It's thrilling to see how far he has progressed, both in discovering the character and, as an actor, delivering gut-wrenching work. Riesco, having played the same role in each original production of this trilogy since 2006, delivers a stunning and deeply moving performance. Each character struggles throughout to find their true identity, from Shar coming to terms with her Middle Eastern heritage to Elliot himself, who, since returning from the war nearly a decade ago, still hasn't found a home. In America, Yaz attempts to organize a city-wide boycott of a local hospital system after a terrible tragedy. In the Middle East, Elliot, Shar, and Ali (Kashani) find themselves thrust into the middle of the Egyptian Civil War that leads to the overthrow of President Mubarak. These two very different storylines are tied together with the idea of community activism and the difficulties within. In between feeding the locals (including the homeless Lefty, played by Anthony Chisholm), Yaz suddenly finds herself falling for the two-decades-her-senior Agustín (Tony Plana), a local practitioner of Puerto-Rican Jibaro music. Back home in North Philly, Elliot's unmarried cousin Yaz (Lauren Vélez) has taken the place of her aunt as a community caretaker (which occurred at the end of the last play). This time, however, he's a consultant on a war film, working with a fetching young actress (Annapurna Sriram), an Iraqi refugee (Dariush Kashani), and a tyrannical director (unseen). Set in 2011, this one finds Elliot (Armando Riesco) in Jordan, back in the clothing of a marine. You need not know Fugue or Water to be able to follow Happiest Song, which is a standalone, though a passing familiarity with the characters and their past experiences will likely result in a more fulfilling experience. Arguably, Happiest Song, which combines two very different story threads and features live music by Grammy nominee Nelson González, is the best of the three, a beautifully written piece that is both compellingly acted and intensely emotional. Water opened last year at Second Stage Theatre in New York, and now the off-Broadway company has returned to Elliot's story with its current production of The Happiest Song Plays Last, Hudes' final entry into the trilogy, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The first in a theatrical trilogy, Fugue was followed up in 2011 with Water By the Spoonful, a play that opened and closed with similarly modest fanfare at Hartford Stage, but would go on to win the Pulitzer for depicting Elliot's quest to find meaning in his life as a civilian. We first met him in Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, a play that opened and closed with little fanfare at the Culture Project and later became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2006, the playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes introduced the theater world to Elliot Ortiz, a 19-year-old man whose life changed irrevocably when he joined the marines to fight for his country in the Middle East.
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