Littlehampton’s Star Ignited Performance Academy offer Lin-Manuel Miranda musical

The story is set over the course of three days in the mostly Hispanic-American neighbourhood of Washington Heights in New York City.

Performances will be from March 5-8 at The Windmill, with tickets available on www.ticketsource.co.uk/star-ignited-performance-academy.

As Maria Prior – mum to performer Tegan and also a member of the academy’s committee – says: “It is about a group of people who are immigrants in Washington Heights, and it is an aspirational piece. It is about the stories of all these people who have an objective and who want to better themselves in life.”

Bodega owner Usnavi is dating Vanessa, who works in a beauty salon. He dreams of opening a bar in his home country, the Dominican Republic. Nina loves Benny, a shy young man who has worked for Nina’s parents for years, but her father opposes their union because he wants Nina to finish her education at Stanford University. She doesn’t want her father to bankrupt himself paying for the expensive school, but her father is prepared to sell his car-service business…

“It is about these characters, but it is not a traditional musical. You have got hip hop and rapping. It is all very modern, and all our stars are aged between 11 and 16.

“My daughter has been attending the company for about five years, and she has done several productions with them. I am on the committee that oversees the shows.

“There are 19 kids in the show, and they are all students at the academy, all what we call the senior performers. They have very small children there as well, but these are the ones that have been going to Star Ignited Performance Academy for as long as my daughter has, if not longer.