During production on 2021’s In The Heights, the musical’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and the film’s director Jon M. Chu became close friends. The two are powerhouses in the movie industry, so it’s little surprise that they’ve both had huge films come out at the tail end of the 2024 release schedule. Miranda wrote original songs for Mufasa: The Lion King and Jon M. Chu directed the musical phenomenon Wicked. Even though they’re not working together on said projects, it seems that Chu lifted some choreography from In The Heights, and after Lin called him out in spectacular fashion, the director responded to his “sassy” friend.
I had the privilege of speaking with both men on behalf of their respective projects, and after Lin-Manuel Miranda gave me a message to deliver Jon M. Chu questioning this “homage” in the choreography, I gave the Wicked director a chance to respond.
I had the privilege of speaking with both men on behalf of their respective projects, and after Lin-Manuel Miranda gave me a message to deliver Jon M. Chu questioning this “homage” in the choreography, I gave the Wicked director a chance to respond.
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00:00My first question is from an eagle-eyed fan.
00:01Yes, let's go, let's go.
00:03Oh, come on.
00:05There's a moment in One Short Day
00:06where they're suddenly in a salon
00:08and the nail choreography is suspiciously familiar
00:12to some nail choreography in In the Heights.
00:14Was that an homage or did you just figure
00:15no one really saw it the first time?
00:17Thanks.
00:18A little sassy.
00:20Lin-Manuel Miranda.
00:22You are sassy, Lin.
00:24I would say, you know, Chris Scott,
00:25who is also the choreographer of In the Heights,
00:29was, we were definitely cognizant
00:31of what we were doing there
00:32and we like little nods to our own work,
00:34even if it's step up to the street or whatever.
00:37So there's, yes, there's breadcrumbs, I would say.
00:39I can't confirm nor deny those reports.
00:41You might have to ask Christopher Scott,
00:41but yes, we were aware that there were some fun things
00:45that are little winks to ourselves, too.
00:47So we can call it an homage, maybe.
00:48Sure, sure, yes.
00:50Well, sassy boy.
00:51Yeah.
00:53I mean, listen, we pull inspiration from where we put it.
00:55You know, when you're dealing with a salon,
00:58you got to listen to what the salon wants.
01:00And the salon in Washington Heights, you know,
01:02it's a fantastical world.
01:03That's why I kind of love
01:04when you can kind of see a parallel
01:06because Oz is as fantastical as it gets.
01:09And that was always our intention with Washington Heights,
01:12was to show the beauty in there, too,
01:13and make it larger than life as well,
01:16because that is what it feels like.
01:17So I love the parallel.
01:19And, you know, of course, Lin's going to catch it
01:20because that guy, he's sharp.
01:22He's a sharp one.
01:23So is it a copycat or homage, you know?
01:26Oh, homage.
01:26I mean, I did both.
01:28I get to copy, you know, it's all the same for me,
01:31you know, but yeah.