Reviewed by Judy Richter
"We are a family of
dreamers," says the matriarch of a Puerto Rican immigrant family in "Somewhere," the Matthew Lopez drama presented by TheatreWorks in its regional premiere. For
the Candelaria family, the dreams revolve around show business, but reality
keeps them in a tenement apartment on West 66th Street in New York City in the
summer of 1959.
Still,
everyone tries. The steely matriarch, Inez (Priscilla Lopez), does sewing for neighbors and
works two jobs, including ushering at the Broadway theater where "West
Side Story"
is playing. Daughter Rebecca (Michelle Cabinian) also ushers and takes dance
lessons. Son Francisco (Eddie Gutierrez) takes acting lessons. Son Alejandro (Michael
Rosen) played
one of the children in "The King and I" on Broadway, but now a
burdensome secret has led him to abandon his dream and work 80 hours a week to
help support the family. The long-absent family patriarch is in Cuba working as
a dancer.
Two
catalysts set the plot in motion. The first is that choreographer Jerome
Robbins is in town to film the dance prologue to the movie version of
"West Side Story." Inez and Jamie MacRea (Leo Ash Evens), a longtime family friend and
an assistant to Robbins, want Alejandro to try out.
The
second is that the family must move in 30 days because their neighborhood is
being razed to make way for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, but
Inez refuses to go. She fears her husband won't know where to find them. The
end of Act 1 is fraught with peril as the three kids frantically pack while a
wrecking ball whacks away at their building.
While
the first act has some slow spots, especially in the middle, the second act is
stronger as the family is settled in a larger, nicer apartment in a Brooklyn
housing project a year later. By then, Inez is ushering for "Gypsy," whose central character,
Mama Rose, shares many of Inez's characteristics. However, Act 2 ends
anticlimactically after an Alejandro dance scene that might have worked better
as the ending.
Because
the play has several dance scenes well choreographed by Greg Graham, director Giovanna Sardelli needed a cast of skilled actors
who can also dance. She found them in this five-person ensemble, and she guides
them well.
Scenic
designer Andrea Bechert masters the challenge of changing the set from the Act 1 cramped
brownstone apartment -- complete with fire escape and laundry hanging outside
-- to the more spacious yet basic apartment of Act 2. Lighting by Steven B.
Mannshardt and
costumes by Cathleen Edwards serve the play well. Jeremy J. Lee's sound design features music
from the times as well as snatches of news broadcasts that give a sense of
what's happening outside the apartment.
Adding
to the family feeling in "Somewhere," playwright Lopez is the nephew
of actress Lopez, who made such a powerful impression as Diana Morales in the
original production of "A Chorus Line." Candelaria was her mother's maiden name,
and in a sly aside, the family living downstairs in the play is named Lopez.
"Somewhere"
had its world premiere at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in 2011. Besides being restaged
from in-the-round to a proscenium, it has been rewritten since then. Despite
whatever changes may have been made, it still needs more work. Nevertheless,
it's worth seeing, especially for the dancing and acting.