Anna in the Tropics
Royale Theatre
Previews Began: November 4, 2003
Opening Night: November 16, 2003
Closing Night: February 22, 2004
Playwright: Nilo Cruz
Shimmering with passion and poetry, this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama weaves the tale of a Cuban-American cigar factory in 1929 Florida where cigars are still rolled by hand and “lectors” are employed to transport and inspire the workers as they toil on the factory floor. As a handsome and debonair new lector reads the words of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, the lives of the workers begin to parallel the novel. Old traditions and new ways collide while longing, love, and betrayal spark a volatile flame that signals the end of an era.
CAST
OPENING NIGHT
Jimmy Smits Juan Julian
Priscilla Lopez Ofelia
Daphne Rubin-Vega Conchita
Victor Argo Santiago
Vanessa Aspillaga Marela
John Ortiz Eliades
Palomo
David Zayas Cheché
Understudies: Jackeline Duprey (Marela, Conchita, Ofelia), Jason Manuel Olazábal (Eliades, Santiago, Cheché, Juan Julian, Palomo)