In the Heights was the musical that let a teenaged Linedy Genao feel like she could carve out a path as an actress on Broadway. Now, nearly 20 years later, she’s starring as Danela in the New York City Center production of the celebrated Lin-Manuel Miranda musical.
“We would have never known a show I grew up with that changed my life is now a part of my life again,” the actress tells Broadway Direct from her Long Island apartment a few performances into the limited run.
Genao first saw In the Heights in 2009 and again in 2011, the day before it closed at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. She loved the show so much, the braces-clad teen from Hamden, Connecticut took pictures outside the stage door and with its stars and her idols — Lin-Manuel Miranda and the original Daniela, Andréa Burns.
“Hearing the words Dominican Republic on a Broadway stage — I couldn’t believe it. This is illegal,” she recalls telling herself back then. Her family is from the Dominican Republic.
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The 2008 Tony Award–winning musical, featuring music and lyrics by Miranda and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes, centers around a Latino community navigating the meaning of home in the rapidly changing NYC neighborhood of Washington Heights during the span of three hot July days.
“It wasn’t until that show that I saw myself fully, fully, fully represented on stage,” she explains. “It gave me the confidence and the courage to pursue my dreams because it didn’t feel so far out of reach.”
Four years later, after working in banking, she made her Broadway Debut understudying Gloria Estefan in On Your Feet with — of all people — Andréa Burns, followed by Dear Evan Hansen and her star turn as Cinderella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella.
When Geneo, who was starring in The Great Gatsby as Myrtle Wilson, got word that In the Heights was coming back to New York City, she emailed her team to say she had to be part of the production. Geneo had only done the show once before, as Vanessa in a regional production at the Olney Theater Center in Olney, Maryland, opposite Robin de Jesús (who played the original Sonny and earned a Tony Award nomination).
“I couldn’t have written it any better,” she says of being cast as Daniela. “To now step into the role that [Burns] created is so full-circle. It is a character that holds such a special place in my heart because of my connection with Andréa.”
When she told Burns the exciting casting news, Burns actually already knew. “Our music director told her, and she was like, ‘I was screaming and I wanted to text you so bad, but I was waiting for you to let me know.’”
Stepping onto the stage as hair salon owner Daniela, who “is tough love and has a big heart,” has a familiarity that has made the role feel less like acting and more like stepping into a world she already knows. “I’m channeling my aunts. I’m channeling the salons that I grew up in. That’s literally ingrained in me because I grew up in that,” she explains of her role as the comedic relief of the show and part of the trio who sings “No Me Diga.”
At the opening night gala, she met Daphne Rubin-Vega, who portrayed Daniela in the Jon M. Chu–directed 2021 film adaptation. “She was like, ‘Daniela 2.0, you are a star. I know who you are,’” Geneo recalls of their conversation that she described as beautiful and encouraging. “She couldn’t be kinder.”
The day after In the Heights closes its three-week run on Sunday, November 15, Genao returns to The Great Gatsby following a two-month hiatus. She had left the show after suffering a concussion. Without any opportunity to rehearse, she feels comfortable stepping back into Myrtle’s shoes.
“I’m excited to kind of rewire my brain,” she says, noting that she’s been doing the show for a year and a half and the role’s ingrained in her body. Still, she’ll get to the theatre earlier than usual and run through her part.
On her day off, Genao hosts her own podcast called “Entre Acts,” which discusses the in-between periods between jobs. “I was empowered to talk about it because nobody does. We feel embarrassed,” she admits. “When a teacher is off in the summer, you don’t ask them what they are doing in the summer. They are enjoying their summer.”
For Genao, those in-between-show windows have been filled with rest, travel, and reconnecting with family — specifically after Bad Cinderella.
Now, nearly two years into her run on Broadway in The Great Gatsby, Genao has found herself returning to a show that first made her believe a career in theater was possible. “This is truly, truly home,” she says. “I feel so at home with this piece, and have been since the day that I saw it.”
