Latino Theater Company treats L.A. audiences to a rarity in this city of almost a million-and-a-half Spanish speakers, teatro en español (with English supertitles) thanks to Gala Hispanic Theater’s The 22+ Weddings Of Hugo Multiple, Gustavo Ott’s simply marvelous look at love and immigration in today’s America.

The much-married Hugo in question is postal worker Hugo Wagner (Carlos Castillo), who has taken advantage of his U.S. citizenship to marry a grand total of eighteen different undocumented foreigners both female and male, purely and simply out of the goodness of his heart, no matter that someone else in Hugo’s position might charge a hefty $10,000 per wedding.

Venezuelan playwright Ott introduces us to spouses 18, 17, and 16 in reverse order.

First up is Venezuelan firecracker Irene (Zindia Pino), a young woman with a history of dating bad boys, criminals even, and who now finds herself pregnant and in need of a green card.

We then meet Wafa (Giselle González), who has fled the violence of the Middle East for a new life of freedom in the U.S. even if it’s meant leaving her children behind, at least for now.

 Last up is Elmar (Victor Salinas), one of Hugo’s four husbands, a gay novelist who has left Mexico “to be a writer from another country.”

The three scenes that make up Hugo Mulitple’s first act (the play is being staged in Los Angeles without an intermission) not only allow us to get to know the oft-wed Hugo’s latest spouses but Hugo himself, though it isn’t until the play’s powerful, touching penultimate scene that we discover the reason for his magnanimity, and it’s not what you’d expect.

Playwright Ott has a gift for creating colorful, multilayered characters in a play whose surefire comedic elements are balanced by moments of poignancy underlined by subtle commentary on today’s political climate in an America whose immigrant communities find themselves increasingly demonized.

Directed with nuance and finesse by José Zayas, The 22+ Weddings Of Hugo Multiple wins audiences over from the get-go with Castillo’s warm and wonderful, salt-of-the-earth Hugo, Pino’s vibrant, vivacious Irene, Gonzáles’s dynamic, deeply-felt Wafa, and Salinas’s smart, sassy Elmar.

And it does it all in Spanish, nothing out of the ordinary in Gala Hispanic Theater’s Washington D.C. or in one of the several New York theater companies producing year-round English-supertitled Spanish-language seasons, but something shamefully missing from our Los Angeles theater scene.

The 22+ Weddings Of Hugo Mulitple looks fabulous on the Los Angeles Theatre Center stage thanks to González’s colorful, tropical-plant-adorned set (realización escenográfica by Jon Townson and props by Ilyana Rose-Davila), Rukiya Henry-Fields’ character-perfect costumes, Hailey LaRoe’s vivid lighting, and Koki Lorkipanidze’s magical sound design.

Cat Moreschi is stage manager and Mel Mader is assistant stage manager. Esteban Marmolejo is director’s assistant. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

The 22+ Weddings Of Hugo Mulitple is one of nineteen visiting productions currently running in repertory as part of Latino Theater Company’s “Encuentro 2024” theater festival, though more than half are in English with Spanish supertitles.

Judging by last night’s enthusiastic audience reaction, Los Angeles is more than ready for more Spanish-language theater, and thanks to English supertitles, everyone can fall for The 22+ Weddings Of Hugo Multiple. New York and D.C. audiences get shows like this twelve months a year. Why not L.A.?

Latino Theater Company, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre 3, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles.
www.latinotheaterco.org

–Steven Stanley
October 31, 2024
Photos: Daniel Martinez/GALA Hispanic Theatre and Roberto Sosa López

Tags: Gala Hispanic Theater, Gustavo Ott, Los Angeles Theater Review, Los Angeles Theatre Center, The Latino Theater Company