Feature: MISS YOU LIKE HELL at Out Of The Box Theatre At Center Stage

A Musical Road Trip: Miss You Like Hell

Out of the Box Theater Company hopes to take audiences on a journey across the United States with its new musical production, Miss You Like Hell. Brimming with contemporary relevance, this musical drama follows a Latinx mother-daughter duo as they drive across the United States, encountering a panoply of characters from all walks of American life. The production will arrive at Center Stage with some impressive credentials in tow: its book was written by Quiara Alegria Hudes, known for writing the book for In the Heights and for winning a Pulitzer Prize for her play Water By the Spoonful.

The musical explores the fraught mother-daughter relationship between Beatriz (Michelle Hernandez), an undocumented immigrant originally from Mexico, and her 16-year-old daughter Olivia (Larissa Mehlig), who has not seen her mother for several years. Beatriz whirls back into Olivia's life, encouraging the reticent teenager to experience new places and things. Samantha Eve, Artistic Director of Out of the Box Theatre Company, described how Olivia's dramatic arc parallels the road trip in that Beatriz, for all her shortcomings as a mother, exposes her daughter to novelty and personal growth.

Michelle Hernandez, who plays Beatriz, explained that her character has a unique vulnerability in that she is living in America as an undocumented immigrant. This underground legal status heightens the characters' need to stay vigilant and guarded in ordinary encounters that might imperil Beatriz. Advising the audience to bring along "tissues and issues" Hernandez added: "I can't think of any musical that looks like this. The topics are very current. It's set in 2014, but their issues are still important to this day. And I'm sure will continue to be."

Playing Olivia, actor Larissa Mehlig pointed out the irony of stories about Mexican Americans being somewhat of a rarity on Santa Babara's stages. Mehlig mused that she could not think of another show of its kind in Santa Barbara or elsewhere: "I can't think of one in musical theater. And as someone with Mexican heritage, that's something that I connect to, and I think that's really important. You know, we're right here. We're not far from Mexico."

Samantha Eve explained her reasons for selecting this thought-provoking musical for the community: "This is not a show that's going to come through the Granada on tour. Santa Barbara deserves to get to see these small shows that don't always make it here." Further, the musical packs a dramatic punch explains Eve: It's "jam-packed with emotional content" and runs at a speedy pace that clocks in under two hours.

When I asked Eve how audiences might respond to a musical that was different from the typical one centering on a romance, she said that the characters reveal their passions as deeper than "boy meets girl": "Their passions are what makes them tick; it's just so much bigger than what you would expect from a love story in musical theater."

Miss You Like Hell plays November 4-13, 2022 (Friday - Sunday) at Center Stage Theater in Santa Barbara, CA.

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