Theater News

Lopez on Lopez: A 1960’s Dance Drama

Priscilla Lopez will star in Matthew Lopez’s Somewhere.

Priscilla Lopez
Priscilla Lopez
© Joseph Marzullo/WENN

A home that belongs to a family of Puerto Rican dancers is set to be razed to make way for the filming of West Side Story in Matthew Lopez’s Somewhere, which will run from January 16 – February 10 at TheaterWorks.

The show will star Tony Award winner Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line) as the matriarch of this clan, whose hopes could be either made or dashed by the possibilities provided by the filming of the landmark musical. Lopez won a Tony Award for her work in A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine and earned a Tony nomination for A Chorus Line. Among her many other Broadway credits are In the Heights, Nine, and Pippin.

In addition to Lopez, the company will also feature New York City Ballet principal dancer Michael Rosen, as well as Michelle Cabinian, Leo Ash Evens, and Eddie Gutierrez. The creative team will include scenic designer Andrea Bechert, costume designer Cathleen Edwards, and lighting designer Steven B. Mannshardt. Giovanna Sardelli will direct the dance-laced drama, choreographed by Greg Graham.

Sardelli staged the premiere of Somewhere at The Old Globe. She also helmed numerous plays by Rajiv Joseph, including Animals Out of Paper and All This Intimacy at Second Stage Theatre and Huck and Holden at the Cherry Lane, and serves as artistic associate at the Lark Play Development Center.

Matthew Lopez won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for The Whipping Boy seen at Manhattan Theatre Club last year, and has also written such plays as Reverberation, Zoey’s Perfect Wedding, and The Legend of Georgia McBride.