Isla

The Lowdown

One family. Two countries. A whole lot of water in between. Isla is a new musical that traces one family's journey from Cuba to Miami — the leaving, the crossing, the building of a life on the other side — told through a Latin jazz score, film projections, recorded interviews, and a cast of handmade shadow puppets that turn memory into something you can watch move.

It's an unusual, handmade kind of show, and that's the point: the puppetry and projection let Isla hold both the sweep of a migration story and the small, specific details that make it a real family's, not a headline. WP Theater on the Upper West Side — 199 seats, a company with a long history of backing new work — is a fitting home for it.

Come for the score, stay for the shadows. Bring the person in your life who still talks about where their family came from. This is a story about carrying home with you, and it's playing for three weeks only.