All In Good Fun: A Review of “Aztec Human Sacrifice: A Musical about Love, Death, and the End of the World” at City Lit

Juan Velazquez, Madelynn Oztas, Melbin Borrero III, Sarah Silva-James, Luis Del Valle, Peter Kattner III, Haven Sydney Denson and Nick Arceo in City Lit Theater’s “Aztec Human Sacrifice”/Photo: Steve Graue

On Mother’s Day this year, I had been thinking of the sacrifices my mother made. After our family brunch, I went to the press opening for City Lit’s premiere of “Aztec Human Sacrifice,” its original musical directed by Jay Españo, in which parental sacrifice also figures large. But in this case it’s the kind of sacrifice that comes with an altar, a knife and a dad who means to cut out his son’s heart and offer it to the Aztec Sun God.

But it’s all in good fun.

Luis Del Valle and Freddy Mauricio in “Aztec Human Sacrifice”/Photo: Steve Graue

At first, the son tries to reason with his priestly father and then with the Aztec emperor. The show doesn’t lean much on actual history except for the fact that Aztecs did believe that human sacrifice and the offering up of organs and blood was part of their contract with the god Huitzilopochtli in order to insure that the sun rose every morning. The son’s main argument is a running gag in the show: he says he doubts the standard belief that the sun will only rise if the kingdom performs its daily sacrifice. The son is doomed anyway, so he proposes a test: skipping the disembowelment on the night his own is slated. The test costs him nothing and may save his life. The priestly rulers dare not risk angering Huitzilopochtli, and reject the son’s argument. The son runs off into the desert to save his skin. Along the way he picks up his love interest, the Aztec princess, and off they go. The plot was crafted by the show’s creators and frequent collaborators, Philip LaZebnik and Kingsley Day. LaZebnik is a veteran of writing teams for animated features, including “Mulan,” “Pocahontas” and “Road to El Dorado,” all of which delved lightly into long ago and far away. “Aztec”’s plot is thin, but as human sacrifice musicals go, it’s inoffensive. It even has some heart.

And yet, “Aztec” might appeal most to theatergoers who don’t mind suffering low production values, passable singing, poorly articulated lyrics, amateurish sets, slapdash makeup, a grandma’s closet worth of costumes and a half-baked book in order to see something that is Monty Python-wacky. “Aztec” is full of wonderfully silly dancing that with a little more money for costumes might make for a good exotic floor show in a 1930s nightclub. Despite, or perhaps as a result of, the show’s many economies, it is kind of magically retro-goofy. By the time the tights-wearing zombie-like spirits of former sacrificial victims fill the stage in their hastily painted masks and sing and dance to “We Gave Our Lives,” the bargain-basement lunacy has grown endearing.

Marcela Ossa Gómez and Freddy Mauricio in City Lit Theater’s “Aztec Human Sacrifice”/Photo: Steve Graue

One element of the show that is unequivocally enchanting is the sophisticated and haunting score by Kingsley Day. Day is an accomplished composer. In addition to composing many original stageworks, he has long been the star of Gilbert and Sullivan patter-song roles at The Savoyaires. His “Aztec” score is in the supremely capable hands of the conductor Annie Liu, also magnificently on keyboards. The pit is completed by Lior Shragg on a big percussion rig that employs metal kitchen bowls to great effect and Priya Fink on flute and piccolo.

“Aztec Human Sacrifice: A Musical about Love, Death, and the End of the World” at City Lit Theater, 1020 West Bryn Mawr (second floor of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church), (773)293-3682, citylit.org. Through June 18.