Review: THE OTHER SIDE STORY at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Most know the musical “West Side Story,” where Puerto Rican and white gangs rumble on the Upper West Side 1950s New York in the manner of the Montagues and Capulets.

It’s the intent of longtime performer and playwright Angel Vázquez to present “The Other Side Story” from the viewpoint of a Puerto Rican coming to New York today, facing the same kind of hardships and discrimination. 

The lively one-man show, which was winding up a brief U.S. tour over the weekend at The GALA Hispanic Theatre, includes its own variant on Leonard Bernstein’s “America” but includes updated lines about high prices on the islands and insufficient relief from the mother nation of which it is currently a territory. 

“When we went without power,” he sings, referring to days after Hurricane Maria, “Trump threw us paper towels.”

It got a knowing laugh from the audience, who cheered his innovative presentation of Puerto Rican history for those who knew it and others who may not have heard the stories.

Like so many first time visitors before him, Vázquez’s fictional character is overwhelmed by the hubbub that greets him in New York.  “This is a very violent city,” he says. “Here in New York, they killed John Lennon, Malcolm X and even King Kong.”

Another observation is tied to unfounded election-era stereotypes. “I haven’t seen any dogs nor cats yet,” he says. “But of course this place is full of immigrants!” 

He goes to visit the apartment of a friend of his mother’s, Josefina, which is full of boxes that “contain the memorabilia of people who never forgot their roots and how they fought to keep them alive. Unfortunately sweat and tears cannot be packed.”

That sweat can be dated back to those who came to be Brooklyn dockworkers of the 1900s who “not only carried fruit on their shoulders, but the future of their descendants.”

Part of his digging through boxes brings him an anthropomorphized Puerto Rican flag, which introduces itself: “I am 128 years old I have been stepped on, vandalized and jailed. But I am still here.”

Vásquez, who researched his show at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College of New York, includes a lot of historic figures, from the Borinqueneers, the all-Hispanic Army infantry Regiment famed for valor in the world wars and especially in Korea, to the domestic street soldiers, the Young Lords, fighting for equality but treated like a gang. And we hear the under-told story of Puerto Ricans who tended sugar cane under harsh conditions in Hawaii at the turn of the last century.

He embodies the gay activist Sylvia Rivera, by slipping on some heels, saying, “The best way not to judge is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

And there are shout-outs to all aspects of Puerto Rican life from musician Tito Puente, to educator and activist Antonia Pantoja to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who got extra applause in the D.C. audience.

Throughout, the production pauses for songs by Vásquez and relies on a multi-media backing films and projections, which unfortunately conked out halfway through the first performance of the three-day run. 

There is some talk in the play about the proper language use by Nuyoricans (“you’re not a true Puerto Rican if you don’t speak Spanish”). But the play, directed by Ernesto Conceptión, which has been presented in English on other occasions, was presented entirely in Spanish and Spanglish for its GALA run. Which is not an unusual thing for the Spanish-language theater, but almost always its productions are accompanied by English surtitles, which were absent for this show, but would have helped in promoting broader understanding of his subject matter.

(As it was, this review was aided by the English script).

Running time: About 100 minutes, no intermission. 

Photo credit: Provided by GALA Hispanic Theatre. 

"The Other Side Story" ran Dec. 12-14, 2025 at GALA Hispanic Theater, 3333 14th St NW. More information at galatheatre.org.