Broadway is about to get a bit more of a Latin twist.
John Leguizamo’s latest comedy show, “Latin History for Morons,” will be debuting on Broadway this October at Studio 54. The one-man show, directed by Tony Taccone, focuses on giving audiences a crash course in Latino history with a humorous twist. “Latin History for Morons” will have a 16-week engagement beginning on Oct. 19.
Leguizamo’s show received critical acclaim during its run at New York City’s Public Theater.
“People feel like they can disrespect us [Latinos],” Leguizamo told the Times. “Mostly because our contributions aren’t in history books and they aren’t being taught, and that’s why I started wanting to do a lot of research. I started finding out about all the amazing things that we did to build America. And I’m like: ‘Wait a minute. There’s a real aggressive effort to erase our contributions and to keep us out of history textbooks because we have been the contributor to the making of America since the beginning of time.’”
Leguizamo said the idea for the show came about while helping his son research Latino heroes for a school assignment and realizing how Latino contributions were missing from history lessons in U.S. schools. Latin and black contributions… and I don’t mean to lump us together, were nonexistent in my public school,” Leguizamo told Vogue in an interview. “Even when I went to college, there was nothing. When I was studying the Civil War, there was nothing about everything we did, not one mention of any participation or contribution, ever. And that would’ve changed my life.”
“Latin History” will be the latest Broadway stint for one of Leguizamo ‘s solo shows, following “Freak” (1998), “Sexaholix” (2001) and “Ghetto Klown” (2011); “Mambo Mouth” (1990) and “Spic-O-Rama” (1992) were seen Off Broadway. His latest solo outing was spurred by the lack of Latinos in his son’s American history class, and speeds through three millennia of history beginning with the Aztecs.
“Latin History for Morons” has lined up a limited Broadway run that begins previews Oct. 19 ahead of a Nov. 15 opening. The show is currently set to end its engagement Feb. 4th.
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