In The Heights [Workshop]

[USNAVI]
Hey, where y’all going?

...Damn

I’m sitting on this stoop like a Nincompoop
Strutting like another clucking rooster in the chicken coop
Whistling to woman and wishing they’d want me back
Sizzling Dominicans give me a heart attack
Hollaback

I am Usnavi and you’ve
Prob’ly never heard my name
Reports of my fame are greatly exaggerated
Exacerbated by the fact that my syntax
Is highly complicated cuz I emigrated
From the single greatest little place in the Caribbean
Dominican Republic
We love it!
Now back to the subject
It don’t matter if you white black Asian or latin
I’m reporting to you live from the top of Manhattan
At my bodega on the corner of 184th and Broadway
It’s been a long day learning things the hard way
My lips are salty from sweating to the heat
But I’m getting you on your feet bop your head to the beat
Now, some of y’all are thinkin
"Woah I’m up shit’s creek
I've never been north of Ninety-Sixth Street”
But tonight
You’ll hear a story that is mad compelling son
But first you gotta make like my man Duke Ellington
Cuz you must take the 'A' Train
Even farther than Harlem to northern Manhattan and maintain
While I explain the drama from the past few nights
Relax, you’re tight
You’re in Washington Heights

[NINA]
Sitting on the Metro North train, I am going insane
Waiting in pain for it to take me home
Finally, we leave the station, I am so impatient
To get the hell out of New Haven and get some time alone
And as I leave, all I see are the homeless standing by
As the rich kids avert their eyes
And get their meaningless degrees
I’m sitting next to businessmen who are
Cheating on their wives
They’ve been commuting all their lives
Filling hotel vacancies
But all I wanna do is go home
Where everything’s alright
Where in a way, you’re never alone
Cuz everyone’s squeezed together tight

[COMPANY]
En Washington Heights
En Washington Heights

[NINA]
Nothing’s changed it’s all the same
Everybody knows my name

[ENSEMBLE]
En Washington Heights

[NINA]
I’ve been gone all year but everyone I love is still here

[ENSEMBLE]
En Washington Heights

[NINA]
No more quiet nights alone
Studying on my own

[COMPANY]
En Washington Heights

[NINA]
Le lo lai le lo lai, ah lo le lo lai!
Le lo lai

[LINCOLN]
Welcome home
Everyone’s happy to see you again

[ALMA/KEVIN/CAMILLA]
My, how you’ve grown

[VANESSA/LINCOLN]
Welcome home!
We haven’t seen you since Jesus knows when

[LINCOLN]
You’re not alone

[USNAVI]
And I’ve gotta go downtown
I have everything I need
All the neighborhood is dancing and it’s following my lead

[VANESSA]
Everybody knows your business
Everybody’s in your face
What I wouldn’t give to live some other place

[VOICE]
En Washington Heights

[CAMILLA]
Kevin, it’s almost seven
Your daughter gets in at half past eight!

[VOICE]
En Washington Heights!

[KEVIN]
[?], turn off the oven
Give me some loving, she’s always late

[VOICE]
En Washington Heights!

[CAMILLA]
(?)

[USNAVI]
Everybody knows your money goes
When Usnavi throws the dominoes

[LINCOLN]
Well, I’m home, I’m 24 and I still live at home…
I’m not a kid anymore

[BENNY]
I’m home, I live for these nights in my Washington Heights
Out on the dance floor

[ALMA] [VANESSA] [LINCOLN] No te vayas No me dejes (?) Oh I wanna go (?) Benny baby call me out tonight No te vayas Oh I wanna I’m been biding my time writing this song getting it right No me dejes escape this life (?) Oh So I know it’s time to go I’ve got to show everyone what I’m about (?) I wanna go out No doubt and shout from the rooftops of Benny baby call me tonight my home, I’m home
[NINA]
And I’ve been gone so many years
Always studying alone
I’ve been searching for a brand new life that isn’t carved in stone
Maybe everyone is different
Maybe everything has changed
Maybe living on my own I’ve grown estranged

[VOICE]
It’s Washington Heights!

[NINA]
But I remember those summer nights

[VANESSA]
Those warm embraces

[VOICE]
It’s Washington Heights!

[NINA] [VANESSA] [VOICES] Fire hydrants spraying water Across our Sweaty shiny faces Sweaty shiny faces It’s Washington Heights! the names and places, the names and places, remaining chases of you remaining chases of you As the subway races home! As the subway races home! It’s Washington Heights!
[VOICES]
It’s Washington Heights!

[NINA]
Nobody tell me you can’t go home again

[ENSEMBLE]
It’s Washington Heights!

[NINA]
Nobody tell me you can’t feel just as
Alive as you did back then

[ENSEMBLE]
It’s Washington Heights!

[NINA]
Somebody welcome me home and hold me tight

[ENSEMBLE]
It’s Washington Heights!

[NINA]
There’s only one place I know to take
Away these lonely nights

[COMPANY]
In Washington Heights!