Gammage Goers

“In the Heights”
Cast Party Conversations
by Lynn Trimble
ASU Gammage Goer
2009-2010 Season

After opening their Arizona tour at ASU Gammage to a full crowd who met the work with an enthusiastic standing ovation, the cast of the Tony Award®-winning musical “In the Heights” gathered for an after-party to share food, drink and conversation.

I attended with my daughter, Lizabeth, a senior theater student at Arizona School for the Arts, who has been enjoying season tickets to ASU Gammage Broadway series with me for more than a decade.

After every show, she races to the stage door armed with a constellation of Sharpie pens (some black, some silver, some fine point, some thicker), hoping cast members will be gracious enough to share autographs as they leave the theater.

But a cast party has a different vibe. The guests are all invited—hence the check-in area and nametags—and decorum takes precedence over doing what comes naturally.

We attended as guests of ASU Gammage, along with other Gammage Goers charged with reviewing the evening’s performance.

Everything ASU Gammage does is polished and professional, and the cast party was no exception.

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Executive Director for ASU Gammage and Assistant Vice President for Cultural Affairs, welcomed cast members and guests alike as she lauded the evening’s performance.

We were all especially pleased that Lin-Manuel Miranda—who conceived “In the Heights,” wrote its music and lyrics, and originated the lead role of “Usnavi” on Broadway—joined us for the celebration.

Miranda will reprise his role for this weekend’s matinee performances of “In the Heights” at ASU Gammage, something he says will help him as he works with a talented team to take the 2008 Tony Award®-winner for “Best Musical” (plus three other categories) from stage to big screen.

Miranda was gracious about posing for photos with cast party guests, and took the time to engage with many of us in thoughtful, genuine conversation. As we spoke, I looked around the room and noticed the plethora of paper napkins layering nearly every flat surface.

I recalled author J. K. Rowling’s confession that she’d written many of her original “Harry Potter” musings on napkins and scraps of paper that got shoved into a box until she got around to patching them all together into what we now know as one of the best-selling books of all time.

I wondered whether Miranda might have done something similar, knowing he’d originated his earliest versions of “In the Heights” as a sophomore at Wesleyan University. Not the case, he shared. Instead, Miranda told us, he scribbled those first musings amidst sketchy notes taken during an astronomy class.

I certainly hope he kept that astronomy notebook, because it contains the genesis of an idea that grew into a musical destined to do nothing short of transforming the way musical theater is crafted and carried forward for future generations. That transformation is already taking place.

We enjoyed some other fun conversations that evening, starting with two young men who recognized Lizabeth from a recent community theater production of “The Laramie Project” and raved about how much they’d loved the piece. That was a “mom” moment I’ll never forget.

Then there was our conversation with Michael Porto, Director of Marketing and Communications for ASU Gammage, who shared that he’d be seeing “American Idiot” in New York the following evening. I was proud of Lizabeth for not suggesting he hide her in his carry-on luggage.

Previewing shows is just a small part of what the fine folks at ASU Gammage do to bring us the best in Broadway theater each season, but it’s the piece many of us envy the most. A five-day trip to see three shows on Broadway, with meetings packed in between, might be exhausting—but it sounds exhilarating.

Our final conversations were with a fellow Gammage Goer and his guest. We compared notes about what has been an overwhelmingly positive and pleasant experience, discussing trends in live theater and sharing our varying preferences.

Lizabeth and I tend to favor edgier works, including “Spring Awakening,” “Next to Normal,” and “American Idiot” (and we are ever so sad that we won’t get to see the play “Red” before it closes on Broadway).

Our cast party companions shared that they prefer lighter, happier fare—including Disney musicals like “Mary Poppins,” which had a wonderful run at ASU Gammage earlier this year.

That’s the beauty of ASU Gammage. There’s something for everyone. The serious. The lighthearted. The classic. The cutting-edge. It’s evident in the upcoming 2010-2011 season too.

We’ll be there as longtime season ticket holders, and hope we’ll see you there too.

It’s been a joy and honor to serve with the first class of ASU Gammage Goers—and we can’t wait to see future Gammage Goers share their insights and enthusiasm for all things Broadway.