One of the great life ages for many parents is meeting the person who will one day marry their son or daughter.
For affluent Latino parents Enrique and Ilana Gomez, this moment goes hilariously wrong from the start, when their daughter Yoli invites her Mexican-born intended Marcos over to the family’s Pasadena home for dinner. Turns out Marcos is White, the son of Bostonites who were living in Mexico when he was born, and he shows up on the Gomez doorstep with the host gift of a piñata. As expected, things go steadily downhill from there.
Written by Gloria Calderón Kellett, “One of the Good Ones” premiered last year at Pasadena Playhouse. The play’s original director, Kimberly Senior, has returned to direct the play’s San Diego debut at the Old Globe, which opened Thursday night.
Kellett is a veteran television writer/producer and this 90-minute play has the look and feel of a TV comedy, with fast pacing, a steady flow of zinging one-liners, plenty of actor double-takes and eye rolls and a predictable happy ending. While there’s never any doubt where the story’s going, it’s still an enjoyable ride with some very funny lines about innate racial biases and the generational divide.
Staged in a gorgeous two-story Spanish-style home created by scenic designer Takeshi Kata, “One of the Good Ones” was inspired by classics like the 1957 film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” where a progressive White couple is stunned when their daughter brings a Black boyfriend home for dinner. Like the parents in that film, the Gomezes are a tough sell on their daughter’s new man.
Benito Martinez is a standout in the Globe cast as family patriarch Enrique. His reactions, rage and paternal protectiveness are heartfelt and authentic. Angelique Cabral has some funny scenes as the comically woke matriarch Ilana, who’s of Latin American heritage but doesn’t speak Spanish. The young couple are played by singularly named Cree as daughter Yoli and Nico Greetham as Marcos. And Santino Jimenez has a few scenes as Pedro, a Latino delivery man who’s not what he seems.
Some of the play’s best and funniest moments are the dialogue Kellett has written for Marcos. The overly earnest character speaks in a hilariously cringey Gen Z self-help psychobabble that continuously grates on Enrique’s nerves. Marcos and Yoli also overshare details of their sexual relationship that no parent wants to hear.
The play makes some interesting points about Latino identity. Is Marcos, who was raised in Mexico and speaks fluent Spanish, any less Mexican than Enrique, who has spent much of his life in America? And even though Ilana is Latina, should she bear guilt for the White privilege of not speaking her ancestors’ native tongue?
Most parents eventually give up the battle over cultural and ethnic differences in favor of accepting the person who makes their child happy. This is one of those stories, but it gets to its destination with some clever twists.
‘One of the Good Ones’
When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through June 22
Where: Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park
Tickets: $29 and up
Phone: 619-234-5623
Online: theoldglobe
