New musical ¡AMERICANO! to run in NYC this spring

Following an acclaimed and record-setting run at Arizona’s Phoenix Theater Company, new musical ¡Americano! comes to New York for a limited engagement from 31 March–19 June at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street.)

¡Americano! features an original score by acclaimed singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez, a book by Michael Barnard, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Fernanda Santos, and additional lyrics by Barnard and Rosenberg. Michael Barnard also directs the piece.

¡Americano! is the true story – the life, the challenges, and the trials – of Tony Valdovinos, a DREAMer brought to America by his parents when he was two years old. Inspired by 9/11, on his 18th birthday Tony walked into a Marine Corps recruitment office to enlist, only to discover his parents hadn’t told him he was an undocumented immigrant. But Tony did not give up on his dream to serve the only country he had ever known. Instead, he discovered alternatively powerful ways to serve and inspire by combating voter suppression and galvanizing a community to fight for representation in government. ¡Americano! casts a deeply human light on what it means to be a DREAMer, at a time when America’s ongoing debates over immigration and disenfranchisement continue.

Tony Valdovinos, whose life story serves as the inspiration for ¡Americano!, also serves as a consulting producer. "I knew it was a big opportunity. I was approached by these creative people who wanted to write a story of an immigrant. They had read an article about me. I met with them and I told them my whole life story. Imagine someone calling you out of the blue and then a year or so later, you hear 20 songs involving the most intimate details of your life? Here were these incredible artists investing their best talent in the depiction of some of my most personal challenges. But this journey is worth it to share the story of DREAMers and what their families are going through. And now, to see our story opening in New York, that’s a dream that I had never even considered dreaming. I hope that ¡Americano! will inspire, unite and also put a smile on audiences faces."

¡Americano! features choreography by Sergio Mejia, orchestrations & arrangements by Sergio Mendoza, musical direction & vocal arrangements by Jonathan Ivie, set design by Robert Andrew Kovach, costumes by Adriana Diaz, lighting by Jamie Roderick, and sound by Kevin Heard.

For more information and to book tickets, please click here.