¡GUARACHA! — A Musical at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre

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 setting 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 DJ, 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. —– 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