GALA set for Aguardiente: Where Magic Transcends Borders

GALA Hispanic Theatre will present the world premiere of the musical Aguardiente: Where Magic Transcends Borders, commissioned by GALA and conceived by Puerto Rican Luis Salgado and Colombian Daniel Alejandro Gutierrez. This enthralling new musical is written, directed, and choreographed by Helen Hayes multi-award winner Luis Salgado, with music and music direction by Daniel A. Gutierrez, and lyrics by both Salgado and Gutierrez. A bilingual production with surtitles in English and Spanish, the show runs April 30 through May 24, 2026, at GALA Theatre.

Blending Afro-Caribbean rhythms such as bomba, currulao, and cumbia, and Gabriel García Marquez's magical realism, Aguardiente is a bold new musical about the messy, urgent act of making art in a world on fire. As a group of artists race to finish a new show, their rehearsal room becomes a battleground of ideas, ambition, and lived experience - especially for a composer whose undocumented status makes the dream of success anything but simple.

As the team wrestles with what story they should tell, the line between reality and imagination begins to blur, until - like two currents meeting in the same river - the artists' own struggles spill into the story they are creating: a vibrant tale set in a river town on the brink of environmental collapse, where two young lovers must decide whether to stay and fight for their homeland or leave in pursuit of a dream, making Aguardiente a theatrical journey about migration, memory, and the complicated act of transforming real lives into art.

Aguardiente: Where Magic Transcends Borders runs April 30-May 24, 2026, at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St NW, Washington, DC. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00 PM and Sundays at 2:00 PM.