White Chiseled Dudes and Women in Bathing Suits: An El Coqui Espectacular Review

Curtis Brown Photography

Long Wharf Theatre gets inside the character with an incredible production of El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom. This play, directed by Sinan Valdez, explores the themes of representation, assimilation, the identity crisis that comes with being “otherwise cultured” in a not-always-so-inclusive country.

Alex Nunez (Jason Sanchez) is an artist with a secret life—he’s a small-time, crime-fighting tree frog, working through an identity crisis, while his brother Joe (Xavier Cano), battles similar identity woes from his corporate office. One night, while moonlighting as the hero Sunset Park needs, he runs into Yesica (Melissa DuPrey), a photographer with a vision and a dream. Yesica and Alex become the unlikely tag team of Puerto-Rican protectors, taking the fight to imposter syndrome, street crime, and gentrification. Joined by his brother Joe, supported by his mother Patricia (Susanna Guzman), and facing off with both El Chupacabra and Junior (Michael John Improta), the bully from his past, Alex learns things about himself and those around him.

Sanchez is an absolute treat, balancing the youthful innocence of our favorite crime fighting arachnid and taking on great responsibility without the help of any great powers. He’s well suited for the range of emotions we see from the on-screen heroes in victory, defeat and the moments in-between. DuPrey delivers with the energy and heart of comic relief, plot-pusher, wing-woman, the friend to the cause and the voice of reason. Cano, Guzman, and Improta nail their antagonistic roles, creating energetic scenes and hysterical transitions.

El Coquí Espectacular tells a heartwarming and hilarious story atop the foundation of an explosive combination of set, lighting, sounds, and projection design—credited to Gerardo Díaz Sanchez, Jiyoun Chang, Charles Coes and Nathan A. Roberts, aw well as John Horzen, respectively. The set, a slightly grimy Brooklyn street, and the backdrop of El Coquí’s capeless crusading opens out giving us an inside look at the quintessential bedroom of a friendly neighborhood superhero in training. The lighting animates, adding an additional layer of vibrance to the set and the epic costume design of Rea J. Brown. The sounds pop, and the projections turn this inside look at Alex’s room and his alleyway jaunts for jailbirds into an immersive comic book experience whose wonder cannot sufficiently be described in words.   

El Coqui Espectacular reminds us that every culture has its heroes. While the saviors we cook up battle the villains who represent our most formidable plights, we’re reminded that there are “villains you can’t punch.” And while the fight isn’t always physical, it doesn’t mean that we can’t still face it and take it on together.

El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom runs through February 23rd at the Lyman Center in New Haven. For tickets, visit https://www.longwharf.org