Local Boy.

The life of twenty-seven-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer of and lead actor in the new musical "In the Heights"--about the ups and downs of the residents of a block in Washington Heights--seemed pretty serene the other day as he did some errands in the old neighborhood. Miranda, who is trim and dark-haired, with a goatee, and is as eager-beaverish as they come, lives on upper Broadway, a few blocks from his parents' house, across the street from Inwood Hills Park, where he was born.

"I'm the luckiest guy in the whole world," he said, taking a chair at his local barbershop, where he was getting a shape-up on his goatee. "My dad, Luis Miranda, is a Democratic political consultant and lobbyist, and founder of the Spanish-English weekly Manhattan Times. My sister Luz is an executive at the paper. My dad and my mother"--a child psychologist, also named Luz--"encouraged me my whole entire life to do what I wanted. So I found places--Wesleyan, for one--that had people who felt as passionately as I did about things like Hitchcock movies. Corta un poquito de la chiva," he said to the barber, without changing his tone, and pointed to one side of his chin. The barber gave a solemn nod. "He doesn't know a word of English. Like everybody else up here. They don't need to learn English," Miranda said. "Nobody knows who I am, so I can still enjoy my privacy. But I was recognized this morning, on the A train at West Fourth Street, because my picture on the poster for the show is up there. A woman sat down next to me and said, 'I liked your show better than "Miss Saigon." ' She talked to me all the way to 181st Street."

First stop after the barbershop: a sandwich place called Munchies, where the counterman, unsmiling and without a word, placed a foamy drink before Miranda. "The best milkshake in the world," Miranda said. "Puts the pounds on, orange shake with condensed milk. I lost about ten pounds in the show this month, doing all the dancing, singing, rapping." He finished it in a long gulp. "Now I've got to do some ...