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November 5, 2019 | Mail Order Marriage Statistics

Review: ‘Bad Hombres/Good Wives’ is an inspired stream of renegade humor at San Diego Rep

In the threat of sounding that is flip wouldn’t do justice to a winningly bonkers comedy which got its female-empowerment themes seriously — “Bad Hombres/Good Wives” might just encourage 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.

While the man whom plays it while he roves across the stage — the tubaist that is talented Kuicho Rodriguez — becomes something such as 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.

However with “Bad Hombres” — built around Moliиre’s “School for Wives,” about a chauvinistic goat that is old to groom the right, subservient spouse — the playwright has had their singularly eccentric sensibilities to fresh creative levels.

So when directed by having a yen for the kinetic by Rep creative chief Sam Woodhouse, the play has its own females not only switching the tables but flipping them along with some hapless men’s minds, amid the ultra-macho milieu of Mexican medication cartels into the early 1990s.

Sigьenza’s story ( that he’s referred to as being #MeToo-inspired) keeps the bare bones of Moliиre’s satire, even though the environment is only a little various: This has a brutal and arrogant medication lord known as 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 years.

As Ernesto places it: “Men’s matches are created to purchase. You will want to a spouse?”

A dapper and erudite professor to impress Eva, Ernesto is masquerading as an alter ego. The pending wedding, however, coincides with all the loss of Ernesto’s archrival, in addition to arrival of their grieving son, Don Mario (a tremendously funny and athletic Jose Balistrieri, lending matinee-idol style).

Mario and Eva immediately fall in love; Mario confesses all to Ernesto, perhaps maybe not realizing who he could be; a few cartel goons (enjoyed amusing cluelessness by Daniel Ramos III and Salomуn Maya) attempted to terminate Mario; and all sorts of forms of mistaken-identity mayhem ensues, in a nod to a different influence that is big William Shakespeare. (Or “Guillermo,” as the very literary Eva prefers to phone him.)

A couple of other figures loom big, too. Sigьenza pours himself right into a close-fitting dress to play the witty housekeeper, Armida, who Ernesto hired away from shame after blowing up her old boss’s automobile with Armida inside it. Siguenza’s dry depiction (drag and all sorts of) produces a satisfying contrast to all or any the madness swirling around Armida.

Sigьenza’s Culture Clash compatriot Ric Salinas additionally earns laughs since the comically fawning priest, Father Alberto. (No find-bride fault of their but some homosexual humor surrounding the type can feel a small retro.)

After which there’s Lucha Grande — a beloved singer of fiercely maudlin canciуnes, together with whip-cracking widow of Ernesto’s rival that is dead. She’s got a black colored area on the attention and a big chip on her behalf neck within the male malfeasance she’s seen, in addition to matchless Roxane Carrasco plays her in positively show-stopping design.

She’s served well by music through the composer that is accomplished regarding the ensemble Nortec Collective. And Sean Fanning’s set that is resourceful as much as the regular location shifts, 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.

Who knows exactly exactly what Moliйre will make of most this, however in the nature of Siguenza’s bilingual treasure of the new play, I’m going to borrow a phrase 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; talk with theater.) Through Oct. 27.

Where: San Diego Rep’s Lyceum Stage, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown.


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