SpeakEasy Stage, Boston, MA. *** out of 5. The tropical setting concocted by set designer Erik D. Diaz and lighting designer Amanda E. Fallon is so seductively wrought, I found myself wishing that SpeakEasy was putting on Alexis Scheer’s sentimental comedy Laughs in Spanish in the dead of a Boston winter: all the Miami heat you could ask for, with none of the humidity. That heat is reflected in the perfomances director Mariela López-Ponce elicits from a superlative cast, enacting an over-the-top but always human tale of Mari (Rebekah Rae Robles), an ambitious young art gallery director, and her mother Estella (Paola Ferrer), a movie star in the Rita Moreno vein who drops into Mari’s Florida life from time to time to cause a little chaos. On this particular day, the gallery is to host a major artist’s retrospective, except all the paintings have mysteriously disappeared, leaving Mari to take a chance on the work of her assistant Caro (Luz Lopez), an MFA art student. Ach, as I write this synopsis I’m thinking – it’s not the plot that matters at all here, it’s the warmth and the comic timing, and both are present in abundance. Robles’s energy could use some modulation — she’s too often one-note annoyed — but the rest of the company is suavely assured, with particularly strong support from Daniel Rios, Jr. as a goofy cop with a personal investment in the investigation. What I will take away most from the evening is Estella’s performance piece at the gallery opening, funny and poignant by turns. The play needs you to believe that Ferrer is a star, and by golly we do. Runs through Oct. 12; speakeasystage.com. (Cast photo by Nile Scott Studios.)