The American Dream goes sour in “The Other Americans”

10/07/2025

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This is a photograph taken on a theatrical stage set designed to look like a home's living, dining, and kitchen area with polished hardwood floors. In the center, a man and a woman are holding hands and appear to be dancing or posing dramatically. The man, on the left, wears a patterned short-sleeve shirt and light khaki pants, leaning back slightly with his left foot raised. The woman, on the right, wears a colorful floral print dress and dark heels, smiling and looking at the man as she steps forward. The background shows a dining table on the left, a light-colored couch and a side table on the right, and a kitchen area visible through a wide doorway in the center. The lighting is warm and focuses on the two central figures. — John Leguizamo and Luna Lauren Velez in THE OTHER AMERICANS, written by John Leguizamo and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, at The Public Theater. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

This is a photo of a scene from a play, set in a home's dining and kitchen area with wooden floors. In the foreground, a woman with dark, curly hair wearing a sharp, red skirt suit and matching heels stands, looking to her right. A man in a patterned blazer and jeans is facing her, gesturing expressively with his hands while speaking. To the left, a young man in a dress shirt and tie is seated at a large dining table. Further into the background, within the kitchen area, two other women are partially visible. The setting includes a round rug under the dining table and a beige armchair in the foreground, creating a tense or dramatic atmosphere among the characters. — Rosa Evangelina Arredondo and John Leguizamo in THE OTHER AMERICANS, written by John Leguizamo and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, at The Public Theater. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

John Leguizamo is a familiar name in the entertainment business. He is a noted film actor, probably best known for his starring role in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, and his vocal work in the Ice Age series and Disney’s Encanto. He has appeared in numerous TV shows, most recently hosting the MSNBC series Leguizamo Does America. His stage work includes his Tony Award-winning one-man show Latin History for Morons.

Now Leguizamo enters the field of playwriting with The Other Americans, arriving at New York’s Public Theater after its initial appearance at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage. It is a biting look at the American Dream and its corrosive effects on one Latin family.

Leguizamo plays Colombian-American Nelson Castro, avidly pursuing his dream of transferring his success running a chain of laundromats into his current, more upper-class (i.e. more white) surroundings. Nelson has transplanted his family — wife Patti (Luna Lauren Velez), daughter Toni (Rebecca Jimenez), and son Nick (Trey Santiago-Hudson) — into these new surroundings, with varying degrees of success.

This is a photograph of four actors on a theatrical stage set depicting a home kitchen and dining area, suggesting a scene from a play. Four people are standing in a kitchen with dark wooden cabinets and a distinctive yellow and white diamond-patterned floor. In the center, a woman with curly hair wearing a pink and black patterned dress over black shorts is speaking animatedly with her hands raised. To her left, a man in a blue polo shirt looks on, leaning against the counter, and another man in a light-colored patterned shirt and khaki pants is seated near a dining table, also looking toward the central woman. To the far right, another woman in a dark floral-patterned dress stands near an open back door, looking toward the center of the room. The overall atmosphere appears to be a moment of tension or lively discussion. — John Leguizamo, Bradley James Tejeda, Sarah Nina Hayon, and Luna Lauren Velez in THE OTHER AMERICANS, written by John Leguizamo and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, at The Public Theater. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

We meet the Castros as they plan to welcome Nick back from a lengthy stay at a rehabilitation center, where he was sent after anger issues caused by a brutal beating from his high school classmates resulted in his turning to drugs. Also there for the festivities are Nelson’s sister Norma (Rosa Evangelina Arredondo), who runs her own chain of laundromats; Toni’s very pregnant best friend Veronica (Sarah Nina Hayon); and Eddie (Bradley James Tejeda), Patti’s fiancé who works for Norma. While Nelson and Toni are both seeing Nick as healed, Nick tries to explain that he’s not there yet.

Nelson pushes his son into barely disguised competitions of machismo dominance and insists Nick will join the family business. Toni, for her part, fusses over Nick, pushing comfort foods on him in spite of Nick’s explanations that he’s changed his diet and is not hungry. Instead of allowing him to ease his way back into life outside the rehab center, Nick’s parents continue applying the same pressures that helped send him there.

Even worse, every member of the Castro family has their own, mutually conflicting agendas, with their own sets of carefully hidden secrets. Toni wants to move back into her old neighborhood, aware that no one in the new neighborhood welcomes her family. Nelson refuses to give up on his dreams of business success while he struggles to get additional financial support. Patti supports her soon-to-be husband, Eddie’s plans to move to California and eventually run his own chain of dry cleaners. Norma refuses Nelson a loan in order to get him to face the reality of his faltering business dreams. And Nick, aware of the family’s conflicting motivations, struggles to keep his sanity anyway he can.

This is a photograph taken on a theatrical stage set designed to look like the interior of a home, featuring a large, open-plan living and dining area. In the foreground and center, a young man wearing a light blue T-shirt and dark jeans is frozen mid-dance or dramatic movement, balancing on his left leg with his right knee raised and his arms stretched wide horizontally. He is looking down and to his right. In the background, to the left, a woman in a floral dress is standing near a long wooden dining table set with chairs, looking toward the man with an expression of concern or surprise. The set features warm, polished hardwood floors, a kitchen area visible through a doorway in the center background, and a warm glow from hanging yellow lamps over the dining table. — Trey Santiago-Hudson in THE OTHER AMERICANS, written by John Leguizamo and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, at The Public Theater. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

The revelation of The Other Americans is John Leguizamo’s work as a playwright. He not only has crafted a hard-hitting tale of an American Dream gone wrong, he has given himself — and the rest of the cast — meaty parts with strong, realistic dialogue. In return, Leguizamo, along with director Ruben Santiago-Hudson, has gotten their talented actors not only to give powerful, nuanced individual performances but to create a realistic picture of a close-knit family. In this, they are assisted by the scenic design of Arnulfo Maldonado, who has created a remarkably fluid depiction of an outer-borough middle-class home. Combined with Jen Schriever’s lighting design and Justin Ellington’s sound design, a realistic world is created by cast and designers alike.

The Other Americans, while having its humorous moments, is basically a tough look at a failing American Dream of success, one shared across lines of class, race, and national origin. It is a drama for these times, and it shows that John Leguizamo can make his points about American society through serious drama as well as he can through his comedy. I strongly recommend heading down to the Public Theater and taking a look at The Other Americans.

The Other Americans is presented by the Public Theater, in association with Washington’s Arena Stage, in the Anspacher Theatre at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., in New York, through Oct. 26, 2025. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to publictheater.org.