Hartford Stage

It’s 1959, West Side Story is storming Broadway, and a movie version is on the way. It fuels the show-business dreams of Inez Candelaria, who works as a theatre usher but hopes that her children will succeed on the other side of the footlights as dancers. Meanwhile, the family nervously counts the days until the city will force them to relocate to an even poorer and more dangerous neighborhood. Comic and spirited, Somewhere is a dance-filled portrait of a passionate Puerto Rican family fighting to make their dreams come true.

Somewhere’s journey over the past two years included well-received productions at The Old Globe in San Diego and TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA, and then a workshop as part of Hartford Stage’s Brand:NEW series four months ago. Matthew Lopez also served as the 2012-2013 Aetna New Voices Fellow here.

The Los Angeles Times called Somewhere, “Ebullient, charming — a sprawling family drama and a coming-of-age story,” and the San Diego Union-Tribune commented, “Lopez’s imaginative and beautifully acted Somewhere bursts with ideas and feeling and a boisterous (if bittersweet) sense of romance.” San Jose Mercury News said, “Priscilla Lopez has this part in her bones. She grounds the play with her deeply felt and compelling performance.”