Spooky season is officially upon us. Around this time of year, amongst the witches, ghosts, ghouls and zombies adorning our homes and lawns, it is also common to find the elaborately adorned skulls and colorfully dressed skeletons associated with Día de Muertos (Day of Dead, also commonly called Day of the Dead). With this colorful cultural imagery surrounding us and Hispanic Heritage Month upon us, October 12 is the perfect time to catch The Lincoln Center’s LC LIVE presentation of Sugar Skull! Día de Muertos Musical Adventure!
“Although many Americans don’t know exactly what the Day of the Dead is, they do know what it looks like,” says Sugar Skull! producer and Colorado native Leah Keith. “People may associate the face painting, colorful skeletons and altars that have past loved ones’ pictures on them with Día de Muertos, but they might not know in depth what it’s about.” This show hopes to change that and if you think Día de Muertos is a celebration of death, according to Leah, you’d be well, dead wrong.
Geared toward families and children, Sugar Skull! tells the story of 12-year-old Vita Flores, a Mexican American kid growing up in Brooklyn. Vita’s family wants to celebrate Day of the Dead but since she’s never experienced this before, she thinks her family has gone loco. The idea of celebrating deceased loved ones is just creepy and weird to Vita. Vita soon embarks on a magical, musical journey that unravels the true meaning of Día de Muertos.
With a cast of five, this bilingual/bicultural tale is told featuring traditional dance and music from Mexico. “The songs are mostly sung in Spanish with a beautiful and lush soundtrack recorded with five musicians,” remarks Leah. Ultimately what makes this show bicultural is not so much the singing or dancing, which is richly Mexican, but it’s more in the story and in the way that Vita learns how to navigate between cultures—the American mainstream culture that she knows well and the Mexican culture and heritage she’s learning about.
“It’s about Vita navigating between wanting to fit in with the mainstream and yet learning to embrace where she’s from and what her heritage is,” says Leah. “This shows us all that there is a really beautiful way that we can learn to honor both of those things.”
Leah goes on to say, “In the Mexican culture, Día de Muertos is not a celebration of death as much as it’s an acknowledgment that death is a part of life. Embracing the idea that people who pass away aren’t really gone and that their spirits continue to be with us in the present. It’s about acknowledging that the way their spirits stay with us is when we, the living, continue to remember them and celebrate how they were in life.”
“As a producer, I’m incredibly humbled to be able to share this story across the country,” Leah remarks. “We’ve taken this production to hundreds of cities and performed it in front of thousands of people. It’s such a beautiful, fun, vibrant production and I’m excited to support and share this story because representation on the stage matters. This demonstrates the beauty that can be found in celebrating other cultures.”
Experience this beautiful bilingual and bicultural tale at The Lincoln Center on Saturday, October 12 at 4 p.m. Tickets are $25 and are available online at LCtix.com or by calling the Box Office at 970-221-6730. And don’t forget to come celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with us before the show from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. While admittance into the theater for Sugar Skull! requires a ticket, there will be free lobby activities for all to participate in. You can make papel picados or Día de Muertos-inspired prints and everyone is welcome to take home whatever they make.