Joe Ortiz returns to roots with new version of 2012 musical ‘Escaping Queens'

SANTA CRUZ - When Joe Ortiz premiered his semi-autobiographical musical "Escaping Queens" at Cabrillo Stage in the summer of 2012, it was an immediate hit, quickly selling out and prompting additional performances that season.

Naturally, that meant the play would return to the stage in different venues over the next decade, but audiences have not gotten the same version every time. Based on his childhood in Queens, Ortiz has workshopped the story over the years, which has culminated in a new version, bearing a new subtitle, different ending and an emphasis on the character of Mama. "Escaping Queens - Over the Roof" premieres at Santa Cruz Actors' Theatre for a monthlong run Friday.

During a talkback after a performance at Queens Theatre in New York, Ortiz said a question came up of whose story was the heart of "Escaping Queens." At the time, his answer was that it was an ensemble piece, but it got him thinking.

"Through years of study and story and hearing that question, I started to think a little more and realized it has to be Mama," he said. "The mother has to be the hero of the story."

Ortiz is a well-known local restaurateur and raconteur. He co-owns Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria in Capitola - which has served pastries, sandwiches, pastas and more to customers since 1978 - and has published everything from poetry anthologies to plays such as "Bread! - The Musical," "Smoke," "Kitchen Kabaret" and "Circus."

"Escaping Queens" is the most deeply personal of Ortiz's works. It is the story of his upbringing in the Long Island City neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, in which he and his older sister were raised by an Italian mother who cooked sumptuous meals and a Puerto Rican father who worked as a shoemaker. Ortiz said his father was not a positive role model, describing him as a narcissist who frequently drank and gambled, threatened to beat his children and was regularly absent, prompting his mother to eventually throw him out.

Ortiz initially envisioned the story as a memoir, but other projects and the pain of reliving that period prevented him from getting it published.

"I had to go through therapy, and I had to search my past," he said.

The memoir was finally published in 2025 as "Pastina: My Father's Misfortune, My Mother's Good Soup," but Ortiz got to share bits of the story over time, including excerpts in the Santa Cruz Sun in the '90s and as a column in the Capitola Soquel Times. The biggest showcase during that intervening period, however, was "Escaping Queens," which was so successful during its premiere at Cabrillo Stage in 2012 that it returned to the venue a year later with some new cast members.

"Because a lot of people wanted to see it (in 2012) and didn't have a chance, we decided to do it again the next year," he said.

In 2015, Ortiz took the play to the theatrical haven that is New York City for a run-through reading with a cast assembled by one of the musical's team members who lived on the East Coast.

"The whole idea was to get people interested and find out how it was working, if the story was coming across," he said.

After being asked the question of whose story was at the center, Ortiz did additional readings at Hillbarn Theatre and Conservatory in Foster City and Shelton Theater in San Francisco, and felt the story was becoming more solidified.

"We feel the story's stronger now," he said.

Specifically, Ortiz said the story is about his mother overcoming years of abuse and finally having enough, which is reflected in the song "Anthem" sung by Mama.

"She finally decides the husband has to be let go of," he said. "It's kind of her triumph and the triumph of the story itself."

Ortiz wanted to rename the musical "Over the Roof," after one of the songs, but his wife Gayle told him people would think it was a completely different musical, so he made it the subtitle instead. The name has a symbolic meeting as Ortiz's apartment below the Queensboro Bridge had a roof that acted as a form of escapism for his family during hot days and the need to escape their father - who also used the roof as an escape route from a bookie he had not paid. Ortiz was not allowed to go on the roof, but it had a lot of meaning to him.

"I heard about it," he said. "When I went back to New York, I finally said, ‘OK, I'm going to go up there.' I had a chance to go up there, take some photographs, see what it was like. For all those years before that, I never knew what it looked like."

Ortiz is pleased with the cast. Local theater legend Lori Rivera returns as Mama, having also acted in Ortiz's one-woman show "Smoke," for most of the run. Brissa Ibarra will play Mama on select dates. Taking on the role of father Herman is Adam Saucedo, who played the title role in Cabrillo Stage's production of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" last summer, and played Herman in the performances in Foster City and San Francisco.

"He's familiar with the part," he said. "(He's) a very, very strong actor, great singer, very dynamic on stage."

Ortiz also praised the young actors Ryan Stallings and William Calden, portraying Joey and Manny, respectively. Both have been involved with several local theater companies, including as Javert and Jean Valjean in All About Theater's production of "Les Miserables."

"We have two young teens that are very, very accomplished," he said.

The directors consist of Ortiz's longtime collaborator Greg Fritsch and former longtime Harbor High School theater director Cathy Warner. Max Bennett-Parker, who has worked on musicals ranging from "42nd Street" to "Little Shop of Horrors" and was an arranger and orchestrator for the Cabrillo run of "Escaping Queens," will return as music director.

Over the years that Ortiz has put on "Escaping Queens," he said people have come up to him and said the experience depicted in the play mirrored their own upbringing.

"There's a universality what the experience was like," he said.

Ortiz hopes audiences who might have someone like Herman in their lives can feel inspired on how to deal with that level of narcissism.

"I do think that some people are able to get lucky, and they're able to conquer it, but other people go the opposite way, and it takes over their lives," he said. "I feel like I was one of the fortunate ones, maybe because I've been willing to keep looking."

"Escaping Queens - Over the Roof" premieres Friday and runs through Aug. 2 at Santa Cruz Actors' Theatre, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz. Performances are 7 p.m. Thursdays through Fridays and 2 p.m. Sundays. There will be no show Saturday in observance of Independence Day. General admission is $35 and $32 for seniors and students. Thursday tickets are 2-for-1 (use code 2for1). For tickets and information, go to SantaCruzActorsTheatre.org.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.