Awesome / In the Heights

The stage show

• Definitely "Blackout". The audience goes crazy when we get a glimpse of the cast stumbling about in the dark.
  • Sonny and Graffiti Pete's section, in which they protect the bodega and distract the vandals. We also see Pete "light" a firework, which looks very realistic. It's also all shades of FREAKING AWESOME.
  • During the reunion concert in 2013, when "Blackout" came on, a majority of audience members used their own cell phones to join in with the intro. Just goes to show how much of an impact this song has on its audience.
• At the beginning of Act 2, a vest-clad Benny is seen standing on his fire escape. When a T-shirt clad (translation: post-coital) Nina comes out to join him, the audience applauded and cheered for so long, the actors had to start their dialogue over.
  • Which is followed by a Funny Moment:
  Nina: Are you ready to try again?
  Benny: I think I'm ready.
  • ...and then she starts to test Benny on Spanish vocab words.
• Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony acceptance speech for Best Score. Complete with improvised rapping.
  I used to dream about this moment, now I'm in it!
  Tell the conductor to hold the baton a minute!
  I'll start with Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman,
  Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, and Jill Furman.
  Quiara, for keepin' the pages turnin',
  Tommy Kail for keepin' the engine burnin',
  For bein' so discernin' through every all-nighter,
  Dr. Herbert for telling me, "You're a writer."
  I have to thank Andy Blank for every spank!
  Matter fact, thank John Buzzetti for every drink!
  Thank the cast and crew for having each other's backs, son!
  I don't know about God but I believe in Chris Jackson!
  I don't know what else I got! I'm off the dome!
  I know I wrote a little show about home!
  Mr. Sondheim, look, I made a hat
  Where there never was a hat!
  It's a Latin hat at that!
  Mom, Dad, and Rita, I wrote a play!
  Y'all came to every play!
  Thanks for being here today!
  Vanessa, who still leaves me breathless,
  Thanks for lovin' me when I was broke and makin' breakfast!
  And with that, I want to thank all my Latino people!
  This is for Abuelo Guisin and Puerto Rico!
  Thank you!
• Towards the end of the play, Sonny hires Graffiti Pete to paint a mural of Abuela Claudia on the graffiti-defaced corner store grate. The mural convinces Usnavi, who disliked Pete before, to stay in Washington Heights.
• Benny standing up to Kevin after being harassed for not being Latino through out the whole play and being fired deserves a mention.
• Camila's solo "Enough," in which she tells Nina and Kevin that they both messed up royally, and that they better fix it.
• Benny rapping in "96,000" (probably the most famous number overall) about how he'd go to business school, get rich, and golf with either Donald Trump or Tiger Woods...as his caddy. Particularly when you look at certain remarks Trump made during, and after, his presidential campaign.
• "Alabanza", as the neighborhood comes together to mourn and honor Abuela Claudia. There's just something about the cast's voices blending together in harmony, sounding almost angelic, then ending with Usnavi's soft, "Alabanza," that's simultaneously awesome and tear-jerking.

The movie

• Usnavi says that he wants to take Abuela Claudia and Sonny with him to his parents' bar to renovate it in the Dominican Republic. Claudia says she'll only go if Sonny does because the block needs her. Sonny politely refuses, and in a case of Wise Beyond Their Years, gently asks Usnavi if maybe he's idealizing a place he doesn't really remember. It takes until the end of the movie for Usnavi to realize that Sonny was right.
• There's a small bit of Adaptational Context Change with Sonny's rap in "96,000". In the show, after giving an impassioned speech about gentrification, social inequity, and politicians who use racism to score points with their base, Vanessa innocently but condescendingly calls Sonny "cute", indicating that she (and the rest of the characters) see him as Just a Kid and don't take his righteous outrage seriously. Here, the line is said by a girl closer to Sonny's own age, who seems genuinely impressed. It's followed by a sweet moment where Sonny gets tongue-tied, smiling and attempting to flirt with her.
• Benny never blames Nina for her father's choice to sell the dispatch, unlike in the musical. Indeed, Nina argues with her dad that they can't afford to do it especially when she doesn't see college as worth it, and Benny tries to intercede on her behalf when she tries to explain why she doesn't want to go back to Stanford. Benny peacefully explains to Kevin that no one was seeing Nina for who she was, but as a stereotype and way to check off another notch on the diversity checklist.
• During the chaos of "Blackout", Benny sees a group of people starting to fight over taxis and puts his anger over Kevin's choice to sell the dispatch aside to help, despite Nina's pleading with him to let it go. He tells her to stay with Usnavi where it's safe, and he'll be back once people are driving.
  Benny: I might not have a job tomorrow, but I still got one tonight.
  • And what does Benny when he finds out the dispatch doesn't have power? He routes the incoming calls through his own cellphone and the outgoing through a backup generator he found inside, allowing him to help a pregnant woman get to a working hospital to deliver her baby. That's when Kevin walks in, and he nonverbally admits that he misjudged Benny.
  • Smash cut to Kevin joining in as well, helping out in the dispatch. He and Benny are in perfect sync as they direct the taxis.
• Sonny and Graffiti Pete get one in the same moment: they realize that the neighborhood's all dark, meaning no one can see. They light up the fireworks in Graffiti Pete's backpack that they were saving for July 4th, warning everyone to stand back while they light up. Then the two hand out lit sparklers to people on the streets to use as impromptu flashlights. Unsurprisingly, his friends and family laud Sonny as a hero when he returns to Abuela's apartment.
  • Shoutout to the breakdancer that decides to use sparklers in his routine, to entertain the scared neighbors.
• Olga Merediz returns as Abuela Claudia, the role she originated on Broadway, and she's as phenomenal on-screen as she was on stage. In "Paciencia y Fe", she takes us on a walking tour of the past 80-odd years of Claudia's life, using just her voice and the choreography to watch this senior citizen become a bright-eyed child in Cuba, a struggling new immigrant, a hardworking maid powering through decades of bigotry, building a life she can be proud of as the beloved matriarch of Washington Heights.
  • A shoutout to the writing team here as well: the companion book In the Heights: Finding Home revealed that Quiara Hudes came up with the idea for "Paciencia y Fe" to be Claudia's Death Song on the day of filming. Meaning all the rewrites and reblocking necessary to make the song one of the most impactful death scenes in movie musical history? All of it happened in one day.
• After their whirlwind summer together, Benny and Nina conclude their story with a physics-defying Dance of Romance "When the Sun Goes Down".
• The choreography within the movie is absolutely stunning from start to end, with every single actor putting 100% of their stamina and skills to pull off some remarkably challenging moves.
• Usnavi decides to use his lotto winnings to help Sonny secure a Green Card. Not even Sonny had considered doing that when saying what he would do if he had won.
• The end credits scene: The Piraguero finally getting the business he deserves. Lin also hits an impressive high note.
  Piraguero: I TOLD YOU, I RUN THIS TOWN!
• The list of Latina achievement beginning with "Chita, Rita, Frida..." now has the kids add "And Sonia the Supreme Court Justice!", with her portrait simply captioned "Boss".