"The House of Bernarda Alba", Federico Garcia Lorca’s final play, on which this new musical, BERNARDA ALBA, was based, was written in 1936, the same year in which the illustrious Spanish poet and playwright was executed by General Francisco Franco’s militia soon after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Lorca became a symbol for the thousands of martyred Spaniards who fell victim to Fascist tyranny. For many years Franco’s government attempted to eradicate the memory of Lorca—his books were prohibited, a ban that was not officially rescinded until 1971. Given the subsequent circumstances of Lorca's tragic end, it is difficult not see his play as both a tale of a controlling woman in a man’s world, and as a political allegory.

The title character in the musical, played by Phylicia Rashad, proclaims that she and her household—her five grown daughters, her mother, her servants—will observe a long period of mourning, following the funeral of her second husband. "Not a breath of outside air is going to enter this house," Bernarda declares. "It's going to feel like we've bricked up the doors and windows."

The outside world of their village, however, seeps in. Despite Bernarda’s tyrannical measures the daughters’ desires collide with their mother’s iron rule.

Composer/Lyricist Michael John LaChiusa (MARIE CHRISTINE, HELLO AGAIN) brought the world premiere of BERNARDA ALBA to the Newhouse, an ideally intimate setting for the piece. Graciela Daniele (DESSA ROSE, CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD, MARIE CHRISTINE, HELLO AGAIN) directed and choreographed.

Simply set on an almost bare stage to music inspired by the rhythms of flamenco, BERNARDA ALBA tells a story of longing, despair and desire.