Hey, Jon M. Chu, Lin-Manuel Miranda has a message for you. With both Chu’s film Wicked and Miranda’s Lion King prequel Mufasa on the 2024 movie schedule, the In The Heights collaborators are both on press runs and talking a lot about their respective musicals. However, the Hamilton star’s message has to do with the 2021 movie they worked on together and the choreography that is seemingly featured in both it and Wicked.
During an interview with CinemaBlend about Mufasa, Jeff McCobb told Miranda that he had an interview with Chu coming up, and he asked if the songwriter had a message for the director. In response, he decided to hilariously call his friend and collaborator out for a similarity Wicked shares with In the Heights, saying:
Here's my message. There's the moment in ‘One Short Day’ where they're suddenly in a salon, and the nail choreography is suspiciously familiar to some nail choreography in In the Heights. Was that an homage, or did you just figure no one really saw it the first time?
So, here’s the deal. Miranda was referring to the “No Me Diga” number in In the Heights (which you can stream with a Max subscription). The scene takes place in a hair salon, and shows Leslie Grace’s Nina getting a makeover from the salon ladies as they gossip. Toward the end of the song, there’s a moment where a bunch of gals are getting manicures and there’s some very intricate nail choreography.
Meanwhile, in Wicked, during “One Short Day,” Elphaba and Glinda end up in a salon, and there’s also some great and intricate nail choreography.
Are they the same, was it an homage? That’s unclear at the moment. However, it is obvious that Miranda was entertained by the similarities, and he made a great joke out of it.
Notably, both In the Heights and Wicked were directed by Chu and choreographed by Christopher Scott, and the two have been collaborating for a very long time. And while these two films are wildly different outside of both being musicals, they feature choreography and dance that is similar -- and let me tell you, as a longtime fan of Scott, I feel like I can spot his choreo quickly.
Of course, Wicked killed at the box office while, despite wonderful reviews, In the Heights sadly flopped (in great part because of COVID). So, the nail choreo was definitely seen by more people recently, and it’s certainly possible that it was similar or the same to the moment in the 2021 film. Personally, I like to think it’s a sweet homage to the other Broadway adaptation Chu and Scott are best known for, and I hope Lin-Manuel Miranda feels the same way.
Now, I need to hear Jon M. Chu’s response to this call out from his colleague, because I need to know if it was a copy and paste or homage situation. In the meantime, I’ll be seeing Miranda’s latest project Mufasa in theaters and going back to see the wonderful film he made with Chu and Scott, In the Heights.
Then, I’m gonna start getting excited about Wicked: For Good’s release on the 2025 movie schedule, and you better believe I’ll be looking for more similarities between its choreography and the dancing in In the Heights and the first Wicked.
