Jon M. Chu Has A Hilarious Response After Lin-Manuel Miranda Claimed 'Wicked' Copied 'In The Heights' Choreography

Cinema Blend

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.

Transcript

00:00First question is from an eagle-eyed fan.

00:02Yes, let's go, let's go.

00:04Oh, come on.

00:05There's the moment in one short day where they're suddenly in a salon

00:08and the nail choreography is suspiciously familiar to some nail choreography in In the Heights.

00:14Was that an homage or did you just figure no one really saw it the first time?

00:20A little sassy.

00:21Oh, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

00:22You are sassy, Lin.

00:24I would say, you know, Chris Scott, who is also the choreographer of In the Heights,

00:29was we were definitely cognizant of what we were doing there.

00:33And we like little nods to our own work, even 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 or deny those reports. You might have to ask Christopher Scott.

00:42But yes, we were aware that there are some fun things that are little winks to ourselves, too.

00:47So we can call it an homage, maybe.

00:49Sure, sure, yes.

00:50Well, sassy boy.

00:53I mean, listen, we pull inspiration from where we pull it.

00:56You know, when you're dealing with the salon, you got to listen to what the salon wants.

01:00And the salon in Washington Heights, you know, it's a fantastical world.

01:03And that's why I kind of love when 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 was to show the beauty in there, too,

01:13and make it larger than life as well as because that is what it feels like.

01:17So I love the parallel.

01:18And, you know, of course, Lynn's going to catch it because that guy, he's sharp.

01:22He's a sharp one.

01:23So it's a copycat or homage, you know?

01:25Oh, homage.

01:26I mean, I did both.

01:27So I get to I get to copy, you know, it's all it's all the same.

01:30It's from me, you know, but yeah.

01:31It's from a plump.

01:32Yes, it's from me.

01:33It's from Dave Jonas for the Elm and his career.

01:37He is also a Palace team.

01:40He is a chef of the Sunday and now he feels like a professor and he talks about a job as

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