THE PLAY YOU WANT


Times may have changed since actors like Lupe Velez, Ricardo Montalbán, and Rita Moreno found themselves pigeonholed into one stereotypical role after another, but perhaps not as much as we’d like to believe, or at least not according to the The Play You Want, Bernardo Cubría’s scathingly funny look at the compromises a writer named Bernardo Cubría must make to make it to Broadway.

The titular play in question is Nar-Cocos, a cliché-packed potboiler written by Bernardo (Peter Pasco) as a joke after seeing Latino drug dealers, undocumented border-crossers, and Dia De Los Muertos combined into yet another box office bonanza.

Still, joke or not, Nar-Cocos is exactly the kind of play that might actually land Bernardo his first reginal theater credit, which is why his agent Chloe (Natalie Llerena) informs him in no uncertain terms that it’s either “write this Tamales play” or get dropped from her client list because the last thing anyone needs is one more of Bernardo’s unproduced experimental clown plays.

And so, despite serious reservations, Bernardo sets out to write “The Play You Want,” not the least because his wife Vera (Chelsea Gonzalez) is sick and tired of scrimping and saving, and it’s about time her husband stepped up to the plate and started really supporting her and their two-year-old son.

And wonder of wonders, before Bernardo can say “sell my soul to the devil,” Nar-Cocos is getting an honest-to-goodness professional reading, directed by none other than Tony winner Sam Gold (Christopher Larkin) and featuring none other than New York theater vet Gilbert Cruz (Jonathan Nichols) as Papá, a reading that goes so well that Public Theatre artistic director Oskar Eustes (Stewart J. Zully) calls Bernardo’s play “brilliant” and decides on the spot to rush it into production as the Public’s “answer to the Dear White Theatre Letter.”

Though it helps to have heard of Sam Gold, Gilbert Cruz, and Oskar Eustes , even if you haven’t (and I had to google all three), that won’t stop you from relishing playwright Cubría’s take-down of political correctness gone bananas (or as a character in Nar-Cocos might put it, “gone plátanos.”)

Among other targets of Cubría’s piquantly poisoned arrows are Alfred Molina (Nichols), Chay Yew (Larkin), Scott Rudin (Zully), and a hilariously skewered Lin Manuel Miranda (Roland Ruiz), though truth be told, any negativity on Bernardo’s part regarding the creator of In The Heights and Hamilton is born out of Miranda envy pure and simple. (After all, who wouldn’t want to be Lin Manuel?)

All of this adds up to one of The Road Theatre’s zestiest productions ever, directed with abundant panache by Michael John Garcés and featuring as fabulous an ensemble as any playwright could wish for.

Pasco’s comedic star turn as Bernardo may be his best work to date. (It’s definitely his funniest.)

And supporting players (who get to play at least two roles each) are just as sensational: Llerena’s deliciously over-the-top Chloe, Mija, and JLo (yes, the JLo), Larkin’s droll turn as a couple of quite full-of-themselves directors, Nichols’ transformation into two very different stage stars (the veddy British Molina is a particular hoot), Presciliana Esparolini’s sassy Gloria Estefan and Spanglish-spouting Abuela, Gonzalez’s had-it-up-to-here Vera, Ruiz having a field day as Lin Manuel (and later manipulating the cutest child-sized puppet in town), and Zully giving producer-non-grata Rudin his diabolical due.

Last but not least, Brian Graves (set design), Nicholas Santiago (projections), Derrick McDaniel (lighting), Marc Antonio Pritchett (sound), Michèle Young (costumes), Arian Saleh (music), Lynn Jeffries (puppet), and Mary Jane Miller (wigs) make for the finest of intimate theater design teams.

Samira C Beija, Danny Gomez, Lance Guest, Elsha Kim, Melina Paez, Daniel Penilla, Al Rodrigo, and E-Kan Soong are covers.

The Play You Want is produced by Christina Carlisi, Danna Hyams, and Carlyle King. Amayah Watson is associate producer. Carlisi is assistant director. Jessica Broutt is dramaturg. Christopher Jerabek is assistant projection designer. Maurie Gonzalez is stage manager. David Elzer is publicist.

There could be no better medicine for those longing to recover from a two-year-long pandemic shutdown than the abundance of laughter generated in Bernardo Cubría’s The Play You Want. That the Road Theatre’s latest has important things to say is icing on a muy delicioso cake.

The Road Theatre, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Reopens June 2 through June 19. See website for detailed performance schedule.
www.RoadTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
March 20, 2020
Photos: Elizabeth Kimball

 

 

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