The rumors started last week, immediately after pre-previews, and have now become roaring raves. The final production of Milagro’s 30th Season, «Learn To Be Latina«, just opened this past weekend and it has been giving audiences lots to gasp, laugh, talk, and especially think about… and they’re loving it!
The critics also have been won over by this brilliant farce, astutely compared to the beloved classic «My Fair Lady«, in turn based on GB Shaw’s «Pygmalion«. Shaw is known for his «stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty», which may or may not be said of LTBL’s pop songs and racy language chosen by playwright Enrique Urueta. Portland critics had some choice words (and praise) of their own.
From Willamette Week:
«The play has earned widespread praise for
hilariously puncturing racial and gender stereotypes—and for tossing in
some bomb-ass dance sequences. Milagro Theatre has assembled a
powerhouse cast that includes Nicole Accuardi, Matthew Kerrigan and Olga
Sanchez.»
And in the opinion of The Oregonian:
«Set in a multimedia, ironic, post-Obama world, the MTV-influenced ‘Learn to be Latina’ is an upside-down theatrical grandchild of ‘My Fair Lady.’ Currently in production at the Milagro Theatre, it unflinchingly negotiates issues of ethnicity, sexuality and identity, and it appears to be on the cutting edge of what the theater of tomorrow will look like.
Playwright Enrique Urueta … with director Antonio Sonera, has produced a rowdy, irreverent, splendid work. Uber-diva [and Milagro Artistic Director] Olga Sanchez’s performance is charged with stage presence and charisma. Sanchez’s fans will be surprised and delighted to see this powerful dramatic actress in a comic role. Kelly Godell brings both humor and pathos to Jill, a Mary-wannabe who trails her role model around.The creative team behind this performance plays with layers of style. The offices of FAD are made fashionably bleak by set designer Mark Haack. The dancers (Lauren Mitchell, Sarah DeGrave, Louise Chambers, and Cari Spinnler, with choreography by Chip Sherman that folds perfectly into the madness of the play) sport outfits that are part MTV, part 1920s bathing beauty contest, and look great doing it, thanks to costumer Emily Powell Wright.»
The play also features «the obvious abilities of Michelle Escobar as Blanca, the zany Orion Bradshaw and the absurdly talented Matthew Kerrigan.»
Hit the links for the full reviews, and get your tickets today to the hilarious and irreverent lesson of «Learn to Be Latina», playing at Milagro through May 31!