Miss You Like Hell

Miss You like Hell is playing at the Public Theater located at 425 Lafayette Street. It runs one hour forty five minutes with no intermission. The musical closes on May 6, 2018.

Quiara Alegria Hudes is the playwright. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2012 for Water by the Spoonful and a finalist in2007 for A Soldier’s Fugue. She wrote the book for In the Heights.

Michael Mulheren was nominated for a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Kiss Me Kate in 2000.

Daphne Rubin-Vega was nominated for two Tony Awards for Anna of the Tropics (2004) and Rent (1996).

Olivia (Gizel Jimenez) has her own social media. She has a following. Pearl (Latoya Edwards) is one of them. Olivia has posted she tried to jump off a bridge and shows a picture of a bruise from it.

Her mother Beatriz (Daphne Rubin-Vega) has come from California to Philly to see her. Olivia is upset she is there. They have not seen each other in four years. She is surprised that her mother was able to track down her web site since it’s not under her real name. Beatriz arrives in a beat up truck that’s not hers and wants to take her on a trip. She has her own problems and is afraid she may never see her daughter again. Years ago she was arrested for smoking pot. The lawyer (Miranda Anderson) is hoping to get the charges dropped. Beatriz is afraid it won’t especially when they find out she is living her illegally.

Olivia wants to go to Yellowstone Park. On the way there they meet a gay couple. Mo (Michael Mulheren) and Higgins (David Patrick Kelly) his husband. They want to get married in every state. So far they have been married in 24 states. Another person they meet is a food vendor, Manuel (Danny Bolero). This group of people become their friends and help them on their journey.

We learn more about Beatriz and Olivia situation and how it came to be. Near the end of their journey Beatriz is stopped for a broken tail light. The driver license is that of her friend who truck she has borrowed,she has no ID. Beatriz is arrested by the police officer (Marcus Paul James).

What happens and what we learn you will have to see this touching story.

This musical does not have a fancy set but who needs it. Gizel Jimenez blew me away with her performance. She was amazing. Daphne Rubin-Vega shines in her role.

What’s scary is that the things happening in the play are happening to illegal immigrants right now.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for photos. Click on photos for this and other shows.