Angels of Havana Descend on Key West

Love and Cuban flair descend on The Hush Hush Theater, an arts nonprofit, for its latest show, “The Angels of Havana.”

The production is the second show in recent weeks to take place at the theater’s new home inside Viva’s Argentinian Steakhouse, where an intimate, old-world indoor performance space is anchored by a bifurcated staircase.

Nina Pilar, Hush Hush’s founder and an actress in the production, credited the show’s existence to co-creator Monika Jarzecka and choreographer Rolly Villaverde, who had already gotten the project moving before Pilar began piecing everything together.

“They were already working on choreography,” Pilar said. “Monika had cast it and she had the idea for this extravagant sort of over-the-top soap opera-like production. And I was in full support of it.”

Pilar was a bit relieved to take on a project that relied heavily on the quality of the dancers and accompanying music, much of which Jarzecka had already selected. Still, Pilar filled in with her own thematic choices and vocal preferences as one of the show’s singers.

Once the flow was established, the theater founder set out to write the actual narrative and finer plot revelations.

Despite steady ticket sales, Pilar admitted she was not in the best position coming off her previous well-received production, “Moonbabe,” which she described as a “fever dream.” The show featured multiple performances each week, a music genre switch after the two-week mark, and a live band every night. The sheer number of additional performances added strain.

“I also learned a lot about finances and budgets and it was a learning curve for me to really see, oh, okay, this level, this scale is really, really difficult as a nonprofit,” she revealed.

Additionally, staging any production during the summer months meant some volatility in attendance.

“So, it was a lot, huge production and budget. I came out of Moonbabe really depleted, really energetically depleted and financially depleted. And I was sad about that. I felt like a little part of me was like, ‘Ooh, can I do this? Can I keep going?’”

With “Angels of Havana,” Pilar and the cast and crew, which includes Jarzecka, Villaverde, Erick Largacha, Micaela Conroy, Marisa Katubi, and Tuti Gonzalez Grima, seem to have answered that question with an entertaining and brisk dance-and-song entry that told a tale of romance in Havana during a sold-out opening night.

“The Angels of Havana” is described as a classic American take on the island, heavy on romance, drama, and a plot twist. The tale starts with Pilar introducing the audience to a 1920s- and ’30s-inspired Cuban setting, complete with ship sounds and one early song dating back to Havana’s heyday, when celebrities and the well-heeled traveled to the country.

Things then quickly switch over to a more classic Cuban style of music that Pilar described as sexy, loud, and rhythm-focused. The show introduces the audience to characters who are mostly Cuban, except for one single Argentinian woman who causes quite the stir among the other couples. That’s when things start to really heat up, and the scenes morph into rhythmic scandal.

While the on-stage performers play out the chaos of the heart, behind the scenes Pilar is relieved that things are working out for this production and at a pace she finds more manageable.

“I think we’re being smart right now,” she said. “It’s slow season, but we did sell out the first night. I plan to sell out every night. We do the show on Thursdays. It’s not a late, late show at 8:30. It’s also a PG-13 show. So, it’s not just for adults. It’s for families. Kids of [a certain] age can come and experience it. So that’s also really cool too.”

As with some of her other productions, this one has a connection to Pilar’s family history on the island, which goes back multiple generations. The former Havana Madrid Nightclub, which was situated on Front Street and Duval, is connected to Pilar’s own family. Her great-great-grandfather opened the establishment almost a century ago, and it served as something of a family gathering spot, with Pilar’s great-grandmother hosting her wedding reception there.

“It was created for families to get together and dance and for live dance to be featured. So there are a lot of similarities between the world that I created in this story for Angels of Havana and the nightclub that my family owned.”

Now, Pilar gets to welcome her own friends and spectators, new and old, with one of the more memorable and exciting additions to Key West’s downtown entertainment scene in recent memory.