Lights up on "In The Heights" - the highly anticipated stage-to-screen transfer of the 2008 Tony-winning musical has finally arrived!

What You Need To Know

  • Lin-Manuel Miranda changed the face of Broadway by bringing a Latino story and a predominantly Latino cast to the stage with his Tony Award winning musical “In the Heights”

  • Now he is about to continue that legacy across the country and internationally as the film treatment has finally arrived

  • You can catch "In The Heights" on the big screen starting June 10, or on HBO MAX

"I've been waiting longer than all of you," joked creator and Broadway powerhouse Lin-Manuel Miranda. "I remember when we started thinking about what a movie version of this might be in 2009, and then there were so many steps and bumps and steps forward and backwards on that journey."

Like the show, the film centers around a tight-knit community living in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

“In the Heights” was conceived by Miranda, who also created the central character of Usnavi on stage. On screen the role is played by “Hamilton” alum Anthony Ramos, who says he feels a sense of responsibility taking on Usnavi.

"I got to deliver it because of the culture. I got to deliver it for my people, for my ancestors. It was like thank you Lin for trusting me with this, and here we go," said Ramos.

Ramos also credits the property for his career – he was contemplating leaving the business years ago – but then caught a performance of the Broadway production of “Heights” and…

"I just saw these characters who just look like people I grew up with, and then they're singing and dancing and speaking in a vernacular that is so familiar to mine. And I just had a moment in that audience and I was like, 'Yo, I got to keep going, man!'" Ramos recalled.

And speaking of visibility and a connection to one’s culture, Miranda says “In the Heights” is a valentine to his roots and his beloved city.

"The thing that makes Washington Heights special to me is that it is the home to so many first stories in this country,” Miranda said. “When I was growing up, it was a largely Dominican neighborhood in the seventies and eighties. But before that, it was a hub for Puerto Ricans and Cubans in the forties and fifties, before that it's an Irish neighborhood and a Jewish neighborhood, Yeshiva University is still in Washington Heights. And so it is these layers and layers of first stories.”

You can catch “In The Heights” on the big screen starting June 10, or on HBO MAX.