{"id":291151,"date":"2026-07-09T07:59:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291151\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T07:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:59:31","slug":"big-voices-bigger-hearts-joe-ortizs-escaping-queens-returns-with-music-memories-and-plenty-of-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291151\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Voices, Bigger Hearts: Joe Ortiz\u2019s ‘Escaping Queens’ Returns with Music, Memories and Plenty of Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tQuick Take:<\/p>\n

Joe Ortiz transforms the chaos of his 1950s childhood into an exuberant musical memoir filled with unforgettable songs, powerhouse performances from Lori Rivera and Adam Saucedo, and enough heart to earn a sold-out opening-night audience’s standing ovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up and eat!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s less a suggestion than a way of life inside Joe Ortiz\u2019s childhood home.<\/p>\n

Dinner is loud. Everyone talks at once. Arguments erupt without warning. Someone is singing while someone else is threatening to leave. Through it all, Mama keeps another plate of food coming as though feeding the family might somehow hold the whole circus together.<\/p>\n

Welcome to \u201cEscaping Queens: Over the Roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judging by Friday night\u2019s sold-out opening at Actors\u2019 Theatre, audiences were more than happy to pull up a chair. They cheered after nearly every musical number, and by the final scene, they rose together for a standing ovation that felt genuinely earned.<\/p>\n

The remarkable thing about \u201cEscaping Queens\u201d isn\u2019t its volume. It\u2019s that the chaos never feels manufactured. Ortiz isn\u2019t writing jokes about growing up in an Italian and Puerto Rican family in 1950s Queens, New York; he\u2019s opening the front door and inviting us inside.<\/p>\n

Over the past 15 years, Ortiz has continued revising this deeply personal memoir, searching for the best way to tell the story of the family that shaped him and the wounds they carried. With a book by Ortiz and Greg Fritsch, music and lyrics by Ortiz, and co-direction by Fritsch and Cathy D. Warner, the result feels less like a conventional book musical than a family scrapbook brought vividly to life through song.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lori Rivera as Mama brings down the house in her final song, \u201cAnthem.\u201d Credit: Jana Marcus<\/p>\n

If \u201cEscaping Queens\u201d has a heartbeat, it\u2019s Lori Rivera as Mama.<\/p>\n

Although young Joey\u2019s memories guide the evening, the production ultimately belongs to his mother.\u00a0 Mama isn\u2019t simply the emotional center of the show. She\u2019s the reason Joey survives.<\/p>\n

She quietly absorbs the fallout from her drinking and gambling husband, Herman. She protects the children, feeds everyone, and holds together a home that seems forever on the edge of coming apart. Rivera never plays her as a martyr. She plays her as the steady force that keeps love alive when everything else threatens to unravel.<\/p>\n

This is Rivera\u2019s show, and she owns the stage, moving seamlessly between broad comedy and genuine heartbreak. Her rich, smoky voice wraps itself around Ortiz\u2019s melodies with remarkable ease, making every number feel like an emotional necessity rather than simply another song in the score.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s biggest audience pleasers are Rivera and Adam Saucedo, as Herman. Their playful duet, \u201cShe Feeds Me Macaroni,\u201d begins with flirtation before exploding into a marital argument that perfectly captures the show\u2019s mix of comedy and conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rivera also delivers gorgeous interpretations of \u201cHigh Flyin\u2019 Life\u201d and \u201cA Few Moments of Magic,\u201d songs whose melodies linger long after they\u2019re over.<\/p>\n

Adam Saucedo is equally outstanding as the gambling and chronically unfaithful father. Local audiences who admired Saucedo\u2019s star performance in last summer\u2019s \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d at Cabrillo Stage will find another actor completely at home in his role.<\/p>\n

\"\"Adam Saucedo as Herman, Kasandra Maita as Laura, Lori Rivera as Mama, and Ryan Stallings as Joey in the musical \u201cEscaping Queens.\u201d Credit: Jana Marcus<\/p>\n

Herman could easily become a cartoon or an outright villain. Saucedo wisely chooses neither. Instead, he creates a man whose charm is inseparable from his flaws. He\u2019s funny, impulsive, frustrating, and occasionally infuriating, yet Saucedo never lets us lose sight of the humanity beneath it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even as Herman makes one terrible decision after another, we understand why this family continues to love him. It\u2019s a nuanced performance that never asks us to excuse Herman\u2019s behavior, only to understand the complicated man behind it.<\/p>\n

Saucedo\u2019s comic instincts are impeccable. \u201cRent Party Tango,\u201d performed with nothing more than a mop as his dance partner, nearly brings down the house. Yet it\u2019s the quieter moments that reveal the depth of Saucedo\u2019s performance, allowing glimpses of regret and vulnerability to peek through Herman\u2019s swagger. Every time he steps onstage, the production seems to gain another burst of energy.<\/p>\n

Joyce Michaelson brings warmth, humor and genuine tenderness as Mama\u2019s sister Rose, creating some of the evening\u2019s most touching duets with Mama, including \u201cWith or Without A Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miguel Reyna has obvious fun as neighborhood bookie Freddie. The Doo Wop trio, featuring Ian Grant, William Calden, and Ryan Stallings, beautifully captures the sound of 1950s street-corner harmony, helping establish both the musical style and the period atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\"\"Adam Saucedo as Herman and Lori Rivera as Mama, have a complicated relationship in the musical \u201cEscaping Queens.\u201d Credit: Jana Marcus<\/p>\n

Seated behind the piano, offstage, music director Max Bennett-Parker quietly becomes the production\u2019s secret weapon. As the family argues, laughs, and occasionally implodes, his expressive playing provides the emotional glue, carrying us gracefully from one memory to the next. His musical direction keeps Ortiz\u2019s ambitious 27-song score flowing with confidence while creating some of the evening\u2019s loveliest transitions.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one area where \u201cEscaping Queens\u201d could still be stronger, it\u2019s pacing. Twenty-seven songs and a long parade of family episodes revisit emotional territory that has already been explored.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Ortiz writes memorable melodies, so you\u2019ll keep hearing them, and humming them the next day. A little trimming would only sharpen the story\u2019s emotional impact.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The production\u2019s other challenge lies with its youngest performers. Ryan Stallings, as young Joey, Kasandra Maita, as his sister Laura, and even Jennifer Galvin, as Estelle, have the difficult task of anchoring the emotional core of the story, opposite veterans like Rivera and Saucedo. Stallings, Maita and Galvin show promise but are still discovering how to fully inhabit each moment. It\u2019s a difficult assignment, and one that experience will almost certainly deepen.<\/p>\n

Then comes \u201cAnthem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything that has come before suddenly falls into place.<\/p>\n

For two and a half hours, we\u2019ve watched Mama sacrifice, forgive, endure, and keep moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"Adam Saucedo as Herman, filled with dread at his current gambling loss. Lori Rivera as Mama and Ryan Stallings as Joey in the background. Credit: Jana Marcus<\/p>\n

In \u201cAnthem,\u201d years of exhaustion, disappointment, and buried dreams finally rise to the surface. The moment recalls Mama Rose\u2019s climactic transformation in \u201cGypsy,\u201d not because the women are alike, but because both finally stop living entirely for everyone else.<\/p>\n

Rivera delivers the number with extraordinary emotional honesty, allowing it to grow from quiet heartbreak into hard-won liberation. By the time she finishes, the audience is applauding a woman who has finally reclaimed her own life. It\u2019s a thrilling finale, and one of those rare moments when a musical stops entertaining and starts saying something larger about survival, forgiveness, and finally choosing yourself.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s ultimately why \u201cEscaping Queens\u201d works.<\/p>\n

The show isn\u2019t polished and doesn\u2019t try to be. It\u2019s a love letter to a family that argued loudly, laughed often, survived more than its share of heartache, and somehow always found its way back to the dinner table.<\/p>\n

Beneath all that family chaos is something surprisingly universal: Every family carries its own stories, its own heartbreaks, and its own impossible people. Somehow, they also shape who we become.<\/p>\n

By the end, one thing becomes clear: in the Ortiz household, food was never just food. It was forgiveness, comfort, survival \u2013 and love.<\/p>\n

And if Joe Ortiz has his way, you\u2019ll leave hearing one voice echoing long after the applause fades:<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up and eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reviewer\u2019s note: This review reflects the opening-night cast. Lori Rivera performs the role of Mama on most dates. Brissa Ibarra will perform the role on July 18, 19, and July 23 through 26.<\/p>\n

If you go<\/p>\n

Who: Santa Cruz County Actors\u2019 Theatre\u00a0<\/p>\n

What: Joe Ortiz\u2019s \u201cEscaping Queens: Over The Roof\u201d<\/p>\n

When: Through August 2<\/p>\n

Where: 1001 Center Street, Santa Cruz, CA<\/p>\n

Tickets: www.santacruzactorstheatre.org\/tickets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick Take: Joe Ortiz transforms the chaos of his 1950s childhood into an exuberant musical memoir filled with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3956,9,24,63,2578,122,124,123,20469],"class_list":["post-291151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-instagram","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-premium","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-theater-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}