THURSDAY | 04.20.2017 | EXPRESS | 27
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INSTANT THREEPLAY
Drive-By Truckers
GALA’s “In the Heights” is mostly in Spanish with English surtitles.
A different ‘Heights’ You’d think it’d be hard for Luis Salgado to find anything new in the musical “In the Heights.” After all, he was involved as one of the choreographers, creators and original cast members of the Tony-winning musical (written by a pre-“Hamilton” Lin-Manuel Miranda) when the show, about a Latino community in New York City’s Washington Heights, opened on Broadway in 2008. Now, Salgado is directing and choreographing the U.S. premiere of “In the Heights” in Spanish — which, unlike the mostly English-language Broadway show, is mainly in Spanish with English surtitles. With the new translation, Salgado found that a different language meant a different point of view. KRISTEN PAGE-KIRBY (EXPRESS)
GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW; Thu. through May 21, $60.
On the old-school inspiration for the musical: “When Lin created the show, one of his biggest references was ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ which is basically the same premise,” Salgado says. “You’re celebrating a community, you’re talking about a heritage and the ways of this community, but the universal topic affects us all. We are all affected or touched by the idea of tradition; we all have our own traditions — [‘In the Heights’] is an extension of that in many ways.” What a New York-centered play can bring to D.C.: “The area where GALA works, in Columbia Heights, is going through the same gentrification as Washington Heights,” he says. “That is reflected in the [characters of]
the salon owners, who have a beautiful relationship with their community, but they have to leave to Salgado the Bronx be cause the cost of living is getting too high. The gentrification is happening all around.” What gets found in translation: “Benny [the only African-American character and the only one who speaks exclusively in English] through the history of the show has always had the conflict of race and language,” Salgado says. “When the show is in English, you don’t always get to delve as deep, I think, as we get to do now, in examining why [a Latino character] is so resistant to [his
daughter] and Benny going out together. It’s in the script that it’s language, it’s culture and race, but we have been able to discover an angle to that conflict. By the time the father comes to him and looks at his face and says, ‘You don’t speak the language,’ the audience gets it.” Se habla espanol (y ingles): “This is for everybody, if you’re Latino or not,” he says. “I have discovered so much about language in this version — the conflict, and the good and the bad that language creates. There are a lot of people who want to celebrate what divides us, what makes us different. I think instead of highlighting what divides us, ‘In the Heights’ is basically about what unites us.”
SHALEV WEINSTEIN
9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Fri., 8 p.m., $35; Sat., 8 p.m., sold out.
Last fall, Drive-By Truckers released “American Band,” a set of pre-President Trump anthems, many of which deal with gun violence. “I’ve started tongue-in-cheek referring to us as the dance band for the resistance,” says frontman Patterson Hood, above. Before they play D.C., we asked Hood to share the first three songs that popped into his head. RUDI GREENBERG (EXPRESS)
1
‘Ballad of the Dying Man’
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Father John Misty
Hood has been digesting Father John Misty’s “Pure Comedy,” and so far, this commentary on social media has stood out. “I applaud [any] artist that’s willing to be ridiculous sometimes,” he says.
2
‘Cracked Windshield’ Hiss Golden Messenger
“There’s a line at the end that conjures to me the phone conversation home when you’ve been on the road a long time and everything at home is kinda broken and going to s---: ‘I can fix this babe/ I can fix this babe,’ ” he says of this song by the band that will open both D.C. shows.
3
‘Where Do We Go’ Solange
“That was my favorite record of last year,” Hood says of Solange’s “A Seat at the Table.” He’s actually disappointed that he’ll miss her play Portland, Ore., where he lives, while he’s in D.C. “I’d probably pay scalper prices to see her.”
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