Lin Manuel-Miranda needed musicals for Latino characters

By IANS

Actor-filmmaker Lin Manuel-Miranda needed to jot down musicals for Latino characters after fearing his ethnicity would forestall him from stepping into the trade.

He stated: “The only reason I started writing was because I loved musicals, but I couldn’t see a way in. I wanted a life in musicals but beyond ‘West Side Story’, I didn’t see one – not for Latino dudes. You can play any part you want in a school play, but in the real world you get put in a box.”

The three-time Tony winner went on to disclose that he wrote the musical ‘In the Heights’ – which relies on the New York neighbourhood Washington Heights that Lin grew up in and nonetheless resides in at this time – was written out of “fear”, studies femalefirst.co.uk.

Speaking to Red Magazine, he stated: “(‘In the Heights’) was really written out of fear. I wrote it because I wanted to write roles for Latino characters and I was writing it to fill a void.”

“I set it in the most musical place I know, which is Washington Heights, and I was inspired by the music that you would hear up here – salsa, merengue, hip hop and bachata.”

As properly as being the composer behind the hit musical ‘Hamilton’, which utilises an all-black solid to retell the story of Alexander Hamilton – Lin opened up about engaged on the Disney movie ‘Encanto’, which centres on a magical Colombian household and for which he has composed eight musical numbers.

He stated: “I wanted to help put a huge Latino family on screen and to widen the doors in my own corner of the world. But it’s not some kind of grand academic thesis statement as much as it is keeping promises to your inner child.”