The Happiest Song Plays Last

The Elliot Trilogy #3

by Quiara Alegría Hudes

At the dawn of the Arab Spring in an ancient Jordanian town, an Iraq War veteran struggles to overcome the traumas of combat by taking on an entirely new and unexpected career: an action film hero. A search for redemption, humility, and one's place in the world, this is the final installment in Hudes's The Elliot Trilogy, which began with Pulitzer Prize-finalist Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue and Water by the Spoonful. Set to the joyful sounds of traditional Puerto Rican folk music, this poignant new play will have its world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in spring 2013.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, War, Contemporary, School

112 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2013

About the author

Quiara Alegría Hudes is a writer, barrio feminist, and native of West Philly, U.S.A. Hailed for her work’s exuberance, intellectual rigor, and rich imagination, her plays and musicals have been performed around the world. They include a Pulitzer-winning drama, Water By the Spoonful, and a Tony-winning Broadway musical, In the Heights (co-authored with Lin-Manuel Miranda). Her screenplay adaptation of In the Heights opens in movie theaters nationwide this June.

Along with her cousin and a dedicated circle of volunteers, Hudes founded and runs Emancipated Stories, a collection of pages written by people who have been or remain incarcerated.

Reviews

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just saw a brilliant production of this in Ashland, but the play itself is great too. I haven't seen the first two plays in the trilogy. This is the Iraq war veteran Elliott's third story, I gather, of how the war stays with him long after, but the play is so rich with other stories too - his Puerto Rican family in Philadelphia, the people he meets working in Jordan during the Arab Spring. Really beautiful and sad.

[Jake Stillwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kudos to Hudes for fleshing out a cohesive trio of plays while turning on her stylistic heel with each new instalment; a lesser playwright would trip over the changes in tone, but her vision becomes more potent with each pivot.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: Some spoilers ahead.

Soulful and honest, Hudes’ finale to the Elliot trilogy ends on a lovely note: the notes of a cuatro played across generations.

Like the gentlest touch on a scar, Hudes eases you into this new chapter: Elliot is filming action scenes in Jordan for a docudrama film based on being a soldier in Iraq. He befriends Shar, a scrappy Mixed/Egyptian-American actress who does her own stunts, and Ali, a gentleman hired to be a consulting expert on Iraqi culture. Little does Elliot know, Ali is not Jordanian but Iraqi himself. Meanwhile, Elliot is still racked with guilt, as an American soldier who killed an unarmed civilian; a civilian from the very homeland Ali was forced to escape from. Ali soon becomes an important witness to the dilemma that binds these three instalments together; Elliot wants the passport of the man he killed returned to his bereaved family and the catharsis of an apology passed on. As someone with connections in Iraq, Ali is enlisted by Elliot in the hopes that this can help him gain this closure — but life and guilt are rarely so simple.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Yaz has set up in her Aunt’s former apartment, keeping a garden as if in tribute to her Tia Ginny from the previous play. She lives with an open door and kitchen, playing an active part in her neighbor’s lives. Far from her former life in an elegant loft, Yaz finds herself taking up the responsibility of caring for others, finding it can also lead to greater loss, and grieves as she loses a friend to a poorly maintained healthcare system in the United States.

The Happiest Song Plays last starts slowly. It has fewer of the dramatic features of the first two plays, but still maintains its stylistic foundations of multiple narratives intertwining then meeting to the end. There are the chat scenes across distance that we're familiar with (that I think would be beautiful to stage) and some truly honest moments, particularly on Elliot's side of the narrative. While it’s not as strong as the previous two mostly due to Yaz's side of the arc (I did wish Agustin and Lefty especially more established as characters), it’s an excellent piece that probably only loses out by comparison to its Pulitzer-winning sibling. I still recommend this and the entire trilogy as a set for anyone interested in realism that has compassion for humanity – raw, honest and without disingenuous platitudes — right at its center.

4.5 stars.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lacks the sharply personal focus of the first and second installments, but still provides a satisfying and appropriate conclusion to the trilogy.

[Cary S · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of a strong trilogy!

[Jack Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Happiest Song Plays Last is a satisfying end to an impactful trilogy. I don't believe you need to read/see each play in order to get the gist of Hudes's powerful emotional storytelling, but one object has a distinct presence, and the minor references will hit more for those who have. Elliot and Yazmin's journeys in this play were invigorating. They had their turbulent moments, but Hudes successfully expanded on the roles they take on at the end of Water by the Spoonful and showed more to their humanity. The side characters also added nice introspection on their pasts and the rising action. While the second act does fly by fairly quickly without tying up a few subplots, there's still plenty of heart to go around here. I'll definitely return to Hudes's work in the future.

[Yari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that I've read all three parts, I know I would not have enjoyed the actual play. Just not my thing I guess- no offense to the author. I tried it, liked some parts of it, but overall- not satisfied.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to see this performed at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. One of the most powerful performances I’ve seen, the integration of music and beautiful storytelling easily brought you into a world you wanted to know more about. Brilliant.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good but the weakest of the 3 in my opinion...

[A O · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last in a series of three plays by Hudes that will emotionally kill you. Please read. The end of act 1 is stunning. I hope to see this some day, I hope to help produce it some day.

[Erin Cleary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finishing up my marathon of finally reading the Elliott Trilogy by Quiara Alegria Hudes, after loving Water by the Spoonful for almost a decade now, I was able to complete The Happiest Song Plays Last following Elliot (the character connecting all three plays) and Yaz, Elliott's cousin who joins us in the previous installment and sticks around for the sequel. I have to say, this was my least favorite among the trilogy. As a character, Yazmin made me sad. She doesn't have a clear story arc in this play, and always feels lost and down on herself. In Water by the Spoonful, she plays a more utilitarian role in processing the plot forward for the other characters, but when the attention was on her, I just couldn't follow her thought process. Her relationship with Augustin made me uncomfortable, and those certain scenes came across as so creepy. She is someone who allows everyone in her life to speak for her/over her in this play, and it didn't match up with the confident, intelligent, and well-spoken Yazmin we get to see reading the eulogy and leading the press conference. Elliott's storyline took me a while to get into, but I was able to understand the direction Hudes' was getting at by the end, with the emotional impact of him not being able to escape the passport or his guilt. Elliott was the most insufferable in this story however. From buying favors and convincing people to make rash decisions for only his benefit, the fame clearly got to him and it wasn't fun to read. The two stories interwoven felt clunky and disconnected, like I was reading two different plays at the same time. I'm confused how this was the way chosen to wrap up this storyline, as the two previous installments held my interest much better. I personally didn't think this was the "Happiest Song", even if the characters were able to find closure, it felt like an epilogue that was pretty unnecessary. That being said the writing was incredible as always with Hudes, and the story flew by and kept my interest, but not in the way I would've hoped.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the last of the Hudes trilogy (the second play, Water by the Spoonful, won the Pulitzer and was being performed a few years back in Philadelphia.

This play still feels fresh and contemporary, with the added bonus of being set in Philadelphia, with neighborhoods appearing there. Hudes does interesting work bringing together people from radically different backgrounds--a Puerto Rican college professor and her cousin, Elliot (a vet from the Iraq War and now an actor in a movie about the Iraq War), Elliot's Iraqui-American movie co-star (and now wife) .... the play ends as the title suggests. Someone dies unjustly beforehand.

Water by the Spoonful had all of these elements but crackled with addiction, technology, and transcontinental wandering (both human and ghostly). It did the job better, I'll say, but that's like saying your pointer finger is the best on your hand.

Looking forward to reading the first of the trilogy.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best of Hudes’s Eliot trilogy, I still finished this play more disappointed than not. Similar to Water by the Spoonful, Hudes stuffs the two acts full of too many ideas and doesn’t give any of them the space to breath. Yaz’s subplot was especially stupid, which was a shame, as I found her the highlight of Water. The ending is a weird tonal change, an oddly schmaltzy attempt at closing out the three plays. Not recommended.

[Nancy Millichap · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third play in a trilogy by Quiara Alegria Hudes, who wrote the book for Lin Manuel Miranda's In the Heights. She captures not only the urban Puerto Rican vibe but also a sense of tragedy and human connection. As I've noted in connection with the two other plays in this trilogy, they (like all drama) are relatively dead on the page and spring to life when read aloud (or, obviously, when produced).

[Mallory]

A really sweet play, with some great characters who challenge each other and love music.

[Not Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Play.

6-8 characters.

[ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) Too sequel

[Madelynn Nieves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, loved the characters, a beautiful close, just didn’t want it to end.

[AJ Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play was good! A beautiful end to Elliot's story. Sobering and beautiful, and I just want all the best for Elliot🥺

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this one as much as the first two plays in the cycle, especially WATER BY THR SPOONFUL. But I liked finding out how Eliot's story turned out.

[Jordan Muschler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disappointing ending to an otherwise fantastic trilogy. That's not to say there's not interesting ideas here and that Hudes doesn't take another distinct theatrical approach to one of Elliot's stories - just that the ideas on display here pale in comparison, and that Elliot's inclusion in the story doesn't even feel quite right.