Wednesday, February 13th 2008, 11:18 AM  Lin-Manuel Miranda (center), writer Quiara AlegrÃ­a Hudes (r.) and director Thomas Kail.  The âIn the Heightsâ sign is already up on the Richard Rodgers Theater on W. 46th St. just off Times Square, clearly visible to the masses passing by every day.  Just as it was when the show played at the Off-Broadway 37 Arts Theater last year, âHEIGHTSâ is written in a font that could only be called Bodega Bold.  Unwritten on the sign, but obvious to anyone whoâs bought a 25-cent bag of platanitos: Latinos are back on Broadway.  The musical, which takes place in Washington Heights, was originally conceived by uptown native Lin-Manuel Miranda when he was an undergraduate at Wesleyan College.  Opening in previews tomorrow, itâs the most visible piece of Latino musical theater since Ruben Blades and Marc Anthony starred in Paul Simonâs âCapemanâ a decade ago.  Miranda, who called the two salsa stars his heroes, remembers it all too well. He was in high school and saw the show three times when it was still in previews. But the show was a failure, closing after 68 performances at the Marquis Theater in March 1998.  âWhen they got crushed, so did I,â says Miranda, from a red chair in the middle of the orchestra section, one of 1,400 or so in the theater where a decade later his own show â which he also stars in â is ready to kickoff.  Its largely critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run ended last summer.  But âIn the Heightsâ is no âCapeman,â which Miranda has complicated feelings about. âIt was a gut check to still have us be knife-wielding maniacs 40 years after âWest Side Story,ââ he says.  Thereâs no knife-wielding in âIn the Heights,â which takes place over a Fourth of July weekend and revolves around a Dominican bodega owner named Usnavi (Miranda) and his neighbors: his Cuban, lottery-playing abuela, a family that owns a car service and are struggling to put their daughter through Stanford University, and their employees.  Times are tough, but everyoneâs upbeat, in a half-uptown, half-Broadway musical kind of way.  Moving to Broadway is bringing both benefits and challenges to a team that has largely been together since the show made its New York debut in a 45-seat black box theater six years ago.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical “In the Heights” ings Latinos back to oadway 10 years after "Capeman" - But this time he's going to make it right.