Initially, Lamont Walker II was not a theater person. He comes from a family of athletes but when a friend of his father’s needed some boys to fill out a local stage production, Walker went along and found it was something he could and wanted to do. Successfully enough that he’s been cast in two Broadway shows.
Now he’s making his TUTS debut with the part of Benny, in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ( Hamilton) In the Heights. In fact, he says, it was seeing another production of In the Heights that inspired him to see acting as a career.
“It was the first show that really spoke to me musically with music that I would listen to on the radio and just enjoy in my down time and it’s followed me through my whole journey through school, after school, through the pandemic and even now after having been on MJ: The Musical on Broadway and [13-time Tony-nominated] Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway, I am constantly drawn back to this story.”
This isn’t his first time to be part of an In the Heights staging. He did it in Saugatuck Center for the Arts in Saugatuck, Michigan right after graduating from Park Point University in Pittsburgh. “But I always say there’s the pre-pandemic human and the post-pandemic human and after the pandemic the opportunity to jump back into this community, this culture, I really wanted to jump on.”
The story is told, of course, through the eyes of Usnavi (Daniel Melo), the owner of a small bodega in Washington Heights who was brought up by his grandmother after his parents died when he was young. Crucial elements to the plot are that Nina (Jordan Leal), a partial scholarship student, has dropped out of college and returned home. And an all-important lottery ticket windfall.
Non-Hispanic Benny loves Nina and works at the cab company owned by her father, but her father has told Benny he can never be part of the Rosario family.
Other cast members include Yassmin Alers as Abuela Claudia, Rosarito Rodriguez as Camila, Cesar F. Barajas as Kevin, John Lara as Sonny, Alysia Velez as Vanessa, Carisa Gonzalez as Daniela, Glendaliris Torres-Greaux as Carla, Michael Alonzo as Piragua Guy and Mrince Williams as Graffiti Pete. Direction and Choreography are by William Carlos Angulo.
“Our director says Benny is a light in the show,” Walker says. “He is so driven and so hard working and so idealizes his own version of the American Dream. Even though he’s not an immigrant, he has to work hard and wants to own his own business and be like Mr. Rosario. He has so much heart. He’s such a charming guy that it’s hard not to appreciate him. This is really his journey from growing up from boy to man. In a weekend he grows up.”
With the hundreds of productions of In the Heights there have been since 2008, Walker said his biggest challenge was making the role his own, to honor his own version of this character.
“I think it’s popular because it resonates with everybody across culture across language. Everybody can see themselves in it, their own communities, their own families, their own struggles. Everybody knows what it’s like to have lost someone. Or hungry for something or building something for yourself.
“Also Lin’s music is incredible. If nothing else, you are drawn in by this amazing music. I think Houston is really going to love TUTS’ production. It’s going to be such a firework.”.
Performances are scheduled for May 20 through June 1 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-558-8877 or visit tuts.org. $45-$165.
