''¡Americano!'' is a musical telling based on the real-life story of Antonio (Tony) Valdovinos, a resident of the United States who learns that he is not a U.S. citizen when he tries to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. The script was written by Michael Barnard, Jonathan Rosenberg, and

Fernanda Santos Fernanda Santos (born 1973) is a Brazilian-American writer, journalism professor and contributing columnist for ''The Washington Post'' living in New York. In April 2024, she was announced as the managing editor of the news site The 19th. She is ...

;

Carrie Rodriguez Carrie Luz Rodriguez (born July 31, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and the daughter of Texan singer-songwriter David Rodriguez and Texas painter Katy Nail, and is the granddaughter of prolific Texas essayist Frances Nail. She sings and ...

composed the music. Barnard, Rosenberg, Santos and Rodriguez are credited together as lyricists.

Synopsis

Inspired by the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

when he was in sixth grade, and not wanting to pursue his father's career in construction, Tony goes to a Marine enlistment office on his 18th birthday. He is surprised to learn that he is an undocumented immigrant, and is upset with his parents for not telling him. Tony's friend Joaquin invites him to a meeting about the

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, colloquially referred to as DACA, is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive ...

program that offers the possibility of legal work for those like him who were brought to the United States as children. He becomes a political activist to find a way to serve.

Development

The play began development in 2015, when a public radio story about Valdovinos came to the attention of theatre producer Jason Rose and the Phoenix Theatre's long-time artistic director, Michael Barnard. The Off-Broadway performance was produced by Jason Roses' company, Quixote Productions in association with Chicanos Por La Causa, a social advocacy organization that fights discrimination against Mexican-Americans. Valdovinos's status as someone brought to the United States as a child without documentation makes him a "Dreamer", a reference to the

DREAM Act The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, is a United States legislative proposal to grant temporary conditional residency, with the right to work, to illegal immigrants who entered the United States ...

, a legislative proposal to create a right to work and path to citizenship for those brought to the United States as children. Speaking about the play, the real-life Valdovinos told the ''New York Times'', “Dreamers have lost hope and live with fear. Part of the message here is don’t lose the courage — continue holding on to hope. Nothing comes easy. Elections matter. Policies matter. People matter. ‘''¡Americano!''’ is about that.”

Productions

The play's world premiere was on at the Phoenix Theatre Company on January 29, 2020. It had its Off-Broadway debut at

New World Stages New World Stages is a five-theater, Off-Broadway performing arts complex in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is between 49th and 50th Streets beneath the plaza of the Worldwide Plaza complex at Eighth Avenue. ...

on May 1, 2022 where it was scheduled as a

limited run Limited may refer to: Arts and media *''Limited Inc'', a 1988 book by Jacques Derrida *Limited series (comics), a comic book series with predetermined length Businesses *Limited Brands, an American company - owners of Victoria's Secret, Bath & Bo ...

. It closed June 19, 2022. Both productions were directed by Michael Bernard and starred Sean Ewing as Tony; Sergio Mejia was the choreographer for both productions.

Reception

Reviews of both productions note the strength of the singing and choreography, and Rodriguez's

Tejano Tejanos (, ; singular: ''Tejano/a''; Spanish for "Texan", originally borrowed from the Caddo ''tayshas'') are the residents of the state of Texas who are culturally descended from the Mexican population of Tejas and Coahuila that lived in the ...

- and

indie-rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produce ...

-inspired score. Writing for ''Theatre Mania'', reviewer Zachary Stewart writes that it is an "unapologetically sincere flag-waving American musical — and that feels like a breath of fresh air in an age of snark and cynicism." ''The New York Times'''s Jose Solís called it "a story as urgent as it is entertaining."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Americano (musical) 2020 musicals Biographical musicals Off-Broadway musicals Musicals set in the 21st century Musicals set in the United States Musicals set in the 2000s