RITAREY

The show's mariachi-styled opener. It's 1932. Mrs. Christine Sterling, a socialite and do-gooder, has transformed Olvera Street, a replica of a quaint Mexican village, into what the Los Angeles Times has declared the city's number one tourist attraction. To celebrate, she announces to the street's community that she's commissioned David Siqueiros, the famous Mexican muralist (and revolutionary), to paint a mural idealizing Olvera Street's romantic lure.

When David Siqueiros meets Rita, sparks fly. Their attraction plays out in a tango. From the beginning Rita can see him for what he is, a womanizer, but she's annoyingly attracted to him anyway.

Rita is upset by Mrs. Sterling's demands of how she and her family must change to be a part of the tourist attraction. A father-daughter duet where Diego advises Rita that her life would be a lot easier if she'd bend a little to get along with others.

The country is in the depths of the Great Depression and Prohibition is still in effect. To bring in extra money Rita has opened a speakeasy, a secret bar behind her family's tamale stand. A diegetic, cabaret-style number designed to entertain the speakeasy's patrons while encouraging them to enjoy themselves and drink.

McAfee, the corrupt LAPD Vice Squad commander, visits Rita's speakeasy to inform her he intends to become a partner in her business. When she dismisses his offer, he gives her a warning of what can happen if she does not comply.

On a rooftop above Olvera Street, the site of the proposed mural, Siqueiros has gathered a handful of art students to help him create it. Among them is Rita's impressionable younger brother, Jerónimo. The mural they are making will not be the phony romanticized notion their patron commissioned. Siqueiros ignites a passion in the students to create something important: a mural that will reveal an ugly truth that society must face.

Siqueiros enters the speakeasy where Rita, Cha-Cha, and Gert are getting ready for the evening crowd and invites Rita to a posh party being thrown in his honor. Rita tells him he should ask his wife; he says she has returned to Mexico and is demanding a divorce. Cha-Cha and Gert remind Rita that although Siqueiros is handsome and charismatic, he is still a married man.

The LAPD raids Rita's neighborhood, capturing Mexican Americans (including citizens) for Repatriation to Mexico. Rita's father, Diego, is captured for deportation. Rita confronts her former high school classmate Michael, an LAPD rookie, who took part in the raid.

Propelled by the LAPD raid on the Reys' home in Chavez Ravine, Isabel escapes to Olvera Street terrified that she will be deported too. The song sums up each character's situation and functions as a cliff-hanger leading into the act break, similar to how 'One Day More' works in Les Misérables.

Isabel has decided to go to Mexico in search of her ailing husband Diego, deported under President Hoover's mass deportation of American citizens known as Repatriation. Before she boards her train at LA's Union Station she says goodbye to her grown children, Rita and Jerónimo, knowing she may never be able to return or see them again.

Angered and saddened by the LAPD raid on her neighborhood and the deportation of her father, Rita takes to the small stage inside the speakeasy to voice her discontent through song, joined by the Hot Tamale Dancers, Cha-Cha and Gert.

After deporting Rita's father and having her brother beaten up, McAfee returns to the speakeasy to give Rita an ultimatum: give him control of her speakeasy or he'll shut it down.

Jerónimo meets clandestinely with fellow art students after hours in the darkened speakeasy. Swayed by Siqueiros' radical ideology, they plan to hand out flyers for the American Communist Party at a protest rally. Their meeting is cut short when Rita unexpectedly enters and discovers what they're up to.

Jerónimo has been arrested for distributing Communist Party propaganda. Siqueiros bailed him out, and he's just told Rita he's going to Mexico to find their deported parents. His decision is fraught with consequences: he may never be able to return, and if he does, he'll be a fugitive from justice.

The LAPD raids the speakeasy, arresting Rita and Jerónimo as communist subversives. Rita is innocent, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Siqueiros bails them both out. Jerónimo leaves for Mexico and declares he will not be coming back. Rita, deserted by her only remaining family member, hits bottom.

Rita leads McAfee and his goons to a tunnel where Tony has stashed a shipment of illegal booze. McAfee believes she's leading him there to steal it, but she has schemed with Tony to double-cross McAfee, blackmail him, and shut down his plans to take over her speakeasy.

After the mural América Tropical is unveiled, it's declared indecent by the City of LA and ordered destroyed, whitewashed over. As workers begin to cover it up, Rita asks them to give her a moment to take it in. The mural is what she holds dearest in her heart that Jerónimo was a part of. She watches as it disappears under the whitewash.

Instrumental underscore for the epilogue.

The story takes place in 1932, but the show is bookended with an open and close in 2012. At the close, Rita, now an old woman, has been instrumental in getting Siqueiros' mural restored and protected for future generations. At the restored mural's unveiling, Young Rita joins her older self and launches into the finale, with its passionate, unflinching message for social justice and a society that embraces inclusion.