More Theater Monday - Isla

We received complimentary tickets to Isla for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

What: Isla

Where: WP Theater 

             2162 Broadway

             New York, NY

Who: Recommended for all ages

When: Through August 29, 2026

Isla is the story of three women and their escape from Cuba to a new life in America. This is not your run-of-the-mill show. The story is told quite creatively, mostly through recordings, songs, dance, pictures, and shadow puppets rather than a lot of dialogue. Much of the dialogue that there is is in Spanish. Yet, even though not all of it is directly translated to English, it is still easy to keep track of the story, and even without much talking, the show rarely lags. 

The story is based on the actual experiences of performer and co-composer Samantha Blain's mother and aunts, which gives it a particular poignancy.  In fact, Blain plays her own mother in the show, and the voices on the recording are actually her relatives speaking about their experiences.  Blain and her two co-stars, Daniela Delahuerta and Tiffany Iris, give deeply passionate and emotional performances even without much, if any, dialogue. Their singing voices are beautiful as well, particularly Blaine's. All in all, it's just a touching, heartfelt story. 

And that's our view. For more about Isla or to purchase tickets, visit www.hitthelights.org.

Tune in tomorrow for Tips for Tuesday.

Photo credits: 

All Isla production photos by Rebecca J. Michelson

Images used in this post were sent by publicists, artists, and/or  PR firms and are used by permission.  Any Concerns regarding image usage can be addressed here.