Lifting the Curtain: How Lin-Manuel Miranda Challenged West Side Story's Cultural Stereotypes

Abstract

Four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. A Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Anomination for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lin-Manuel Miranda did not quietly emerge, but rather,exploded onto the theatrical scene. His debut musical, In The Heights (2008), swept Broadway and catapultedMiranda onto center stage. The diversification of Broadway theatre over the prior decade had providedMiranda with a stage upon which to showcase both the plight and the rich culture of the Latino community inWashington Heights, New York. He seized this opportunity, creating a vibrant cityscape by employing anontraditional score of rap and Latin music to invoke the foot-tapping pulse intrinsic to the Latino community.However, Miranda's mission went beyond entertainment to a deep-rooted desire to use the Broadway spotlightto dispel commonly accepted, cultural stereotypes of Latino immigrants. While the characters portrayed in theplay trace their roots to Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, Miranda's message could beextrapolated to other Latino nationalities. Success often attracts criticism and some critics accused Miranda ofdepicting an idealized picture of life in Washington Heights. While these critics may have been correct, theoverwhelming acclaim for In The Heights served to validate Miranda's goal of creating positive roles for Latinothespians and mitigating negative stereotypes of Latinos generally. His success was all the more poignant as the play was showcased in a traditionally white space.

Lifting The Curtain: How Lin-Manuel Miranda Challenged West Side Story's Cultural Stereotypes by Schuyler Ritchie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License