| Kiss your Aztec! At Berkeley rep |
| Last Edit: dramedy 04:09 pm EDT 06/20/19 |
| Posted by: dramedy 04:07 pm EDT 06/20/19 |
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| It started out very promising with the first song White people in boats sung by the Aztecs telling them we don’t want you sending us white people that have diseases, thieves, murderers and rapists—very clever twist on trump statements 500 years later. So I felt I was entering a semi-political type musical like the brilliant soft power last June at the Curran (and at public theater this fall). Unfortunately, the show shifts to a generic marry the daughter to make alliances for the Kings favor (lot like head over heels without the gogo songs) and Aztecs trying to fight off the Spanish using mystical powers. The book is by leguizamo and tony taccone so I expected more relevancy. And the lyrics in most of the songs were cliche puns and rhymes that even I noticed were bad (and I rarely really focus on every lyric). Most disappointing is the hays code seems to be invoked in this production—not that I cared much by the end what happened to anyone. Clearly the cast is mostly New York based (and doing a great job with the substandard material) and I assume the producers have hopes of moving to ny. But it’s a mess of a show with mostly forgettable songs. the puppets must go—the payoff with the slam is bad. I think the only truly funny thing is the Latino impersonating a Frenchman by using any French word he knows in random order ( latte bon jour croissant nt...) but that joke wore thin after Awhile. With amelie and ain’t to proud being slick productions, this felt like bad community theater. |
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