MONARCH: A MEXICAN-AMERICAN MUSICAL, is an epic in every sense of the word.
Book and Lyrics by both Alfonso Molina and Maya Molina Lehmann, MONARCH follows the journey of undocumented immigrant Luis, who plays a cat-and-mouse game with DHS agent Castelo over the course of two decades. His daughter, Ana, is a DACA dreamer, and finds herself trapped between two worlds that are separated by a border that is nothing more than an imaginary line in the sand carved by long-dead men. Molona also takes credit for the music, which runs the gamut from Rap, opera, traditional Broadway, and pop, all infused with a subtle Corrido influence.
Rodolfo Nevárez’s direction, combined with choreography from Melva Olivas and Miranda García, keeps the energy electric, and a stellar performance by Marco Salazar and Jose Juan
Hernández as Luis and Castelo keeps the momentum pushing forward as the years tick by.
Hernández especially deserves a shoutout as a truly terrifying presence on stage. It’ll be easy to draw the obvious parallel to Javert, but towards the back half Castelo starts to feel like a force of nature more in line with New Hope era Darth Vader than anything else. Ana, played by Carmen Gozz, acts as the narrative glue of the story, hearing the call to action to join ICE protests and attempts to reclaim the heritage of a community she can no longer remember clearly. Her arc is incredibly touching, and Gozz kills it as the headstrong daughter who has built as much a life for herself as Luis.
The image of monarch butterflies is regularly invoked not only as both a potent metaphor for dreamers who find themselves longing to reconnect to their homeland, but also to nature’s casual dismissal of nations and borders that so many have defined their lives by. This imagery is regularly expounded upon by the character of Nagual, played by Horacio Castelo, who acts as the narrator during key moments of the show. It’s hard to nail down exactly who, or what, this Lorax psychopomp is supposed to be, but unfortunately his exposition feels like it either needs to be cut entirely or increased significantly to make him gel within the larger context of the
narrative.
MONARCH is the right musical at the right time, and is very much destined for great things. With an inspired cast and amazing music behind it, MONARCH: A MEXICAN-AMERICAN MUSICAL is a few subtle book changes away from being a true Broadway-bound phenomenon.
The Independent Artists movement 