By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—Somewhere between reality and romanticism is the space in which the Candelaria Family lives. Somewhere is also the title of one of Leonard Bernstein’s reflective ballads from his popular West Side Story and it is also the title of Matthew Lopez’s brand new world premiere comedy drama now being given a beautifully danced, enthusiastically acted and directed (Giovanna Sardelli) and oft times funny production on the Sheryl and Harvey White Stage at The Globe.
Lopez’s new play takes place in1959 in a cramped tenement house (Campbell Baird) on West 66th Street that is under the wrecking ball to make way for Lincoln Center. It was
also in this vicinity (67th and 68th streets) that some of the filming of the movie West Side Story was being shot.
Against this backdrop, and the fact that in real time some in Lopez’s family in particular Lopez’s aunt Priscilla and his father who were extras on the set of West Side Story, the playwright’s ideas emerged. That it had a profound influence on the playwright is what gives it the feel of authenticity. In the program notes the playwright states that ‘his father can be clearly seen in one of the shots in the film’. At that time the Broadway Musical was at its pinnacle (Golden Decade).
Imagine living just a streetcar ride away from seeing Gypsy, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, and The Music Man, Paint Your Wagon and The King And I? It’s no wonder that Inez Candelaria (Priscilla Lopez) as the matriarch in her nephew’s new play is an über Broadway Musical fan who refuses to move or even give an inch to the city’s demand for her family to leave. The city has provided housing in a Brooklyn Housing project, but away from these madding crowds.
Inez ushers at some of the theatres and gets to see all the big musicals. She’s in the orchestra ushering the big shots, no balcony ushering for her. Her desire is for her family to be creative, creative, creative in the arts and ignore the fact that her husband and the father of her three offspring has been gone over two years ‘looking for work’.
Someday he will send for them to join him in California and as long as the letters keep coming, she will keep the memories and the dreams alive. In the meantime, every day of doing something creative like dancing, rehearsing for a part in a play, auditioning for a part or singing is a good day for her children.
Son Francisco (Juan Javier Cardanes) is studying drama and hopes to be in a major film some day. Fifteen-year-old Rebecca (Benita Robledo) is studying dancing and ushers with
her mother. (She’s in the balcony, though). Inez’s biggest joy and disappointment is her son Alejandro (Jon Rua) who refuses to dance but who is writing a play away from her eyes.
Inez is convinced that he could be the world’s greatest dancer if he continued his dance classes and didn’t stop auditioning for dancing parts. At a young age he danced in The King and I but after his father left he gave up his dancing to work in a local grocery store to help support the family, a move she finds utterly appalling and one she could never understand nor does she admit to
understanding.
In Lopez’s two act play, most of the first act is taken up with the drama of the Candelaria’s push me-pull you dynamics in this theatre loving family. Who does what, when, where, how and why
are bandied about between the characters as they rehearse scenes, practice dance numbers make superficial talk and dream that some of this fantasy will not have been in vain; all except Alejandro. Even the over zealous Inez can’t seem to coax her quiet and introspective Alejandro into joining in on their entire make-believe world.
For a bit more than an hour, one wonders where the playwright is going with all this. Even bringing in another character, Jamie Macrae (Leo Ash Evans), a childhood friend of the family who
was in dance classes with Alejandro and is now assisting Jerome Robbins in the filming of and on the set of West Side Story doesn’t satisfy it just teases.
Things begin to jell and come together in Act II (this could be its own play) where we get to really see the talent that has been hiding underneath the thinly veiled story of a family trying to cope with the disappearance of their father and the overly enthusiastic prodding of their stage mother. All fine actors in their own way, the expert dancing under choreographer Greg Graham’s direction sets this act on fire and has you wanting more.
Jon Rua finally breaks out of the doldrums and shows us why his mother is so hell bent on his continuing dancing. He is talent personified as his improv dance number pushes the small area on
the White Stage to the limits. Leo Ash Evans and his inspiring dancing leads the way for Benita Robledo’s Rebecca to audition as a dancer for the great Jerome Robbins and Juan Javier Cardenas
plays counter point to his brother Alejandro’s dancing and writing as the also-ran actor.
Tony Award winning actress, the playwright’s aunt, Pricilla Lopez is the over enthusiastic and pushy Mom to a point of weariness but kudos to her for her passion and her dreamy dance sequences.
It would be difficult to imagine her not being in this show as the driving force behind the story. It’s almost as if the playwright wrote the part for her exclusively.
Along with Jeremy J. Lee’s background music from, then, current shows like Gypsy, West Side Story and On The Waterfront, Charlotte Devaux’s spot on period clothes and Lap Chi Chu’s
lighting design Somewhere ‘has a place for us’ but not in its current form.
With some culling, cutting, pastingand retooling a clearer picture of what the playwright is trying to say should emerge. What felt like two separate plays on opening night, hopefully, will fit
into a shorter and more engaging vision. That said, the dancing is not to be missed nor the story dismissed, just tightened up.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Oct. 30th
Organization: The Old Globe Theatre
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type: Comedy/Drama
Where: 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa
Park
Ticket Prices: Start at $29.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
Venue: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com