¡Americano! musical will tug heart
Some couldn’t contain themselves, quietly dabbing tears to the U.S. citizenship oath of the Marine who’d never be.
Their eyes were transfixed on the stage where the young man poured his heart out, reciting the faithful pledge that the character he portrays never got to take in real life.
It’s a powerful, patriotic moment nearly at the end of ¡Americano!, the Phoenix Theatre production that its creators one day hope to take to Broadway.
The play churns you with a whirl of emotions about the life of a teen caught between his patriotic fervor that boiled after the 9/11 terrorist attack, a family secret and the country’s strict immigration laws.
It’s based on the true story of Antonio “Tony” Valdovinos of Phoenix, whose dream of becoming a U.S. Marine shattered when he tried to enlist on his 18th birthday and learned he was undocumented, brought by his parents into the U.S. as a child.
His life unravels in a torrent of family brawls over his immigration status, construction work, gang fights and long-distance love with his high-school sweetheart turned U.S. Marine.
Valdovinos’ fate changes when a local politician recruits him to mobilize voters to elect a Latino to U.S. Congress — aka Rep. Ruben Gallego of Congressional District 7. Basking in that success, Valdovinos’ own consulting business, dubbed La Machine, also takes off.
This isn’t a one-off story. It is one that plays out across the country hundreds of thousands of times over, each one with its own twists and turns. Each caught in the political firestorm of a nation obsessed with immigrants.
The roller-coaster lives of these immigrants are once again hanging in the balance as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether to keep or toss the Barack Obama-era program that protects them from deportation.
¡Americano! stitches the life of Valdovinos in Arizona at a time of tough antiimmigrant sentiment. But the performance also is rich in Mexican culture, traditions, food, music and family dynamics that transcend politics and ideology.
¡Americano! is beautifully produced for a general audience that not only may seek to understand the political predicament of these young immigrants but that also wants to enjoy exquisite music and top-of-the-line dancers in a performance rivaling those of on-Broadway productions.
Conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have agreed that ¡Americano! is a groundbreaking musical.
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey called it “powerful and inspirational,” while Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton said it had “great music with an important message to Arizona.”
“Outstanding. One of the best plays I’ve EVER seen,” conservative Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio said in a statement. “The lead takes you in within the first few lines. He creates empathy and raw emotion for his character. The patriotic angle was amazing making it virtually impossible for anyone not to be rooting for him.”
Theatergoers may not get all the political nuances played out in ¡Americano! But the constant agony of the hardworking dreamer who couldn’t go to the battlefield to defend the United States of America jumps off the stage to gutpunch you and touch your soul. It sends you spiraling out of the theater with anger but also with hope that the good of humanity will triumph in the end.
¡Americano! is playing through Feb. 23. It’s worth the time and ticket.