¡GUARACHA! — A Musical

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New York Times Critic’s Pick!  — “The uniformly great ensemble players seem to be having the time of their lives onstage, an infectious feeling they transmit to audience members, who appear ready to leave their seats and join the party.” Click Here to Read the Review: ‘¡Guaracha!,’ Jubilantly Reclaiming Its Roots

Adapted from the internationally acclaimed novel La guaracha del Macho Camacho by Luis Rafael Sánchez, ¡GUARACHA! is a new musical satire from Pregones/PRTT’s Latinx ensemble. The backdrop is an epic afternoon traffic-jam in mid-1970s San Juan, Puerto Rico. The sun is blazing hot and hit song “La vida es una cosa fenomenal” (Life Is A Phenomenal Thing) blares out of every car radio. A cast of wild, mostly lovable, and decidedly over the top characters —The Deejay, The Senator, The Socialite Wife, The Son, The Mistress, and Doña Chon, the nosy neighbor— poke fun at a situation most messy, most sticky, and most certainly out of control!

Off-Broadway World Premiere at Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Manhattan’s Theater District. November 15–December 15, 2019

Book and Lyrics: Rosalba Rolón
Music and Arrangements: Desmar Guevara
Direction: Rosalba Rolón
Choreography: Sita Frederick
Lighting Design: Lucrecia Briceño
Set & Costume Design: Harry Nadal
Projection Design: Melisa Ramos
Sound Engineering: Milton Ruiz
Based on the novel by Luis Rafael Sánchez

Ensemble Cast:
Rossmery Almonte as Doña Chon
Yaraní del Valle as Graciela
Gilberto Gabriel as Benny
Gabriel Hernández as Vicente
Mario Mattei as The Deejay
Diana Pou as China
plus
5-Piece Live Music Band

Performed in Spanish and English with supertitles.
Premiered in loving memory of Miriam Colón.

The idea for a musical adaptation of La guaracha del Macho Camacho was jointly proposed by Rolón and the late Miriam Colón, both longtime admirers of the source novel and its author. “I am thrilled that our theater will make Miriam’s dream of the production of ¡GUARACHA! a reality,” says Rolón who also directs the play. “I am beyond excited that an author of the significance of Luis Rafael Sánchez has supported our creative process and that the production is surrounded by a community of talented artists.” The work’s premiere takes on a special meaning as it is dedicated to the memory of Colón, founder of PRTT and a towering figure of Puerto Rican, Latinx, and bilingual theater in the U.S.

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Praise for Luis Rafael Sánchez’s novel, La guaracha del Macho Camacho:

“Somewhere between jive and poetry about characters who have remarkable, wild, terrible and very funny lives. It is set in Puerto Rico, and the whole book is a kind of tropical dance composed of words instead of drumbeats.” –People

“A funhouse hall of verbal mirrors … a joyous razzle dazzle of pun and rhetorical figure … Sánchez’s work is lively and admirable.” –Commonweal

“Percussive, alliterative, stanza-like, full of knowing cultural allusions.” –Kirkus Review

Published in 1976, the novel was quickly acknowledged as a Latin American masterpiece, lauded for its keen insight into postmodern life and for possessing a rhythmic quality drawn from quotidian Puerto Rican life and recognizable the world over.

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