The key to great parody is that it hits home in contemporary society. Although Cuban playwright Rolando Ferrer's play Lila, la Mariposa (Lila, the Butterfly) was meant to be a criticism of Havana and the 1950s when it was first written back in 1954, Teatro Avante's rendition continues the tradition with an added twist: This parody of the nostalgia of, and for, that era is so well played out and so close to being over the top, it's easy to relate to present-day exile nostalgia. Teatro Avante has given us a wildly complex Lila (played by Lilliam Vega), a versatile cast, and an array of music ranging from mambo to pop. The result is a vivid transformation of the old play and of Lila. But what has she become in this version? Is Lila a butterfly, or a moth fluttering around the dimming bulb of '50s family values? Is she a cocoon, dead and enshrined in her own character flaws? Is she a showgirl turned vamp or an unrelenting selfish vampire of a mother? She is all that and more. And if you expect to see some slight poking fun at the nostalgia for that era,... More >>>