There are events that aren’t exactly top 10 on your wish list of things-to-do. And yet you just know that the group putting on the activity has always come through with mustn’t-miss-opportunities.
Last Monday night was one of those occasion. That’s usually the dark night for MySweetCharity but the Nasher Sculpture Center was having Lin-Manuel Miranda in for its Nasher Salon. A guy named Lin-Manuel? Monday night? Hip-hopper? Oh, well.
Oh, well, indeed! Forget George Clooney. Vitamin B shots. Like a super nova, Lin energized every room he entered. Instead of handlers or restrictions, he had his dad with him and one of the best, most refreshing attitudes seen in these parts since Big Tex said “Howdy!”
Just in case Lin isn’t a familiar name in your world, he’s the Tony-winning wunderkind of Broadway for his “In the Heights” that opens at the Winspear Tuesday night. The Puerto Rican-American composer, rapper, lyricist and actor not only wrote the musical, he starred in it. He’s also appeared in “House” and worked with Stephen Sondheim on the revival of “West Side Story,” just to name an iota of his have-done-list. Oh, and in his spare time, he married Vanessa Nadal, who starred in the original “In the Heights” and created an incredibly popular video, “Vanessa’s Wedding Surprise.” (Editor’s note: Stop reading and check out the video. You’ll see why this young man is a treasure and you’ll have a better day.)
From Booker T. Washington students in the audience to Nancy Nasher, all were caught up in the Lin-tude.
Speaking of Nancy, she reported that her daughter, who was a terrific Lin fan, couldn’t make it, so she was doing double duty. Joining her on the front row was Lin’s dad Luis Miranda, who beamed with pride about his son.
But before the talk began with SHN CEO Greg Holland, the VIPs’ meet-and-greet took place with Nasher director Jeremy Strick telling folks how impressed he was with the “Youth and Beauty” exhibition at the neighboring Dallas Museum of Art the week before.
After Lin chatted and was photographed with one and all, it was time to go downstairs for the talk that opened with a video on “In the Heights” and Lin’s involvement.
While the room was not as jammed as those for Kevin Bacon and Kristin Chenoweth, the energy level and admiration was overwhelming.
Lin immediately won hearts when he goaded the Booker T. Washington students in the audience to shout out anytime BTW was mentioned. They complied enthusiastically.
Greg had done his homework, asking insightful questions about Lin’s life, both professionally and personally.
Highlights of the interview included:
- “The feeling of home and where do you belong” is at the heart of In the Heights, the Tony-winning Best Musical which will play at the AT&T PAC March 13-25.
- Lin talked about his “abuela” – older matriarch or babysitter type – who was a compulsive gambler. For her, he pulled the arms of slot machines three hours a day. He was the guy who did the Thriller moves (dancing) at parties.
- Learned a lot about rapping from a school-bus driver.
- Went to a great school. His sixth-grade play was a biggie for him—he played Conrad Birdie, a munchkin, Captain Hook, the son in Fiddler, was 12 years old, three feet tall. When the girls had to act like they liked him as Conrad B., he said, “I’m clearly doing this for the rest of my life!”
- His group of “free-styler” pals (they rapped/sang, make up words on the spot) kept him creatively charged during the eight years it took to get Heights together.
- Earlier, at age 4, he had used a Fisher-Price kiddy “tape recorder” to perform his own song: The Garbage Pail Kids are in Town.
- He wrote two plays before he graduated from high school.
- At 19 years old he wrote Heights in three weeks, on a feverish winter-break span. Then hard work and luck intervened. John Mailer, Norman’s son, became involved in producing it. There were at least five versions, and a number of songs were cut, before it got produced.
- At first it was “characters in search of a story.” Then it came into focus, very organically. The Hispanics in it include Cubans (the oldest), then the Puerto Ricans, then the ones from the Dominican Republic. Without this diversity, “It would be like GCB starring Hasidic Jews; not an accurate reflection of my world!”
- He’d spent very lonely summers in Puerto Rico. After the musical came out, he was famous in about a two-block area of New York City and on the A train, but, “then I go to Puerto Rico and I’m Usher!”
- Giving advice, he said, “Do what you can, so you can do what you love.”
- His dad ran a newspaper, so he reviewed restaurants, etc. Then his dad was a political consultant (Al Sharpton, Elliott Spitzer, etc.), so he helped make radio spots. His TV work (House, Modern Family, etc.) will always be the gravy.
- House producer told him, “As soon as I knew we were sending House to an insane asylum in Season 6, I thought of you!”
- He thinks of himself as a writer, mainly. For Bring It On: The Musical, the cheerleader musical, he brought in elements of All About Eve, one of his favorite movies. Performances in Des Moines and Dallas taught them a lot about shaping/editing the show.
- He got involved with Alexander Hamilton after picking out the biggest, fattest biography he could find at Borders. He’s working on The Hamilton Mixtape, a hip-hop album based on Hamilton’s life. According to Lin, Hamilton lived the American Dream before there was an America. Same fights they had then, we’re still having: size of government, etc., on Fox and MSNBC. Fights were bitter and personal. Sex/drugs/murder—hip-hop.
- For the Sopranos TV show, he said two words: “I dunno.” Was first TV gig he ever got. His Tony Award speech on YouTube got a lot of hits.
He then took questions from the audience that were written down on cards —
- Questions: Oddest place wrote lyrics? On a paper plate. On a piano-lounge bar on the Queen Mary at 3 a.m.
- Told the BTW kids to “think of the audition as the job, and the job as the gravy.” Winning a part has so little to do with your actual talent, he said. It’s also a class—you can learn a lot from the audition.
After asking two or three questions, Greg said he had more but they had run out of time. Lin took the remaining cards with the questions, got one of the BTW students to provide the beat, and answered the questions in free-form, hip-hop style.
Yes, you’ve got to watch those events that you’re not that fired up about. They’ll tend to be the ones that you’re so grateful you attended.
By the way, don’t miss the opportunity to see “In the Heights” at the Winspear. As part of the Lexus Broadway Series, it runs through Sunday, March 25.