A projection of El Bola’s round face with infectious smile greets you from a circular screen. Then Marcelino Valdes, in elegant white and black tux, steps through the Omega-shaped portal and impersonates Cuba’s King of Song by sing-speaking the riff: “All of us black folk drink coffee, you know!” from Ay, Mama Ines, (by Eliseo Grenet) and the fireworks begin. [Read more...]

Top Pick — On a set littered with sandbags, rifles stand in wooden gun racks. Strains of catchy guitar music filter through muffled explosions of mortars. In the middle of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Federico Garcia Lorca is dead but we’re about to see his playful side in a puppet show that is bawdy, grotesque, and exquisitely beautiful. [Read more...]

TOP PICK! — Federico Garcia Lorca’s lyrical language will never die. Not as long as Nilo Cruz draws inspiration from the poet/playwright and writes with such soul-searing beauty as he does in Beauty of the Father and director Abel Lopez draws together this perfect storm of a cast. [Read more...]

The comic-drama Lúcido (Lucid) puts you on razor’s edge and lets you yearn for answers to the verbal chaos on stage. In this U.S. premiere, Rafael Spregelburd, Argentina’s most prolific among the latest arsenal of young playwrights, [Read more...]

In this impressive GALA-commissioned musical, composer Mariano Vales saturates us with ardent Argentinian soul music which transitions from tango, to salsa and waltz in perfect synchronization

[Read more...]

The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico is a spoof of a spoof – an edgy satire of two starry-eyed directors who set out to film a satire about Coca-Cola, the Holy Grail of American exports, and document the impact on Mexican culture of the world’s top selling, non-alcoholic soft drink. [Read more...]

When Lope de Vega launched Fuente Ovejuna (The Sheep Well) in 1614, he meant his play, based on an actual event, to sound a warning. When does political power go over-the-top and become outrageous?  Lope looked back to a turbulent period in 1476 to find the answer. [Read more...]

The Best Judge, The King (El Mejor Alcalde, El Rey)
By Lope de Vega
Adapted and Directed by Macarena Baeza (from Chile)
Produced by GALA
Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

Fling open windows and doors. Let in fresh air and sunlight. Lope de Vega has been inaugurated in Washington D.C.  The Best Judge, The King (El Mejor Alcalde, El Rey) transports us to the Golden Age of the 17^th century Spanish Theatre, and the GALA Hispanic Theatre rivets it to life  with a magnificent U. S. premiere  performance of a masterpiece rarely staged outside Spain. [Read more...]

La Edad de la Ciruela, The Aging of the Plum
by playwright Aristides Vargas  
directed by Abel Lopez
produced by  GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square
reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

GALA director Abel Lopez and his inspired performers make The Aging of the Plum/La Edad de la Ciruela so mesmerizing and real, it moves beyond magic into the sublime. Enacted to the max in the exaggerated style of magical realism, the actors cut to the heart of it and deliver Aristides Vargas’ poetic imagery, as if playing a beautiful violin sonata. [Read more...]

• Agustín Lara: Boleros & Blues      
• Book by Gabriel Garcia; musically adapted by Mari Paz         
• Conceived and directed by Abel Lopez                                � �    
• Produced by the GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy   

Who was Agustín Lara, known as Mexico’s musical poet? Worshipped by swooning fans as “Our Golden Skinny Man,” Lara wrote gorgeous, romantic ballads, or boleros, and lived the life of his lyrics-as a woman’s dream of a Latin lover. [Read more...]