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Our panelists included In the Heights composer/lyricist/star Lin-Manuel Miranda, director Thomas Kail, bookwriter Quiara Allegría Hudes, choreographer Andy Blankenbueler, and orchestrator/arrangers Bill Sherman and Alex Lacamoire.  Jesse Green of the New York Times moderated.

Jesse Green:  Lin, what was the first thing you thought of that became part of this show?

Lin-Manuel Miranda: Like a lot of stories, it starts with a girl. I was 19 years old, a sophomore at Wesleyan University.  I had written several one act-musicals in high school and I wanted to write a full-length musical. I wanted a life in musical theatre and I knew I didn’t dance well enough to be Bernardo in West Side Story or Paul in A Chorus Line.  So I basically wrote the kind of story I always wanted to do.

The reason I had time to write was because my high school sweetheart was going to study abroad, in the Dominican Republic.  It was the first time we’d spent any time apart and I was very conflicted and confused. All of that adolescent angst went into my winter break.  I didn’t sleep; I wrote an 80-minute show, this show in one burst.

The first song I wrote was for a character that is no longer in the show, Benny’s mother. Benny was originally this Latin lothario-type character, and it was this song sung by his mom to him.  The first five notes are the only five notes that remain from the original college song: (sings) “In Washington Heights.”  I was from Inwood, just north of Washington Heights, but “Inwood” doesn’t sing as well.

So I started writing, and I mounted a production in the spring at the student-run theatre organization at Weslyan called Second Stage. I wasn’t doing it for credit. I was doing it because I had to write.  I wanted to write the kind of music I like and that I listen to. I listen to a mix of musical theatre – I was a theatre geek – but also hip hop music and Latin music.  In The Heights was actually my first attempt to write Latin music. I’d written pop rocky Jonathan Larson-lite-esque theatre music until then, and it was really my first attempt to write about things I knew about from my upbringing, and a score that reflected my upbringing.

Read the Complete Interview at Broadway Fan Club Online

Charles Strouse, the composer of such Broadway hits as Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, and Applause, has just turned 80.  His new book, Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir, is in stores this month.  In the excerpt below, Strouse describes a conversation with lyricist/director Martin Charnin and bookwriter Thomas Meehan about an idea for a show that would eventually become Annie.  At the time, Strouse was working for an ad agency writing jingles for beer commercials.

Martin Charnin went on.  “Trust me,” he said.  “I saw a collection of Little Orphan Annie cartoons in a bookstore as I was buying a present. I realized then and there this could be a giant hit!”

It sounded crazy, but Martin, who had never been known to wear clothes that were more than a week out of fashion, seemed to know what he was talking about. I figured Annie could be shown as a TV show and—who knew—maybe my Pabst beer commercial could be used at the station break. (Though with Annie being a kids’ show, beer advertisements weren’t all that likely.)

But as we went on, I started to realize that Martin was hitting on something Hal Prince said to me years before, after It’s a Bird . . . It’s a Plane. . . It’s Superman! had closed. Despite generally positive reviews, the show, also

“Write a children’s show that kids can bring their parents to, and you may be okay,” Hal had told me. “But write a grownup show that parents can bring their children to, and you’ve got a hit.”

Later on, I realized that a comic strip is an ideal basis for a musical comedy because they are similar forms of popular American culture. That is, both deal in broad stroke, telling simple stories in as few words as possible. At this first meeting, however, I was not totally convinced.

“This will run on Broadway for years,” Martin said, interrupting my thoughts. “Across the country, in films!”

“But this is for TV,” I said, turning to my ally. “Tom?”

Tom’s thoughts had been drifting. “Suppose the dog does its business onstage.  What do we do then?”

But Martin’s enthusiasm couldn’t be checked. “Let’s meet next week! I have an idea for the opening!”

Reprinted with permission of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., from Put on a Happy Face by Charles Strouse. Copyright © 2008 by Charles Strouse.

Celebs at Broadway’s Pet Adopt-a-Thon July 12
Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters will host the 10th annual Broadway Barks!, a star-studded dog and cat adopt-a-thon benefiting NYC animal shelters and adoption agencies. The event, produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and sponsored by the ASPCA and Pedigree® with additional sponsorship by the New York Times, will take place on Saturday, July 12 in Shubert Alley, 44th-45th Streets between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. The festivities begin at 3:30 p.m. 

Among those taking part in the celebrity presentations of pets from citywide animal shelters (5:30-6:30 p.m.) will be Christine Baranski, Victoria Clark, Glenn Close, Harvey Fierstein, Boyd Gaines, Shuler Hensley, Cheyenne Jackson, Andy Karl, Lacey Kohl, Nathan Lane, Mario Lopez, Priscilla Lopez, Orfeh, Judy McLane, Matthew Morrison, and Faith Prince.  For more info, visit BroadwayBarks.com.

• Beth Leavel, a Tony Award-winner for The Drowsy Chaperone, takes over the role of Frau Blucher in The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein on July 22.
• Marin Mazzie has returned to Monty Python’s Spamalot as The Lady in the Lake.
• Renée Elise Goldsberry and Eden Espinoza are in Rent.