Way Beyond Broadway

Critics say Broadway and Off-Broadway are playing it safer and safer, rarely veering far from nostalgia. Two playwrights trying to break the mold join Soundcheck. Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda created and stars in the musical ``In the Heights,'' about his Washington Heights neighborhood. Playwright Adam Rapp's new play, "Essential Self-Defense," is a rock n' roll fairy-tale about a mysterious loner who works as an attack dummy for a women's self-defense class.

In the Heights's web site
Essential Self-Defense's web site