‘In the Heights’ to bring award-winning performance to CAC

The Tony Award-winning hit musical "In the Heights" is coming to the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center Wednesday, May 30 as part of this year’s University Arts Series.

In 2008, "In the Heights" won the Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography and Best Orchestrations. The hit musical was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2009.

According to WVU Arts and Entertainment, "In the Heights" is "a moving, funny and uplifting new show about a community of hard-working immigrants seeking a better life and trying to find their place – their home – in their new country."

Based on the book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, "In the Heights" is a heartwarming story that explores three days in the lives of young people in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights.

The musical follows the lives of several young Dominican-American people as they experience love and loss, which is portrayed through rich and rhythmic Latin-infused music. It is the next chapter of the classic American immigrant story, with three generations of families all trying to survive Washington Heights.

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the music for "In the Heights," and he was also the lead role in the show on Broadway. Charles Isherwood, a critic for the New York Times, said "(Miranda) is so naturally and vibrantly alive onstage that he brings an animating touch of urgency to even the more cliched or predictable turns of the plot… (His) long streams of rap riding a pulsating rhythm are the music that makes the whole neighborhood dance."

Tickets for "In the Heights" can be purchased at both the Mountainlair and the Creative Arts Center box offices, as well as on Ticketmaster.com. The box offices are open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets for students are $27 and $40 for non-students.