Cuba and His Teddy Bear

TEDDY SLAMS Blackburn, left, sasses St. Angelo.

Photo: Anthony Aicardi

Set in the 1980s in the slums of the Lower East Side, Cuba examines the relationship between aging coke dealer Cuba (St. Angelo) and his teenage son Teddy (Blackburn). In two protracted acts, we see how the gripping, sensual violence of Cuba’s macho cocaine racket has birthed Teddy’s far more sedentary heroin habit.

Cuba, which premiered at New York’s Public Theater before moving to Broadway in 1986 (Povod, a protégé of Miguel Piñero, was 26 at the time), incorporates more than sheer family bathos. The broad-ranging cast of characters demonstrates the playwright’s eagerness to capture a Shakespearean span of souls. At one point, for example, we meet Che (a haunting Julian Martinez), a Tony-winning playwright who rocketed out of his childhood tenements only to sink back in under heroin’s thrall. Che’s soaring, eloquent sadness adds vigor to this portrait of stifled lowlifes.

Unfortunately, Che and other breaths of fresh air appear only in cameos. The rest of the show demonstrates far less verve. The first act consists mostly of Cuba and sidekick Jackie sniffing coke and trading barbs with Teddy. Frequently dropped cues make this the rare coke binge whose participants are at a loss for words. Camacho’s direction picks up in the high-stakes second act, but by that point the script has devolved into an extended father-son battle. Povod struggles to finish things with a bang, and the results—including a wondrous recovery from a gunshot to the head—would baffle if they didn’t stultify.

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