A new Latino comedy
By Dale Reynolds
Cris Franco’s new hit comedy ‘57 Chevy has become somewhat of a growing cultural phenomenon in L.A’s theater scene. Performed solo by the spellbinding comic actor Ric Salinas, this 80-minute narrative about a boy, his father and their immigrant family’s 1957 Chevy sedan has audiences howling with glee at the Los Angeles Theater Center.
And what is so funny about ’57 Chevy? “People laugh when something rings true,” says author Franco, “and I guess people can relate to my screwball, 1960’s, bi-cultural childhood: our plastic-covered living room furniture, my strict Dad not letting my teenage sisters go to “piyama parties,” my Mom’s hybrid Spanglish vocabulary (saying “baby-city” for “baby-sitter”) and squeezing five children into a tiny tract house all under the watchful stare of ‘Stalker Gringo Jesus’ – that picture of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus with the eyes that follow you around.”
’57 Chevy creative team: Cris Franco -writer, Valerie Dunlap – director, Ric Salinas – star. (Photo credit Yukihiro Imai)
And judging by the play’s wide critical acclaim and nightly standing ovations, not only hispanos identify with this quirky comedy about a young Mexican family’s initial immigration and eventual acculturation into America’s middle-class suburbia in the mid-century. Likened to The Wonder Years and Happy Days with Latinos, Baby-Boomers are flocking to this family-friendly story recounting the Franco’s first big screen projection TV (the dad kept the “big screen” box outside for weeks for the jealous neighbors to see), attending a 13-minute-long Sunday Mass said by their parish’s fast-talking pastor and moving from the ethnically and architecturally diverse inner-city to the “Same” Fernando Valley — where all the homes and people seemed eerily alike.
And of course, every Boomer can identify with stories of those sturdy American family cars of the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Says Franco, “After the play, people always lovingly tell me about their family’s ’59 Cadillac El Dorado or ’62 Oldsmobile Jetfire. And because our car unifies all the chapters in ’57 Chevy – I’ve dubbed the play an ‘auto-biography.’
But the show’s bright exterior doesn’t hide its powerful message: what defines an American isn’t your birthplace – but rather your determination to self-actualize.
(Credit: Stephen Mihalek)
The play’s star, Ric Salinas, takes the show’s relevance even further, explaining, “As it details the evolution of a typical immigrant family, the personal becomes political and we arrive at many powerful truths about the American spirit. I’ve been performing political plays for 30-plus years, strangely enough, and as light and entertaining as ‘57 Chevy appears on the exterior, it may be my most political work so far.”
Because the action is told from the perspective of a hyper-creative, nine-year-old Mexican-American boy, the play sparkles with a youthful ebullience, optimism, innocence and imagination rarely portrayed on the contemporary stage. “I’m proud families are able to attend ’57 Chevy so they can experience together what it was like to be an immigrant at a time when the American Dream was still readily available to those hard working, intrepid newcomers, like my father.”
The piece’s wholesome content and uplifting narrative has developed a distinguished fan base including L.A. Latino politicians such as Gil Cedillo, from the 1st Council District, who bought out the entire house so that all his staff could experience it. Jose Huizar, of the 14th District, was enthusiastic in his praise: “As a Mexican immigrant, what I appreciated about [Mr.] Franco’s ’57 Chevy is the reality of the immigrant experience as written by an actual immigrant. [It] is so much more complex, nuanced and unexpected than the one-dimensional portrayals we often see in mainstream media.” Huizar continues, “Ric Salinas’ incredible performance of vastly different characters highlighted that the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of the young son of two adoring and hardworking Mexican parents, is filled with challenges, highs and lows, but also large doses of humor. I highly recommend [Franco’s comedy].”
Another supporter of the play is the creator and Executive Director of Hulu’s immensely popular series, East Los High, Carlos Portugal, “As an immigrant, seeing the play filled me with emotion. I understood the challenge of embracing two cultures; a lot of [immigrant] material today contains anger – rightly so – but ’57 Chevy is presented in an innovative, nostalgic and funny way, filled with humanity and insight.”
Produced by the Latino Theater Company and smartly directed by the imaginative Valerie Dunlap, something ground-breaking is taking place in‘57 Chevy. Because the narrative stealthily brings Latinos into the heartland of American folklore – the U.S. in the mid-20th Century at a time when the nation was at its mightiest – the concept of the typical American household was defined then via film and television as mostly White and Christian. For better or for worse, this is a sacred time held dearly by the American psyche and ’57 Chevy places Mexicans into a homespun setting which, until now, has been reserved for the WASPiest of WASPS; in effect saying that Mexicans in America are as normal as mom’s tamale pie.
Franco added, “It’s been surprising how often people comment that they’d never imagined a play about Latinos in the 1950’s. One very sweet lady told me that she didn’t know there were Latinos in L.A. in the 1950’s. I replied, “Are you kidding, we’ve been around here since the 1750’s! We both had a good laugh.” Highly recommended for all, running thru December 20, 2015 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 612 S. Spring Street, downtown L.A.
Due to the demand for tickets ’57 Chevy was extended to December 20. For all show info: thelatc.org
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