The Happiest Song Plays Last

At the Goodman Theatre

“Hudes’s writing is poetic but wry, full of swagger and poetry. There’s live music but oh, how the lines sing, too.” Time Out New York

Sandra Marquez and Armando Riesco, directed by Eddie Torres

"Intensely engaging new drama. Hudes is a very accomplished storyteller, a playwright with an emergent, fulsome American narrative." The Chicago Tribune

Nelson Gonzales and Jaime Tirelli

"Ex-Marine Elliot bears a terrible burden, and he would like more than anything to unload it, or better bury it. This is the sorrowful lyric of Quiara Alegria Hudes’ magnificent play." Chicago On the Aisle

Three and a half stars!

"The play's crosscurrents roil and resonate... Happiest Song reminds audiences that the terrible demand we as a nation make on our soldiers may not be that they die for our ideals but that they kill for them." -Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post

Jaime Tirelli and Sandra Marquez

At Second Stage

Nelson Gonzales and his band, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson

"Nimbly maneuvers between communal intimacy and global upheaval... Hudes is a poetic researcher and an honorable chronicler." -Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post

Armando Riesco, Annapurna Sriram, and Dariush Kashani

Lauren Velez and Anthony Chisholm

Lauren Velez and Tony Plana

In a barrio kitchen in North Philly, a professor moonlights as the local soup kitchen queen, offering rice and beans to any hungry neighbor. Halfway around the world, her cousin relives his military trauma on a Hollywood film set. With the Egyptian revolution booming in the distance, and local unrest erupting in Philly, these two cousins sing a defiant song of protest.

Watch the trailer for the Goodman Theater.

The world premiere featured music by master cuatro and tres player Nelson Gonzales.