I have spent my adult life circling around, but never really living in, New York City. But it is one of that city’s peculiar gifts that even those who have spent little time there can feel at home. I normally detest when theatrical productions are called “life-affirming,” but this Lin-Manuel Miranda musical was a true affirmation of life in Washington Heights as it was in the mid-2000s. The area is gentrifying (or, as a friend told me we are supposed to say now, “up and coming”) but Washington Heights has traditionally been a Dominican (and Puerto Rican) neighbourhood, and the musical represents a last pop of colour and culture before the inexorable market forces took over.

I didn’t make it to this at Southwark and made the trek up to the small King’s Cross Theatre, which is running this and The Railway Children in rep, with few expectations (I did wonder how long the theatre would be there, given the gentrification occurring in King’s Cross itself). I was absolutely blown away. This is a joyous musical with cracking tunes, beautifully danced, sung and acted by an energetic and very talented cast. I enjoyed it enormously and hope that it gains the audience it very much deserves.

In the Heights is an urban drama with overlapping storylines, in the manner of Rent. Nina (Lily Frazer, effervescent) is the local girl upon whom the community has pinned their hopes, as she was a straight-A student in high school, feted by the Mayor, who has just returned from her first year at Stanford. Kevin (authoritatively played by David Bedella) and Camila (Josie Benson, channelling Vanessa Williams) are her parents, who have spent their lives building up a car service business. Benny (Joe Aaron Reid, jaw-droppingly gorgeous) works for the business and quietly holds a torch for Nina. On the other, more scrappy side of the street, Usnavi (Sam Mackay, who deftly balances the requisite swagger and vulnerability) helps out his Abuela Claudia (Eve Polycarpou, touchingly beautiful) while trying to get up the courage to ask out Vanessa (radiant Jade Ewen) and managing his immature cousin Sonny (a charming Cleve September). The neighbourhood hair salon includes local busybody Daniela (hilariously played by a heavily pregnant Victoria Hamilton-Barritt) and slightly dim Carla (Sarah Naudi). The rest of the ensemble is similarly talented and sang and danced beautifully throughout.

Nina’s story was particularly resonant. It is very difficult, as a talented teenager who has done well in a small pond, to cope with a new, much larger and much more privileged environment. This is particularly the case when your family and community are very proud of you, but do not understand the particular challenges that such students must face when switching between the two. A lovely scene between Nina and Benny deftly addresses this code-switching. Frazer and Reid, and Bedella and Benson as the parents, played these scenes straight, without excessive sentimentality.

Another cliche that I normally abhor is the notion of a “love letter” to a particular place, but again I must eat my words. I am not sure what the London audience made of it, but references to the GWB, the Deegan, the Cloisters, the West Side Highway, etc made me almost homesick. There were lovely nods to the influence of other New Yorkers, with “a little schmutz” being wiped off Usnavi’s face and a delightful line, “If you’re buyin’, L’Chaim!” Reference was made as well to the Irish-Americans who previously inhabited Washington Heights, acknowledging that any city is a work in progress. The only thing I missed were the “Happy to Serve You” iconic blue coffee cups.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is the toast of New York at the moment for Hamilton (which I am very much looking forward to seeing), but this earlier effort of his is a somewhat hidden treat. I left with a smile on my face and, very unusually for me, a desire to see it again. Very highly recommended.