director. Dede Ayite designs the costumes, Justin Townsend the lighting and Riw Rakkulchon the set.
"In the Heights inspired a generation of young artists to see themselves onstage." Jenny Gersten, New York City Center
Gersten, who leads musical theater at City Center as vice president and artistic director, said in a statement reported by Playbill that placing the show in the hands of Mendizábal, Natalio and Senior is "incredibly meaningful." That is the house tradition here. City Center has long used big, short runs to show off who is next.
A Short History of a Long Block
The score is Miranda's and the book is Hudes's. The story follows a bodega owner and his neighbors facing a neighborhood in change, and it keeps asking what home means. City Center quotes The New York Times on the musical, which it says "erupts in" expressions of collective joy.
The show started as a college project during Miranda's time at Wesleyan, Playbill reports. It had a 2005 tryout at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and an Off-Broadway run in 2007 at 37 Arts. It opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on March 9, 2008, won four Tony Awards that year, including Best Musical, and played through January 9, 2011. It was also a Pulitzer finalist. Jon M. Chu's film version followed in 2021.
Anyone who saw Miranda play Usnavi himself will have a particular ghost to measure Martinez against. Anyone who only knows the movie will see how the thing plays in a theater, where a block party is made of actual bodies. BroadwayWorld describes it as a concert production, which keeps the focus on the singing, the dancing and the block.
The Richard Rodgers is also where Rent's original company reunites on October 26, a night Suite 646 has already covered. Two neighborhood musicals, two nights apart, one theater's memory.
What to Know Before You Go
City Center is at 131 West 55th Street. The running time is about two and a half hours with an intermission. Tickets are sold through City Center, with a limit of eight per household. The theater's Heights Rush program promises 10,000 tickets at $28 or less, and the Access Club has its own limits. Groups of ten or more book through Broadway Inbound. Casting and programming can change, so check before you go.
Three hot days. Three weeks of them. Washington Heights is coming to 55th Street.
