In The Heights Wiki (2024)

FAQs

Does Benny like Nina In the Heights? ›

Benny — Benny is best friends with Usnavi, and in love with Nina, even though her father disapproves.

Often considered the "one who made it out" and the pride of the corner, Nina dreads telling her parents and neighbors the truth of her return home: that she dropped out of Stanford because she had to work two jobs to maintain her tuition, leading to her getting poor grades and losing her scholarship ("Breathe").

NINA ROSARIO: (Mezzo-Soprano, Strong Belt/Mix, Latina, Reads as college age) 19 year old Nina has just finished her freshmen year at Stanford University. She is the daughter of Kevin and Camilia Rosario. Nina is the only member of her family and friends who made it to college.

Vanessa is Usnavi's love interest who works at Daniela's salon. She is stunningly beautiful and catches the eye of every guy in the Washington Heights (she is described as 'the loveliest girl in this place,' by Usnavi), however she takes interest in Usnavi.

Nina's relationship with Benny

In the film, Nina and Benny dated before Nina went off to college, but broke up when she left New York to go to Stanford.

Daniela and Carla are portrayed to have a lesbian relationship in the movie adaptation.

The most significant of these cut characters is Camila Rosario, Nina's mother, who is still alive in the musical: Hudes cited a desire to focus on two specific matriarchs in the community, Abuela Claudia and Daniela.

In the movie, actress Leslie Grace, a Dominican, does not get to play a Dominican because NINA is written as Puerto Rican. In fact, aside from Usnavi, there are no other Dominican characters in the show's five main roles. That's 1 out of 5 in a story about “l*ttle Dominican Republic”.

Benny — Male, Black/non-Latino, 20's. Benny is best friends with Usnavi, and in love with Nina, even though her father disapproves, in large part due to cultural differences. Benny is a driver for Rosario's, who grew up having to make his own way, and who Kevin took under his wing.

In the film, she changes her mind after attending the DACA rally for Sonny and seeing him worry about obtaining an education without documentation, whereas in the stage version, she changes her mind after Abuela Claudia's death. By the end of both the film and musical, Nina returns to Stanford.

What does GWB mean In the Heights? ›

“Just me and the GWB” - GWB refers to the George Washington Bridge, a double-decker suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Manhattan with the New Jersey borough of Fort Lee. "Benny's Dispatch"

Nina is the first person in her family to go to college (Stanford University), and everyone in the barrio admires her as the "one who made it out." However, she returns home from school for the summer to reluctantly tell her parents that she has become overburdened and dropped out.

Vanessa's fashion focus

In the movie, Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) has a passion for fashion and believes she has to leave her community in Washington Heights in order to make her dream come true. “It's not that far, but her interest in moving downtown is more about cultural distance,” Hudes explained.

Returning to the Kennedy Center following her turn in the pre-Broadway production of Gigi, Vanessa Hudgens played the role of Vanessa, with Anthony Ramos, who originated the roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in the Original Broadway Cast of Hamiltion, as Usnavi, Ana Villafañe (On Your Feet!) as Nina, local D.C. ...

While Miranda drew on some real-life experiences for inspiration, In the Heights and its characters are not based on a true story. Hamilton, by contrast, featured the real-life Founding Father and other prominent figures from U.S. history, but that isn't the case for this musical.

He's not an Afro-Latino character, but he is a dark-skinned Black man. LEON: Correct. But he also plays Benny, who is to be a non-Latinx Black man.

And while Nina's dream is to help the immigrant community of Washington Heights, she worries her dad's efforts will be in vain since she isn't sure if Stanford is the right fit for her.

Nina is the first person in her family to go to college (Stanford University), and everyone in the barrio admires her as the "one who made it out." However, she returns home from school for the summer to reluctantly tell her parents that she has become overburdened and dropped out.

In its original version, In the Heights was about a love triangle between Benny, Nina and her brother, an aspiring songwriter named Lincoln. In that version, Nina went to Yale rather than Stanford, and Lincoln was a closeted gay man in love with Benny.