‘In the Heights’ at Sonoma State University to be music director’s campus swan song

“In the Heights,” opening Feb. 9, is the 23rd Sonoma State University stage production to feature musical direction by Lynne Morrow and it marks a shift in her career.

“It’s going to be the last,” she said.

After her retirement from her full-time position on the university faculty in 2019, the popular music professor contracted as a teaching consultant there for five more years.

“This is the fifth year,” Morrow said.

The Sonoma State production of “In the Heights” is co-directed by Morrow and theater arts professor Marie Ramirez Downing with choreography by guest artist Anakarina Swanson.

The cast includes Sonoma State students and alumni, community members and several fifth-grade students from Cali Calmécac Language Academy.

Set in the largely Dominican American neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City, “In the Heights” was created in 2005 and made its Broadway premiere in 2008. A film version followed in 2021.

This musical features a concept, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, famed for his creation of the musical “Hamilton” in 2015, and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes.

For her last show on the Rohnert Park campus, Morrow finds “In the Heights” a welcome challenge.

“There are a lot of moving parts, because there are a lot of scenes. There are 24 musical numbers, so there is a lot going on, when you’re required to act and sing. Movement is required also,” said Morrow, who is 69 and lives in Rohnert Park.

“The thing I like about musical theater is it uses all the parts of my brain,” Morrow added. “I’m very interested in complex storytelling in musical theater. I don’t make a distinction between musical theater and opera. It’s the same.”

As director of the cast members’ performances as actors, Downing ― who joined the Sonoma State faculty in 2020 ― is working with Morrow for the first time.

“My job is to tell the story and show how everything fits together,” she said.

Downing appreciates the multiple stories told in “In the Heights,” including that of Nina, a student who is the first in her family to attend college but drops out and returns to her old neighborhood.

“That story resonates with me. I grew up in a Mexican home in Fresno and was the first in my family to go to college. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do the show,” Downing said.

“We have a very diverse cast,” she added. “The show attracted many non-theater majors on campus who wouldn’t ordinarily be in a show. This is a celebration of our diverse community on campus at Sonoma State.”

For that reason, Downing also expects a diverse audience, including many who don’t usually come out to see a show on campus.

“I feel we are going to sell out, and it’s a 475-seat theater,” she said.

Although “In the Heights” is Morrow’s last show at Sonoma State, her work is far from over, nor has her career been limited to her work there.

Morrow was the music director of Pacific Edge Voices from 2005 to 2020 and of the Oakland Symphony Chorus from 2005 to 2022. Pacific Edge Voices, formerly the Pacific Mozart Ensemble, made its Carnegie Hall debut in November 2005.

Currently, she is working with Justin Montigne on a project titled “Purchase: Music Connected to the Louisiana Purchase, 1763-1863,” a 30-minute lecture-recital series.

She also plans projects at three College Music Society Conferences: Southwest University of the Pacific in Stockton in February, Northwest at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Central at the University of North Dakota in Fargo, both in March.

“I’m a scholar. That’s what we do. I’m not retired from life,” Morrow said.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.