El Grande de Coca-Cola

In this column, I wanted to give readers 10 fun facts on firsts achieved by women on Broadway. Female writers are much more than just statistics, and women deserve recognition for more than just breaking a barrier to an accomplishment.

Ron House's original El Grande de Coca Cola was a huge hit and ran for 3 years off-Broadway. It's about the five-member Hernandez family, an in.your.face incompetent troupe of Mexican cabaret performers who have spent many many years performing in run-down over.the.border clubs. Now House returns with his latest version of the show, an ultra-satirical El Grande Circus de Coca Cola which sold out houses at the Skylight Theatre in Hollywood last summer. It has just reopened at the Colony in Burbank with the same cast headed by Marcelo Tubert as padre Pepe Hernandez. The family may be worthless performers but their Hispanic pride and ambition are unstoppable and drive them across the border into Burbank with the hope of full-out Hollywoodland success. It's lunacy with about a laugh every second, and under Alan Shearman's well-honed direction, the riotous troupe are bound to bring Colony audiences much pre-holiday joy through December 13.

The talented five-member cast, directed by Alan Shearman, certainly must be commended on their commitment and enthusiasm as they interact with the audience as second-rate circus artists and plow through their intentionally bad vaudeville routines. Just as a clown must know the correct techniques to pratfall or look ridiculous, best acts hit their intended, targeted reactions of laughter and applause when the audience's allowed to realize the good, solid techniques behind these really bad circus feats.

LOVE SONGS PLAYAROUND SHAKESPEARE combines the lyrical and romantic songs from a new contemporary musical, LOVE SONGS-A Musical (Music & Lyrics by Steven Cagan, veteran composer/conductor, DREAMGIRLS Musical Director), with some of Shakespeare's most passionate, poetic love scenes, enhanced by modern visual technology and dance.

LOVE SONGS PLAYAROUND SHAKESPEARE combines the lyrical and romantic songs from a new contemporary musical, LOVE SONGS-A Musical (Music & Lyrics by Steven Cagan, veteran composer/conductor, DREAMGIRLS Musical Director), with some of Shakespeare's most passionate, poetic love scenes, enhanced by modern visual technology and dance.