Posted: 6/15/19 at 6:20pm
Farce is a tough thing to pull off. Kiss My Aztec!, a world premiere co-written by John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone and directed by Taccone in his final show as artistic director of the Berkeley Rep, faces the acid test of all musical comedies. Is it funny? For me, the answer was no. Taccone did a wonderful job directing the Berkeley Rep version of Angels in America last year, but this show seems out of his wheelhouse.
The musical imagines a story in which the Aztecs, instead of being conquered by the Spanish, are able to fight back and win. There are plenty of references to the present day, including to Donald Trump's speech announcing his presidential campaign in an early scene, and the show gets off to a good start with the amusing song, "White People on Boats," which covers centuries of history in which native societies around the world are destroyed when whites arrive.
But the actual story, for all of its raunchiness, is rather dull and surprisingly predictable. Worse, it's only occasionally worth a chuckle. The biggest laugh is a sight gag during the second act opener. A lot of things don't work. The male lead, Pepe, playing by Joel Perez, is more interested in performing with puppets than preparing for battle, though he redeems himself later. The puppet stuff is rather insufferable. There's faux-Elizabethan dialogue, which is also never funny and has been done much better in other recent musical comedies I've seen. There's a gospel number that, while jokingly addressing a darker side of Aztec history, nonetheless doesn't really seem to belong. The Spanish villains are tiresome and consistently unfunny. Leguizamo and Taccone fail to give the audience a true rooting interest in the romance between the main characters, Pepe and Colombina, until it's too late.
The music, by Benjamin Velez with lyrics by Velez, Leguizamo and David Kamp, is a mix of various Latin styles along with traditional Broadway and weak imitations of Lin-Manuel Miranda-style rap. It's well-played but not good enough to cover for the story.
The performers are game, and Perez is eventually likeable as he emerges as the show's central character. Yani Marin does what she can with Colombina, and Maria-Christina Oliveras does well as the narrator and spy Tolima. There's a good slapstick scene in the second act, and too-occasional lines that are genuinely clever. But it's not enough.
I should add that local critics have liked the show a lot more than I did.
Here's an example, from the Bay Area critic I agree with most often, Karen D'Souza: https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/08/review-outrageous-kiss-my-aztec-premieres-at-berkeley-rep/
The show, which runs at the Berkeley Rep through July, is apparently heading to La Jolla Playhouse in September, according to the program.
Updated On: 6/15/19 at 06:20 PM
