Kiss My Aztec! at the Berkeley Rep

[bear88]

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

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 6/16/19 at 2:58am

I thought about seeing this but wondered how much overlap and duplication there would be with his last one man show Latin History for Morons (which I enjoyed) even though this was a musical.. To be honest, when I found out he wasn't performing in it, I lost interest fast.

[Sho-Tunes-R-Us]

Posted: 6/16/19 at 3:49am

I'll add my two pesos worth in about 10 days.

[inception]

Posted: 6/18/19 at 8:27am

Will be down in Southern Cali next year & was checking out upcoming season at La Jolla Playbouse & noticed that this will be done next there in Sept-Oct.

[Kitsune]

Posted: 6/18/19 at 1:15pm

Thanks for starting this thread. My response to it was also largely "meh" (although for the price of my $40 Goldstar ticket, it was still a decent choice for date night. I always love any excuse to eat at Gecko Gecko and watch theater). 

I'm having trouble articulating *why*, other than that a lot of jokes didn't land. I did really like Maria-Christina Oliveras (who I remember from Soft Power), and a few numbers were catchy. The Act I finale has been stuck in my head.

I haven't seen a ton of John Leguizamo shows, but the fate of the two gay men left me uncomfortable. I doubt there were any overt ill intentions, but I kept wondering, "Are they laughing *with* these characters, or *at* them?" (That being said, I thought the "God Must Be Gay" song was cute).

[bear88]

Posted: 6/19/19 at 3:57am

To steal from This is Spinal Tap, "it's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

Kiss My Aztec! falls on the "stupid" side too often. I appreciated the fact that it's an original score, and an original story. I just wished it was funnier, and sharper. I wondered if it would work better as a one-act show, to trim some of the tiresome plotlines, because I did enjoy the musical when it made wry, satirical points. It just didn't do that enough and the humor and storytelling often felt lazy. Too many of the characters were just dull, and the tone alternated between sticky-sweet and nasty-sour. I kept waiting for a moment when it would take off, as Head Over Heels did for me despite its flaws, and that never happened.