Nelson (John Leguizamo) and Patti Castro (Luna Lauren Velez) go for a spin in em>The Other Americans (photo by Joan Marcus)
THE OTHER AMERICANS
The Anspacher Theater at the Public Theater
425 Lafayette St.
Tuesday – Sunday through November 23, $60-$125
publictheater.org
The Other Americans is John Leguizamo’s first foray into writing a play with an ensemble cast. He is most well known for such solo autobiographical shows as Latin History for Morons and Freak, in which he portrays all the characters, and he stars in this one as well.
The show starts out impressively. As ticket holders take their seats at the Public’s Anspacher Theater, Latin songs such as Héctor Lavoe’s “Rompe Saraguey” and Larry Harlow, Frankie Dante, and Orquesta Flamboyan’s “Atájala: Se acaba la guerra” set the mood, while Arnulfo Maldonado’s stage design, featuring a detailed open house set within a community, the windows and some furniture practically reaching into the audience, invites everyone into what promises to be an intimate family drama.
It’s 1998 in Forest Hills, and Nelson Castro (Leguizamo) is desperately trying to save his laundromat business after having moved from the less-ritzy Jackson Heights — a socioeconomic step up that is proving to be a big strain.
“I stand to lose everything,” he tells someone over the phone. “C’mon, man. I’ma have the payment to ya by the end of the week. On my mother.”
When he greets his wife, Patti (Luna Lauren Velez), he doesn’t admit to the depth of the financial problems he is experiencing but does say to her, “I just can’t understand, I just don’t understand . . . how everybody gets to fail up but us. Cause how does some white guy walk into the same bank but with no business experience, ask for a loan, and he gets it. Over me. Me, who’s got decades of professional expertise and savvy and I end up with nada, culo, dick, cero!”
Patti is busily preparing for the return of their twenty-year-old son, Nick (Trey Santiago-Hudson), who is coming home after a ten-month stint in rehab. They are having a small party for Nick, with Toni (Rebecca Jimenez), his older sister, who is getting married to Eddie (Bradley James Tejeda), who works for Norma (Rosa Evangelina Arredondo), Nelson’s younger half sister, a successful, fashionable businesswoman, and Veronica (Sarah Nina Hayon), Patti’s no-filter, fast-talking best friend who is nine months pregnant.
Soon, as Nelson keeps trying to raise money by legal and perhaps not-so-legal means, he fails to see how his life is falling apart all around him.
A Latino family faces serious challenges in John Leguizamo play (photo by Joan Marcus)
The Other Americans is like a modern Latino update of such classic 1970s social-issue television series as All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and Good Times. Tony- and Obie-winning director Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Jitney, Lackawanna Blues) does a strong job of navigating the cast through the set, and there are several tender moments, like when Nelson and Patti dance a duet, but there are not enough of them, as the balance between comedy and tragedy falters.
The show eventually gets bogged down by genre clichés and clearly targeted plot twists, and it takes 135 minutes (including intermission) instead of a half hour (including commercials). Leguizamo is too one-note as Nelson; while we understand the challenges he is facing, the character’s stubbornness gets to be too much. Velez is wonderful as Patti, who tries to find the positive in everything while not becoming a pollyanna. However, although the climax is obvious, the play ends with a powerful coda that packs a gut punch. If only there were more of that.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]