Review: ‘Bad Hombres/Good Wives’ is an inspired stream of renegade humor at San Diego Rep
During the danger of sounding that is flip wouldn’t do justice to a winningly bonkers comedy which takes its female-empowerment themes seriously — “Bad Hombres/Good Wives” might just inspire both a hashtag and a theatrical genre: #MeTuba.
Into the San Diego Rep world premiere of Herbert Sigьenza’s Moliиre-goes-modern mashup, the blurts of the sousaphone act as both musical accompaniment and sly comic commentary regarding the deliriously antic action.
Therefore the man whom plays it as he roves round the stage — the skilled tubaist Adrian Kuicho Rodriguez — becomes something like a wordlessly wry Greek chorus (in the event that ancient Greeks had gotten around to developing marching bands).
The Rep resident playwright (and co-founder of the pioneering Chicano troupe Culture Clash) who loves putting classics through a pop-culture Mixmaster it’s the kind of anything-goes gambit that often animates plays by Sigьenza.
But with “Bad Hombres” — built around Moliиre’s “School for Wives,” about a chauvinistic goat that is old to groom the most wonderful, subservient spouse — the playwright has brought their singularly eccentric sensibilities to fresh artistic levels.
So that as directed by having a yen for the kinetic by Rep artistic chief Sam Woodhouse, the play has its own females not only switching the tables but flipping them together with some hapless men’s minds, amid the ultra-macho milieu of Mexican medication cartels during the early 1990s.
Sigьenza’s story ( which he’s called being #MeToo-inspired) keeps the bare bones of Moliиre’s satire, just because the environment is just a little various: It offers a brutal and arrogant medication lord called Don Ernesto (played by the consummate pro John Padilla) getting set to marry young Eva (a sharp and deceptively delicate Yvette Angulo), that has been sequestered in a convent for decades.
As Ernesto sets it: “Men’s matches are created to purchase. Have you thought to a spouse?”
A dapper and erudite professor to impress Eva, Ernesto is masquerading as an alter ego. The pending wedding, however, coincides utilizing the loss of Ernesto’s archrival, therefore the arrival of their grieving son, Don Mario (a tremendously funny and athletic Jose Balistrieri, lending matinee-idol design).
Mario and Eva promptly fall in love; Mario confesses all to Ernesto, perhaps not realizing whom he could be; a few cartel goons (enjoyed amusing cluelessness by Daniel Ramos III and Salomуn Maya) attempted to terminate Mario; and all forms of mistaken-identity mayhem ensues, in a nod to some other influence that is big William Shakespeare. (Or “Guillermo,” as the very Eva that is literary prefers phone him.)
Several other figures loom big, too. Sigьenza pours himself as a dress that is close-fitting have fun with the witty housekeeper, Armida, who Ernesto hired away from shame after blowing up her old boss’s vehicle with Armida on it. Siguenza’s dry depiction (drag and all sorts of) creates a satisfying contrast to all or any the madness swirling around Armida.
Sigьenza’s Culture Clash compatriot Ric Salinas additionally earns laughs because the comically fawning priest, Father Alberto. (No fault of their many homosexual humor surrounding the smoothness can feel a retro. this is certainly little
After which there’s Lucha Grande — a beloved singer of fiercely maudlin canciуnes, together with whip-cracking widow of Ernesto’s dead rival. She’s got a black colored spot on her behalf attention and an enormous chip on her behalf neck within the male malfeasance she’s seen, additionally the matchless Roxane Carrasco plays her in positively show-stopping design.
She’s served well by music through the accomplished composer Bostich associated with the ensemble Nortec Collective. And Sean Fanning’s resourceful set shows as much as the regular location changes, while Carmen Amon’s memorably over-the-top costumes, Chris Rynne’s illumination, Matt Lescault-Wood’s noise and Samantha Rojales’ projections are likewise first-rate.
That knows just just exactly what Moliйre will make of most this mail order bride, however in the nature of Siguenza’s bilingual treasure of the brand new play, I’m going to borrow a term of approval from Lucha Grande: Orale!
‘Bad Hombres/Good Spouses’
Whenever: 7 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. (Some exceptions; seek the advice of theater.) Through Oct. 27.
Where: San Diego Rep’s Lyceum Stage, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown.