A Life Sentence... Set to Music!

The scene set for Kiss of the Spider Woman is web-like: a Latin American prison where escape is impossible and being released is unlikely. In this pit prisoners are poisoned, tortured and berated. When that happens, lead character Molina mentally transports himself elsewhere: to the cabaret-styled films he watched as...

By Jamie Laughlin

August 8, 2013

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The scene set for Kiss of the Spider Woman is web-like: a Latin American prison where escape is impossible and being released is unlikely. In this pit prisoners are poisoned, tortured and berated. When that happens, lead character Molina mentally transports himself elsewhere: to the cabaret-styled films he watched as a child. Their connecting link is a star that Monlina adores, a vampy diva named Aurora, whose later career took a dark turn. And while he harbors fear of one particular role of Aurora’s, the spider woman, he uses memories of her films to escape his abusive hell, transforming the prison into a singing, dancing, off-off-off-off Broadway theater. The value of these elaborate visions wane as Molina’s relationship to new cellmate Valentin grows. Soon Molina has something worth living — and possibly dying — for in that concrete web. It’s the latest by Uptown Players, and it runs through August 18 at Kalita Humphreys Theater (3636 Turtle Creek Blvd.). Tickets run $30 to $40. Visit uptownplayers.org.
Fridays-Sundays. Starts: Aug. 11. Continues through Aug. 18, 2013

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