Featured Review: In the Heights

In the Heights Facing the gentrification of their Washington Heights neighborhood, the oldster immigrants in this Tony Award-winning musical struggle to preserve the community while the young folk contemplate selling out and moving to their parents' homelands. Among several parallel subplots, the most realized involves the Rosario family: Kevin (Daniel Bolero) and wife Camila (Natalie Toro) have a failing business and an employee, Benny (the charming and effervescent Rogelio Douglas Jr.), who's wooing their daughter, Nina (Arielle Jacobs). Mom and Pop are strong-headed and stressed, which is to say it's a real marriage. Bolero gives Kevin the conviction to do right by his family that shines through even when he's not so likable, as when he rejects Benny as not good enough — or perhaps not Latino enough — for his daughter. Hip-hop-infused amalgams of the best Latin pop and 1950s soul, Lin-Manuel Miranda's tunes are vibrant as all get-out, but non-fans will find the 150-minute run time a slog toward the end. Through November 22 at the Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Boulevard. Tickets are $26 to $68. Call 314-534-1678 or visit www.fabulousfox.com.

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