{"id":336151,"date":"2026-09-02T17:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336151\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:50:17","slug":"natalie-venetia-belcon-matte-martinez-linedy-genao-more-complete-new-york-city-center-in-the-heights-gala-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336151\/","title":{"rendered":"Natalie Venetia Belcon, Matte Martinez, Linedy Genao, More Complete New York City Center In the Heights Gala Cast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lights up on full casting for New York City Center<\/a>‘s upcoming gala presentation of Lin-Manuel Miranda<\/a> and Quiara Alegr\u00eda Hudes<\/a>‘\u00a0In the Heights<\/a>, performing October 28-November 15 at the Manhattan venue.\u00a0David Mendiz\u00e1bal<\/a> (Mexodus) will direct the new staging, which will feature choreography by Mayte Natalio<\/a> and music direction by Alejandro Senior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The production will feature Matte Martinez<\/a> (MJ) as Usnavi, Jaci Calderon as Nina, Ashley De La Rosa<\/a> (Buena Vista Social Club<\/a>) as Vanessa, Tony winner\u00a0Natalie Venetia Belcon<\/a> (Buena Vista Social Club,\u00a0Avenue Q<\/a>)\u00a0as Claudia, Linedy Genao<\/a> (Bad Cinderella<\/a>)\u00a0as Daniela, Ishmael Gonzalez<\/a> (& Juliet) as Sonny, Ivan Hernandez<\/a> (Schmigadoon!) as Kevin, Cedric Leiba, Jr. as Pirag\u00fcero, Aaron James McKenzie<\/a> (A Beautiful Noise) as Bennie, Ilia Isorel\u00fds Paulino as Carla, and Veronica Vazquez-Jackson as Camila, along with\u00a0Gabi Campo<\/a>, Adriel Flete<\/a>, Amanda K. Lopez, Kate Louissaint<\/a>, \u00c1ngel Lozada, Yani Marin<\/a>, Alora Tonielle Martinez, Bianca Leticia Medina, Sael Antonio Nu\u00f1ez, Cristian ”Chino” Rodriguez, Kiki Rodriguez, SeQuoiia , Michael Anthony Sylvester, and Ricardo A. Zayas. Casting is by The Telsey Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The musical, which began as a college project during Miranda’s time at Wesleyan University, served as the now Tony winner’s debut work, playing a 2005 try-out at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Off-Broadway’s 37 Arts Theater in 2007 before transferring to the Main Stem. The musical would go on to win four 2008 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The work also became a spiritual predecessor for Miranda’s seminal megahit Hamilton<\/a>, which reunited director Thomas Kail<\/a>, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler<\/a>, and music supervisor Alex Lacamoire<\/a> on the creative team, along with much of the cast (Christopher Jackson<\/a>, Jon Rua<\/a>, Javier Mu\u00f1oz<\/a>, Mandy Gonzalez<\/a>, and KO\u2014formerly Karen Olivo\u2014are all Heights and Hamilton alum, among others).<\/p>\n

In the Heights\u2014featuring music and lyrics by Miranda and a book by Hudes\u2014centers on New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood and its citizens, a vibrant immigrant community trying to get the American Dream while navigating a rapidly changing world. Miranda starred as bodega owner Usnavi, the ensemble musical’s protagonist, in the original company. Following the success of Miranda’s Hamilton, a film version of In the Heights was released in 2020, directed by Jon M. Chu and featuring performances from Anthony Ramos<\/a>, Corey Hawkins<\/a>, Melissa Barrera<\/a>, Daphne Rubin-Vega<\/a>, Jimmy Smits<\/a>, and more.<\/p>\n

City Center’s production\u00a0will feature scenic design by Riw Rakkulchon<\/a>, costume design by Dede Ayite<\/a>, lighting design by Justin Townsend<\/a>, and sound design by Alex Neumann<\/a>. Cynthia Cahill<\/a> will serve as production stage manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Heights inspired a generation of young artists to see themselves onstage and believe that a career in theatre was possible for them,\u201d says NY City Center Musical Theater Vice President and Artistic Director\u00a0Jenny Gersten<\/a> in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly meaningful to now place this beloved musical in the hands of David, Mayte, and Alejandro, who are pouring their hearts into creating a company where so many performers are having a true breakout moment\u2014and to see that happen at City Center in the heart of New York City, where this story began, makes it all the more special.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tickets are at\u00a0NYCityCenter.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lights up on full casting for New York City Center‘s upcoming gala presentation of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-336151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}