How Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In the Heights’ Went From College Project to Major Motion Picture

On the musical’s long road to the big screen, the COVID delay was just the half of it

in the heights
Warner Bros.

“In the Heights,” the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-“Hamilton” musical, finally hit theaters and HBO Max on Thursday. Although Broadway blockbusters are practically guaranteed to get the Hollywood treatment these days, this particular movie musical, helmed by Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”), was two whole decades in the making. 

The Tony-winning musical centers on a bodega owner in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City with one foot in his childhood in the Dominican Republic and another in his dreams for the future. 

Below, see the show’s journey from Miranda’s college dorm room to Broadway to the big screen. 

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