“ONE OF THE GOOD ONES” AT OLD GLOBE HAS AN IDENTITY CRISIS.

 In the 1967 controversial movie, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, starring Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Katherine Houghton, the plot revolves around a white woman bringing a Black man to dinner.  

It was at the height of the Civil Rights movement. MLK was assassinated a few months after that and  the family is thrown off balance. 

Benito Martinez, Angelique Cabral, Cree, Nico Greetham

But  in 2025 when  the Gomez Family, in Gloria Calderó Kellett’s eighty + minute sitcom, “One Of The Good Ones” now playing at The Globe Theatre through June 22nd.    discover that their recent college graduate daughter Yoli (Cree) has invited her special boyfriend, Marcos (Nico Greetham) for dinner, they all assume that he is Mexican because of his name. 

The Gomez Family has an identity problem, and I must say, one of their own making. It seems Mom, Ilana (Angelique Cabral) is of Puerto Rican and Latin-American heritage but doesn’t speak Spanish. Enrique is Cuban and he and Yoli, who studied Spanish in school,  speak it together all the time, much to Ilana’s chagrin. 

Nico Greetham, Benito Martinez, Angelique Cabral, Cree

When Marcos comes calling with a bottle of wine and a colorful piñata, the family is aghast to see that his skin color is white; and we are off and running! 

He has much splanin’ to do about how his parents are white but he was born in Mexico  and speaks fluent Spanish. And the battle of who is what and what  is what continues until Yoli tells her parents that she and Marcos are secretly married…and more. 

Nico Greetham, Cree, Benito Martinez and Angelique Cabral

Now the focus is on respect and the generational gap of how this generation has no respect for their elders as they did in Enrique’s day. Ilana, on the other hand, is thrilled for her daughter; wants to know everything about the relationship between the two young’uns, things even tho' Marcos doesn’t know the half of it. 

Here’s where the piñata comes in where everyone gets to vent their anger and frustrations out on the paper mache puppet filled with candy. Everyone has a go at it until it’s in shambles, causing uproarious laughter. 

Cree, Nico Greetham, Benito Martinez and Angelique Cabral

Kollett knows how to write a sitcom coming from a sitcom background and director Kimberly Senior surely has the knowhow to stretch out the laugh lines even though beneath the surface serious issues like  assimilation and privilege wait to come to forefront, but never do.  

Overall the cast works hard to make this sitcom work. Of the cast Beto Martinez stands out as the the most consistently funny and on target, Angelique Cabral shows signs of softness and understanding of her young daughter but Cree and Nico are all over the place. 

Takeshi Kata’s set, an upscale Pasadena Gomez residence makes a stunning background, with Sarita Fellows costumes, Jaymi Lee Smith’s lighting and Andrea Allmond and Jeff Gardner’s sound design complete the picture of this LOL comedy where the laughs come fast and furious making it almost impossible to hear half of the dialogue. 

And as for ‘the good ones, it's anyone's guess. 

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre. 

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through June 22

Where: Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park

Tickets: $29 and up

Photo: Rich Soublet II

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe