Kiss My Aztec!, a new musical collaboration from Tony Award-winning performer John Leguizamo and director Tony Taccone, will be produced by La Jolla Playhouse as part of the theatre’s 2018–2019 season.
Based on a screenplay by Leguizamo and Stephen Chbosky, Kiss My Aztec! takes a page from Leguizamo and Taccone’s most recent collaboration, Latin History for Morons, which played a limited Broadway run last season.
Leguizamo received a Special Tony Award for the explosive solo play that shed light on the crucial and overlooked roles Latinx people played in American history. It also picked up a Tony nomination for Best Play.
Leguizamo and Taccone co-wrote the book for the forthcoming irreverent satire that focuses on Spain’s attempt to conquer Mesoamerica in the 1600s. Leguizamo will not appear in the show that is set for a spring world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theater ahead of a La Jolla run later in the season.
Kiss My Aztec! has music by Benjamin Velez, who collaborated with Leguizamo and David Kamp on lyrics. The score is described as a blend of bolero, hip hop, merengue, and rap.
The La Jolla season will launch with Put Your House in Order, a world premiere from Chicago-based playwright Ike Holter. Lili-Anne Brown will direct the comic thriller about a first date that goes terribly wrong as the world starts to end.
The season continues with The Luckiest, a new play by Melissa Ross about a woman whose world is rocked by a sudden medical diagnosis that leaves her running out of time.
Also announced is Cambodian Rock Band, a new musical featuring songs by the Cambodian-American rock band Dengue Fever that chronicles the Cambodian rock scene of the ‘60s and '70s—and one woman’s attempt to piece together 30 years of lost family history. Created by playwright Lauren Yee, and directed by Chay Yew, the play premiered last year at South Coast Repertory Theatre.
Exact run dates for the 2018-2019 season will be announced shortly, with two additional productions still to be announced.
Visit lajollaplayhouse.org.
