Seattleplays.com review By Tom Scanlon

Anna in the Tropics Seattle Repertory Theater closes Oct. 30

This is a terrific production, charming, funny, sexy, moving . . . Though ultimately it's a bit unfulfilling, cheapened by a melodramatic climax, this Anna in the Tropics remains a hearty, up-lifting experience.      Sharon Ott, who rattled the Seattle theater world by announcing her pending resignation after six years at the Seattle Rep artistic director, steers this Nilo Cruz play with an easy, skilled hand. She is someone who fully understands every corner and crack of the material. Cruz's fable-ish story takes place in a cigar factory, where the Cuban-American workers are elevated from their mundane worker by a "lector," who reads to them Anna Karenina.

Paolo Andino is Palomo, Bryant Mason is Juan Julian and Romi Dias is Conchita.

Literature's impact has rarely been so insightfully illustrated, as the novel not only entertains the cigar makers, it begins to bleed into their lives. This notion might have been explored more extensively and even more creatively, but Cruz takes an easy-exit, with an unimaginative act of violence.      Led by Romi Dias, who gives a stunning, complex performance as a woman exploring her sexuality and freedom, the acting by a New York-heavy cast is impeccable, with strong comic and character work across the board. Hugh Landwehr's remarkable, multi-functional set immediately creates a mini-universe, and Ott and company fill it with artful storytelling.