Photo Flash: Rhode Island Premiere Of MISS YOU LIKE HELL At The Wilbury Group

The Wilbury Theatre Group continues its 2019/20 Main Series season with the Rhode Island premiere of Quiara Alegría Hudes' newest musical, Miss You Like Hell, March 5-29, 2020. Hudes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Lin-Manuel Miranda's collaborator on the book and film of In The Heights, wrote the book and shares credit for the lyrics with folk-rock star Erin McKeown who also wrote the music.

Directed by Don Mays (Hype Man: a break-beat play) for The Wilbury Group, with musical direction by Matt Requintina (Spring Awakening, The Pirates of Penzance) Miss You Like Hell is both as relevant as the headlines and as intimate as the love between a mother and a daughter. Beatriz arrives in Philadelphia after a prolonged absence and convinces her teenage daughter Olivia to drive cross-country with her to California. This attempt at a mother-daugher rapprochement is enlivened by the odd cast of characters they encounter along the way, and complicated by Beatriz's revelation that she faces imminent deportation to Mexico after years of living as an undocumented immigrant.

"We're fortunate to be able to share this incredible story of love and reconciliation with our audiences," says Wilbury Artistic Director Josh Short."Set against the backdrop of a country in the middle of an identity crisis, Miss You Like Hell has a beautiful way of making the politics disappear. It givesus a short glimpse into the lives of those most affected by America's border policies, and with humor and heart asks us to bear witness to the costs that families undertake to stay together."

Nicole Paloma-Sarro, a veteran of the National Tour of In the Heights and last scene in Rhode Island in Les Miserables at the Ocean State Theatre Company, stars as Beatriz, a Mexican-American mother facing deportation. Tanya Avendaño Stockler, recently seen as Oberon/Hermia in The Donkey Show at American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.), makes her Wilbury debut as Olivia, Beatriz's estranged teenage daughter, who writes a popular blog on which she has invented the fiction that her mother is dead. Once they begin heading west they meet Wilbury favorites Tom Roberts and Roger Lemelin as Mo and Higgins, a couple on a long-term retirement road trip with the goal of getting married in all 50 states. In South Dakota they encounter Manuel, played by newcomer Cristhian Mancinas-Garcia, a tamale vendor and widower from Peru. On a detour to Yellowstone they rendezvous with Pearl, one of Olivia's online friends and a Junior Park Ranger played by Robelis Cruz, a senior from the Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts (TAPA) making her professional stage debut at The Wilbury Group. The ensemble includes familiar faces to Wilbury audiences including Christine Treglia, Jason Quinn, and Marcel Mascaro.

Miss You Like Hell is presented March 5-29 at The Wilbury Theatre Group, 40 Sonoma Court, Providence RI. Tickets are $15-$38. For the complete performance schedule call visit The Wilbury Theatre Group online at thewilburygroup.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.