A Sizzling Summer Show at Bay Street Theater

Bay Street Theater's memorizing opening night revival of Anna in the Tropics, the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Nilo Cruz, held the audience spellbound. This Poetic, lyrical, sultry, and seductive show runs through July 24.

A thousand elements and details, both minute and monumental, go into creating a well-executed stage production. Every one of these components has to gel and meld and work to form a cohesive whole, and when these many moving parts come together, theatrical magic transpires. Kudos to the talented director, Marcos Santano, for pulling all these diverse parts together and creating an enchanting, captivating, and unforgettable theatrical experience.

Luciana Stecconi's set design, a realistic depiction of a cigar factory, uses every square inch of the stage, including a secluded corner where tobacco leaves hang drying, and a shocking, tragic event occurs. The large factory windows allow the imaginative projections by Milton Cordero to reveal the real world of 1929 Ybor City and the imaginary world of 19th Century Russia.

The Anna in the title refers to the tragic heroine in Leo Tolstoy's classic novel Anna Karenina. It is a Cuban tradition for factory workers to hire a lector to inform and entertain them throughout their long, tedious work day, where they still roll cigars by hand. Since their last lector died of old age, a new one is employed, Juan Julian. He is young, handsome, and possesses movie star charisma. When he reads Anna Karenina aloud to them, a novel about forbidden love, the sultry, summer tropical air gets steamier and steamier. Passions ignite. Some romantic in nature, and some violent ones.

Cruz's writing style, as with Tolstoy's, is multilayered, and as the play unravels, the bare souls of the characters are revealed to us. This two-act drama is chockful of imagery, passionate yearning, and soul-shattering inner conflicts and desires that inevitably externalize and explode onstage. With that said, Mr. Cruz has created a plaintive, realistic, sometimes down-to-earth, often ethereal, and illusory drama reminiscent of some of the finest plays of Tennessee Williams.

This tragic drama can be seen as an anatomy of three marriages: one solid with small cracks in its foundation that redemption and forgiveness fill; one that falls apart and brings cataclysmic consequences with its downfall; and one that is ripped to shreds and on the mend.

The formattable cast doesn't miss a beat. Anthony Michael Martinez's Juan Julian is fittingly charming and most convincing as the "best lector west of Havana." Serafin Falcón was believable as Santiago, the likable factory owner with a gambling addiction. Mr. Falcón navigated the vast emotional terrain this character traverses with quiet strength tinged with a dose of vulnerability, making the audience sympathize and fall in love with his character. Mr. Falcón asserts that Anna in the Tropics is a personal homage to his grandmother and her siblings since they were all cigar rollers (torcedoras/es) in Cuba. Iliana Guibert gave a riveting performance as Santiago's proud, strong-willed wife, Ofelia. The scene in which they are bickering and use their daughter, Marela, as a go-between received some of the biggest laughs of the evening. Maria Isabel Bilboa, as Marela, their dutiful daughter, stole the show with her comedic performance during that memorable scene.

Christine Spang gave a stellar performance as Conchita, the oldest daughter of Santiago and Ofelia. She is a married woman, bored and ripe for seduction. Her astute acting skills were apparent during the steamy love scenes with the lector. Her passionate pleas to her cheating husband to stop taking her for granted were heartrending. Guillermo Ivan gave a knockout performance, as Palomo, her cuckolded husband. Mr. Ivan also aced the role of Eliades, the gamester who takes wages at the local cockfights, where Santiago, a compulsive gambler, often loses copious amounts of money.

Santiago's illegitimate half-brother, Cheche, was brilliantly played by Christian Barillas. He gave a nuanced performance as the villainous antagonist of the play, a vengeful, bitter, and violent man hellbent on modernizing and mechanizing the factory.

The authentic period costumes by Fabian Fidel Aguilar helped draw the audience into the colorful world of the roaring twenties. Maria Isabel Bilbao, as Marela, had a showstopping moment when she came on stage in a stunning off-shoulder black, sequined evening gown. When Anthony Michael Martinez, as Juan Julian, made his grand entrance wearing a white suit and white Panama hat, he made Conchita and Ofelia swoon, and Marela wet herself!

Bay Street's electrifying, entertaining, and enlightening revival of Anna in the Tropics pulled out all the stops to ensure that this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama was one of those unforgettable shows that live on in your thoughts long after you exit the theater.

To purchase a Mainstage Subscription or tickets, call the Box Office at 631 725 9500 or visit the Mainstage Subscriptions Page at baystreet.org.

Cindi Sansone-Braff is an award-winning playwright. She has a BFA in Theatre from UCONN and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Long Island Authors Group. She is the author of Grant Me a Higher Love, Why Good People Can't Leave Bad Relationships, and Confessions of a Reluctant Long Island Psychic. www.Grantmeahigherlove.com.