Pregones/PRTT Presents “Parrots at the Pagoda,” Musical Theatre About Johnny Rodríguez’ “El Cotorrito” Night Club

Pregones/PRTT is two Puerto Rican community theaters together as one. It’s a theatre community!

Rosalba Rolón’s Pregones Theater is in Concourse, The Bronx. Miriam Colón’s Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) is in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.

Pregones/PRTT is one of New York’s homes for spoken word. It also produces classical music and Asian artists. We are all getting together. ¡WEPA!

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“Parrots at the Pagoda,” world premiere musical theater by Jorge B. Merced, tells the story of Johnny Rodríguez, a popular Puerto Rican singer, female impersonator, and owner of El Cotorrito (the little parrot), a famous drag club in 1960s Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was also the older brother of Tito Rodríguez, the legendary bolero singer. It’s produced by Pregones PRTT at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan; Thursday-Sunday, from May 1-25, 2025. From $27. Get tickets at pregonesprtt.org 🇵🇷 🏳️‍🌈

Johnny Rodríguez (1912-1997) was a true entertainment pioneer in both Puerto Rico and New York City. He was Cuban Puerto Rican, born in Camuy, Puerto Rico (near Arecibo), and raised in Barrio Obrero, San Juan where a lot of great musicians still come from. After singing in school, he got onto Puerto Rican radio which led to local fame and work with several popular orchestras. In 1930s New York City, when Americans were just beginning to become aware of Latin music with the worldwide hit recording of “El Manisero,” Johnny recorded for RCA Records and gained fame in New York’s Latin nightclubs. There were a lot more then. Back in Puerto Rico in the 1940s, he was one of the first Puerto Rican musicians to work for CBS. He played his biggest hit “Fichas Negras” all over Latin America and New York.

Settling down in Puerto Rico in the late 1950s, Johnny opened the cabaret drag club “El Cotorrito,” in 1967 when being openly gay just wasn’t allowed. He got away with it by doing favors for politicians. The club became a popular hangout for the Puerto Rican elite. There are still gay clubs on that stretch of Avenida Juan Ponce de León in Santurce, San Juan. It used to be Puerto Rico’s Broadway with many theaters and a vibrant nightlife. It’s interesting to note that some of drag queen style derives from Carnival esthetics.

Editor Iroko Kíkokí ~ On a side note, I didn’t know that the Rodríguez family was Cuban Puerto Rican. The Palladium Ballroom Big Three orchestras were led by Machito (Cuban), Tito Puente (Nuyorican with a Cuban sound), and Tito Rodríguez (Cuban Puerto Rican with a Cuban sound). Their work evolved into Latin jazz, mambo, and eventually salsa, Cuban dance music with Puerto Rican flavor. Cuba and Puerto Rico really are as two wings of the same bird (Lola Rodríguez de Tio, 1893).

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