New Musical In the Heights Headed Off-Broadway in January

In the Heights, an original musical about life in Washington Heights, will be produced off-Broadway by Tony winners Kevin McCollum and Jeffrey Seller Rent, Avenue Q and Jill Furman a co-producer of The Drowsy Chaperone. The show is scheduled to begin previews in January 2007 at 37 Arts, directed by Thomas Kail and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler. The musical's book is by Quiara Alegria Hudes, and music and lyrics are by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who will also star.

In the Heights presents two days in the life of Washington Heights, a vibrant immigrant neighborhood at the top of Manhattan. From the vantage point of a corner bodega run by Usnavi Miranda, the audience will experience the joys, heartbreaks and bonds of a Latino community struggling to redefine home.

Lin-Manuel Miranda received the Georgia Holof Outstanding Lyricist Award for his work on In the Heights at the 2005 Eugene O'Neill Music Theater Conference. Along with his director, he is a founding member of Freestyle Love Supreme, a hip-hop comedy group. Among his musical credits are ads for political candidates Fernando Ferrer and Eliot Spitzer.

Hudes is the author of the play Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue, which premiered in January at the Culture Project. She won several prizes for her previous play, Yemaya's Belly, which has been produced at theaters around the country.

Kail is the artistic director of Back House Productions, the resident theater company of the Drama Book Shop in New York. He will direct fifth anniversary performances of Anne Nelson's The Guys at the Flea Theater in September. Blankenbuehler's credits include the Encores! production of The Apple Tree and the recent off-Broadway play Burleigh Grimes.

No official opening date has been set for In the Heights, and complete casting has not yet been announced.