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'In The Heights' Movie Cast Now Includes Stephanie Beatriz, Jimmy Smits And More

in the heights movie cast stephanie beatriz
By Chris Evangelista

The In the Heights movie cast continues to grow, as Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu sets out to bring Lin-Manuel Miranda's other Broadway musical to the big screen. Jimmy Smits, Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Stephanie Beatriz, and several other actors have been added in the past few days. Hamilton veteran Anthony Ramos stars in the movie, which is based on Miranda's Tony Award-winning musical.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has been taking to Twitter to announce new additions to the In the Heights movie cast. Today, he revealed Stephanie Beatriz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Dascha Polanco had come aboard the musical. The news comes on the heels of yesterday's announcement that Jimmy Smits, Olga Merediz and Gregory Diaz IV.

Here's the synopsis of the original musical:

In the hispanic community of Manhattan's Washington Heights, bodega owner Usnavi is dating Vanessa, who works in a beauty salon. He dreams of opening a bar in his home country, the Dominican Republic. Nina loves Benny, a shy young man who has worked for Nina's parents for years, but her father opposes their union because he wants Nina to finish her education at Stanford University. She doesn't want her father to bankrupt himself paying for the expensive school, but her father is prepared to sell his car-service business. "Abuela" Claudia, who raised Usnavi after the death of his parents, wins $96,000 in a numbers game.

Anthony Ramos is playing Usnavi, Melissa Barerra is Vanessa, Corey Hawkins is Benny, and Leslie Grace portrays Nina. Olga Merediz will play Abuela Claudia, a role the actress played on Broadway. Smits takes on the role of Kevin Rosario, Nina's overprotective father. Beatriz is Carla and Rubin-Vega is Daniela, who both work at the neighborhood salon with Nina. Polanco plays character Cuca. Diaz IV is Sonny, Usnavi's younger cousin.

In the Heights, which had a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes and music and lyrics by Miranda, had an Off-Broadway run in 2007 before coming to Broadway in 2008. It would go on to be was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards and win four, including the 2008 Best Musical. Miranda would then go on to write Hamilton, which became an even bigger phenomenon (in case you come from another planet and somehow weren't aware of this).

Production on the In the Heights movie is set to begin this summer in Washington Heights. The movie is scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 26, 2020.

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