Review: A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta de los Reyes Magos, 1998

This holiday season, Iraisa Ann Reilly arrives at Ensemble Studio Theatre bearing the gift of nostalgia. With the theater transformed into an institutional auditorium, a boxy flickering television stage left (authentic scenic design by Rodrigo Escalante), and vintage Destiny’s Child as the preshow music (the sound design is by Daniela Hart, Bailey Trierweiller, Noel Nichols, and UptownWorks), we could only be visiting one time.

The ’90s have come to be seen as a Golden Age in the Millennial imagination, a time of relative peace and prosperity during which the president’s sexual peccadillos constituted our greatest national crisis. For people of Latin extraction like Reilly, it was an especially joyous coming-out as recording artists like Gloria Estefan went mainstream and the Macarena became this country’s last truly sensational dance craze. Desi walked so that Ricky could shake his bon-bon.

Reilly invites us to briefly bask in this glow in her charming solo show, A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta de los Reyes Magos, 1998. She takes us back to Pepe’s, the little grocery her Cuban-American grandfather ran on Cincinnati Avenue in Egg Harbor, New Jersey (it’s still there, now a Mexican restaurant). She recalls her family’s small business as a nexus of community, a place where everybody knew your name and you could always purchase food on credit (though not, her grandfather hastens to add, cigarillos).

And then there’s the second half of the title. Among the many things Donald Trump has left his slimy orange mark on is the date of January 6, previously known as the Feast of the Epiphany, Armenian Christmas, and Three Kings Day (La Fiesta de los Reyes Magos). Reilly reclaims the date by relating the story of how she sang “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in Spanish for a community talent show—nearly forgetting all the lyrics. It’s a tale of perseverance, one in which Reilly’s immigrant parents recall all the obstacles they overcame so that she could be on that stage. The least she could do in return is remember the damn words.

A vivid portrait of an American community in transition as seen through the eyes of one young woman, Bodega Princess is by no means groundbreaking. Quirky immigrant parents, insensitive teachers, Catholic priests who dream of a different career; we’ve heard this story before. But Reilly, with her winning combination of a dry delivery and a warm stage presence, makes it feel like a favorite Christmas movie, one you’ll gladly watch again year after year.

She especially comes alive in recalling an amateur live stage version of Don Francisco’s Sábado Gigante, a sprawling variety show that served as a kind of family meeting for Univision viewers. With the help of audience volunteers, Reilly recreates the talent contest, with El Chacal trumpeting off the losers as we collectively shout Y Fuera! Honestly, what could be more American than a culture that is welcoming but will also settle for nothing less than excellence?

In under 90 minutes, Reilly and director Estefania Fadul manage to create a small community out of the audience, a worthy endeavor in the age of social atomization and a delightful way to start the festive season.