Principal audition sides are now available for IN THE HEIGHTS! Download and learn the sides for the parts you are interested in.
IN THE HEIGHTS tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood – a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It's a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind. IN THE HEIGHTS is the winner of the 2008 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score, Best Choreography and Best Orchestrations.
Character | Description | Range | Audition Sides | ||||||||||||
Usnavi de la Vega | Owner of De La Vega Bodega. the narrator of the play's exposition and a major character throughout; he is the owner of a small bodega in Washington Heights. He was named after one of the first sights his parents saw when they arrived in America: a US Navy ship. He dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic, the place he was born but too young to remember. Abuela Claudia, the neighborhood matriarch, "practically raised" him when his parents both died during his early childhood. He is in love with Vanessa. | Tenor-Bari - G4 |
(Be prepared to sing as a solo singing just the Usnavi parts)
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Nina Rosario | A freshman at Stanford University. She is the first in her family (and from the Barrio) 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. She is the typical "good girl" and always got along with her parents. Now, though, she loses patience constantly over her father's overprotectiveness and his refusal to accept Benny. | Mezzo-Soprano - F5 |
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Kevin Rosario | Nina's overprotective father, who, coming from a long line of farmers, has worked hard to resist following in his own father's footsteps. He now owns his own taxi cab service: Rosario's. | Bari-Tenor - E4 |
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Camilia Rosario | Nina's strong-willed mother, who wants what is best for Nina. She is typically tolerant of Kevin's control issues, but in the course of the show, reveals her real feelings. | Alto G3 - B4 |
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Benny | An employee of Rosario's, African-American. He works at the dispatch of Nina's father, Kevin. Perhaps the only character in the play who does not speak Spanish and is not Hispanic, he falls in love with Nina. He dreams of opening his own business. | Tenor - Ab4 |
(Be prepared to sing as a solo throughout singing just Benny parts)
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Vanessa | Usnavi's love interest who works at Daniela's salon. She is stunningly beautiful and catches the eye of every guy in the Heights, however she takes interest in Usnavi. She lives with an alcoholic mother and dreams of getting out of the Barrio and getting an apartment downtown, but cannot yet afford it. | Mezzo-Soprano - E5 |
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Sonny | Usnavi's sassy, superficially lazy, yet ambitious younger cousin who works with Usnavi in the bodega. He is typically the jokester of the Barrio, but he also has an intelligent and thoughtful side that yearns for social justice | Tenor - Bb4 |
(Be prepared to sing as a solo throughout singing just Venessa parts)
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Abuela Claudia | Raised Usnavi, though not his blood grandmother. The loving matriarch of the barrio who knows everybody and is like a grandmother to all ("abuela" means "grandmother" in Spanish). She is the one who looked after Usnavi when his parents died. She and her mother moved from Cuba to New York in 1943 while she was a child. She worked as a maid for several years but never earned the money for her and her mother to travel home. | Alto F#3 - C5 |
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Daniela | The outrageously dramatic owner of the salon where the neighborhood girls come to gossip. She is very bold and loud and loves to banter. | Alto G3 - C5 |
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Carla | Works at Daniela's salon along with Vanessa, and is Daniela's close friend; young and pretty, but a little slow to get the others' jokes and innuendos, she is of Chilean, Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican descent. | Alto G3 - C5 |
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Piraguero (Piragua Guy) | The owner of a small piragua stand that competes with Mister Softee. | Tenor - A4 |
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Graffiti Pete | A graffiti artist and friend of Sonny. Usnavi believes he is a trouble-making vandal, until Pete reveals his amazing skills as an artist. | Any |
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Ensemble Man 1 | TB |
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Ensemble Man 2 | TB |
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