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ANNA IN THE TROPICS. By Nilo Cruz. Directed by Emily Mann. Royale Theatre, New York. 9 December 2003.
This season, Broadway's Royale Theatre served an extremely important role in the continuing development of Latino theatre in the United States, as it housed the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Anna in the Tropics, written by Cuban-born playwright Nilo Cruz. The play, set in 1929 in Ybor City, Florida, follows the trials and tribulations of a small cigar factory, jointly owned by Santiago (Victor Argo) and his wife Ofelia (Priscilla Lopez). Within the play's dramatic circle are their daughters, Marela (Vanessa Aspillaga) and Conchita (Daphne Rubin-Vega), Conchita's unfaithful husband, Palomo (John Ortiz), and Santiago's half-brother, Cheché (David Zayas). The family's calm and often somber existence is suddenly turned upside down by the arrival of a new lector from Cuba, Juan Julian (Jimmy Smits). He brings with him memories of his tropical island home and a collection of books that he reads to the cigar workers, including the play's central focus, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The play mixes dialogue and narrative, simultaneously injecting the world of the novel into the world of the play.
Jimmy Smits, of television and film fame, brings a romantic leading-man appeal that instantly heats up the stage in his scenes with veteran Broadway actress Daphne Rubin-Vega. He poses like an angel dressed in white at the rear of the stage while other characters perspire under the hot Tampa sun, wonderfully created by lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski. Smits's tempered pace and wonderful diction invigorate his portrayal...