I want to preface my thoughts on Miss You Like Hell with a personal note: stories involving mothers are typically my emotional kryptonite. It's why I still can't talk about The Other Place without crying, or why I sobbed during Next to Normal and Grey Gardens, and why I can't listen to "Stay With Me" or "Children and Art," as brilliant as they are. And so, Miss You Like Hell, the new topical musical by Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes and Erin McKeown, despite it's flaws, packs an emotional punch.
How could it not?
But...is it earned?
Yes and no. The concept of Miss You Like Hell isn't quite original but it's still compelling; an immigrant mother from Mexico, Beatriz, attempts to reconnect with her teenage daughter, Olivia, whom she has been estranged from for the last four years. The daughter is only sixteen but has essentially given up on herself (she's sexually promiscuous, has neglected her hygiene, and has even strongly considered suicide.) Oh, did I mention she has a blog, that, judging from what we know from the text, is pretty popular? (She at least has loyal readers that she refers to as "castaways.") So it's all a bit...cliched. And it quickly becomes a road trip musical, as Beatriz convinces Olivia to accompany her across country from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Now road trip shows are always a little hit or miss because it's hard to make two people (or however many) interesting when they're sitting in a car. We can't see what they see, so the conceit doesn't work as well as it would on film. Hudes uses the scenes set in Beatriz's truck as a way to develop the relationship between the two women, and fill the audience in on backstory. Is it too much exposition? Not necessarily because they only tells us things we should know. But does it make compelling theater? Not always, no.
What does make Miss You Like Hell interesting is that Beatriz has ulterior motives. She is facing deportation for a minor drug charge from decades ago and needs Olivia to be her character witness. So Olivia battles with trying to comes to terms with the lack of relationship with her mother and whether or not she should help her remain in the country.
How can anyone not be moved by the predicaments faced by Beatriz and Olivia? If you strip away the teenage angst blog nonsense, the underdeveloped minor characters (they're not interesting or strong enough to really convince you they belong in the plot), you have a woman's last chance to connect with her daughter. She has lost so much time with her due to circumstances and is now faced with losing her forever. Daphne Rubin-Vegas as Beatriz does a wonderful job portraying the character's desperation while showing exactly why she lost control of the situation years ago.
But Miss You Like Hell plays on the sentiments of anyone who is disgusted by the current administration's attack on immigrants (such as yours truly). How could you not be angry or upset at the end when Beatriz is deported for a dumb reason? It is very immediate, true, but it is a bit manipulative. The rest of the show isn't particularly strong or developed (it felt like a workshop and not a fleshed out musical production) but you're going to remember exactly how you feel at the end because the ending is powerful. (It helps that the final number, the title song, is the best song in the score and the one you're going to remember.)
Miss You Like Hell is salvageable. There is a good musical there. But I think it deserves a better realized production.
How could it not?
But...is it earned?
Yes and no. The concept of Miss You Like Hell isn't quite original but it's still compelling; an immigrant mother from Mexico, Beatriz, attempts to reconnect with her teenage daughter, Olivia, whom she has been estranged from for the last four years. The daughter is only sixteen but has essentially given up on herself (she's sexually promiscuous, has neglected her hygiene, and has even strongly considered suicide.) Oh, did I mention she has a blog, that, judging from what we know from the text, is pretty popular? (She at least has loyal readers that she refers to as "castaways.") So it's all a bit...cliched. And it quickly becomes a road trip musical, as Beatriz convinces Olivia to accompany her across country from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Now road trip shows are always a little hit or miss because it's hard to make two people (or however many) interesting when they're sitting in a car. We can't see what they see, so the conceit doesn't work as well as it would on film. Hudes uses the scenes set in Beatriz's truck as a way to develop the relationship between the two women, and fill the audience in on backstory. Is it too much exposition? Not necessarily because they only tells us things we should know. But does it make compelling theater? Not always, no.
What does make Miss You Like Hell interesting is that Beatriz has ulterior motives. She is facing deportation for a minor drug charge from decades ago and needs Olivia to be her character witness. So Olivia battles with trying to comes to terms with the lack of relationship with her mother and whether or not she should help her remain in the country.
How can anyone not be moved by the predicaments faced by Beatriz and Olivia? If you strip away the teenage angst blog nonsense, the underdeveloped minor characters (they're not interesting or strong enough to really convince you they belong in the plot), you have a woman's last chance to connect with her daughter. She has lost so much time with her due to circumstances and is now faced with losing her forever. Daphne Rubin-Vegas as Beatriz does a wonderful job portraying the character's desperation while showing exactly why she lost control of the situation years ago.
But Miss You Like Hell plays on the sentiments of anyone who is disgusted by the current administration's attack on immigrants (such as yours truly). How could you not be angry or upset at the end when Beatriz is deported for a dumb reason? It is very immediate, true, but it is a bit manipulative. The rest of the show isn't particularly strong or developed (it felt like a workshop and not a fleshed out musical production) but you're going to remember exactly how you feel at the end because the ending is powerful. (It helps that the final number, the title song, is the best song in the score and the one you're going to remember.)
Miss You Like Hell is salvageable. There is a good musical there. But I think it deserves a better realized production.
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