Lin-Manuel Miranda to Headline L.A. Engagement of In the Heights

Tony Award winning creator, composer-lyricist and original star Lin-Manuel Miranda will reprise his role as narrator Usnavi when Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights takes the stage at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles beginning June 22. The star will play a limited engagement with the production through July 11, with an official opening set for June 23. Miranda is also set to reprise the role in the motion picture adaptation of the tuner, which is currently in pre-production.

“I’ve been itching to play with the tour cast since we began their rehearsals last fall,” Miranda said in a statement. “It has been a joy to watch [current Usnavi] Kyle Beltran and the rest of this company make this show their own, and to win over audiences all over the country. I can’t wait to get back on that stage, in Usnavi’s shoes.”

Miranda made his Broadway debut in In the Heights. He spent part of 2008 collaborating with Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents on the Broadway revival of West Side Story, going on to perform for President Obama at the first ever White House Poetry Slam in 2009. Miranda also made his primetime television debut opposite Hugh Laurie in the season six premiere of hit TV series House in September 2009 before reuniting with the In the Heights team to launch the show's first national tour.

Set over three days in Upper Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, In the Heights is a musical journey into the lives of three generations of the area’s inhabitants and their vibrant, diverse community. The show opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on March 9, 2008, and went on to win Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Choreography, Best Orchestrations and Best Original Score.