A pre-Broadway premiere for a local first-time lyricist

LAKEVILLE — In an age when the conventionally coveted course for many the modern author may be to move from the writing desk to the TV writers’ room, humorist David Kamp has taken the unexpected path.

A longtime contributor to Vanity Fair, his work has appeared in GQ, The New Yorker and the New York Times, while his books include the critically praised “United States of Arugula,” and his newly published “Sunny Days,” a cultural history on the groundbreaking legacy of “Sesame Street.” Now, in addition to editor and author, he can tack on a new title: musical lyricist.

Speaking to Kamp, a New York City and Lakeville resident, just a few hours before the opening night of his show at the Hartford Stage, his unifying emotion surrounding this production is, to use his own word, confidence.

“It’s an unfamiliar feeling for me to feel good about something I’ve written,” Kamp said, plenty of wry expression echoing in his enthusiasm. “There are so many moving parts — not just the actors, the composer and the musicians, but also the lighting people and the sound people …  It’s not all in my hands, the way a book or an article would be. I can feed off  the brilliance around me.”

The show in question is “Kiss My Aztec!,” an irreverent musical ode to Latin American history, which Kamp describes as equal measures of ritualized human sacrifice and outlandish rap battles. (See review, Page A8.)

Directed by Tony Taccone, with music and lyrics by Kamp and Benjamin Velez, the show is the mischievous concoction of Golden Globe nominated actor John Leguizamo, whose big screen musical moments have included starring in Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!” (before it went to Broadway) and belting out the Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned songs of Disney’s “Encanto.”

“John Leguizamo and I have been friends for probably 20 years,” Kamp said of the team-up. “A long time ago I told him, ‘I wish I had come up in the era when you make a full-time living as a theater lyricist, the way that Johnny Mercer did, or Sammy Cahn or Ira Gershwin did.’” Years later Leguizamo reminded Kamp, “Remember that time you wished you could have been a 1930s lyricist? Well this is your chance.”

It was a chance he jumped at. “Kiss My Aztec!” had two regional productions in California before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world of theater to a halt. Now rewritten and reimagined, the show has been brought to the East Coast by Hartford Stage Artistic Director Melia Bensussen, complete with the fine-tuning that Kamp hopes will take the team to their next destination: Broadway.

“We offer something that doesn’t exist on Broadway right now. Our cast is entirely Latinx, Black and AAPI doing musical comedy. If I can be cocky, I think Broadway would benefit from a show like this. There’s no reason why Krystina Alabado and Joel Perez, who play our two leads, aren’t stars. The fact that this is their first chance to originate roles is indicative of the unfortunate institutional racism of American theater.” Kamp acknowledges there have been strides —but “even if there’s more diversity in casting lately, it’s still a mountain to climb.”

What the show hopes to offer, not only to the audience, but to the actors as well, is an opportunity for the Hispanic and Latin American experience to be as broad, satirical and off-beat as anything you’d see in Monty Python. “It is a show that addresses racism and cultural erasure, but it’s also an incredibly silly, funny show. We trust our audience to hold two thoughts in their head: One, that we’re addressing serious issues; and two, that we’re also doing silly, vaudevillian, raunchy stuff.”

To sum it up, Kamp said, “If you want to let a burst of joy into your life, come to Hartford Stage.”