Photo Source: Theresa Chavez
Directed by Chavez and Portillo, the story transpires in East L.A. circa 1968. College-age Evangeline Ibarra (the winning Catherine Lidstone) carries undue familial responsibility following Dad’s recent demise. Alicia (Danielle Barbosa), her traditionalist mother, is in denial, seeking office jobs and attempting to be the breadwinner while expecting Evangeline to oversee the household, which includes Ramon (Jorge Diaz), her 17-year-old brother, whose high school attentions are distracted by the antiwar movement courtesy of crony Edgar (Daniel Chácon).
Evangeline’s coping mechanism, a fantasy of life beyond the neighborhood, becomes reality when one night she boards a bus to the Sunset Strip. Encouraged by Rita (scene-stealing Karen Anzoategui), her plainspoken cousin, Evangeline gets hired as a go-go dancer by Idaho émigré Sandy (Georgia Reed), pretending at home that she’s a waitress at Norms. After Evangeline meets Anglo college student James (Chácon), a collision course with Alicia’s growing suspicions, Ramon’s involvement in the student walkouts, and her own expanding awareness ensues.
Throughout, a vocalist (CAVA, aka Claudia Gonzalez-Tenorio) interjects with dusky pipes well suited to such Los Lobos classics as “River of Fools,” “The Neighborhood,” and, of course, “Evangeline.” Under Scott Rodarte’s musical direction and backed by a righteous band (Alexandro Hernandez, Walter Miranda, Alfredo Ortiz, and Uros Raskovski), the numbers crackle, sold by Michele Bachar’s “Hullabaloo”-tinged choreography and the skillful performers.
Lidstone, lithe and unaffected, makes an appealing heroine. Her colleagues are solid, particularly Anzoategui, who suggests a distant cousin to “Hairspray” ’s Tracy Turnblad, seizing the show with striking intensity when the war’s toll hits home in Act 2. Chácon takes next pride of place for his versatility—he also plays several art-scene drones—which recalls the emerging Paul Rudd. Gina Gomez and Denisse Schwartz complete a yeoman ensemble.
The designs are larky, starting with François-Pierre Couture’s set of abstract pieces—reminiscent of ’60s TV—fronting a back wall covered with brightly colored long-playing records. Jeremy Pivnick’s wide-ranging lighting, Claudio Rocha’s excellent videos, Marcy Froehlich’s period costumes, and Rani de Leon’s sound design are consistently impressive.
What isn’t so much is the script, which tries to say an awful lot in two hours. When storytelling and songs merge, as in the titular number, a bracingly original hybrid is nigh. Too often, though, the text tells more than it shows, with the police-riots climax and Evangeline and Alicia’s resolution rushed and unearned; this might best be reconceived as a full-fledged musical, with more actors. Nevertheless, if “Evangeline” ultimately is a high-end workshop, its entertainment value will reach beyond the sure-fire target demographic.
Presented by About Productions and Bootleg Theater at Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A. May 12–27. Thu.–Sat., 7 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (213) 389-3856 or www.aboutpd.org.
