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 Entertainment | July 2005 
'Bésame Mucho' A Cavalcade of Classic Love Songs
 John Maxim - The Herald Mexico
| | A lavishly produced original Mexican musical lights up the stage with some of the best boleros ever composed, with choreography by Marianela Boan. |
One of the most anticipated theatrical events this year, an original Mexican musical called "Bésame Mucho," finally arrived at the Telmex Cultural Center Theater Number 2 last week and proved to have been well worth waiting for. Based on an idea and superbly produced by Federico González Compean and co-produced by Morris Gilbert, both of the Ocesa branch of the CIE entertainment group, it's a smashingly good show that took four years to create and brings together some of the best theatrical talents in every department.
The key to living happily in a foreign country is to know the language, and if you're living in Mexico and know Spanish, good for you! It's the key to understanding and appreciating the soul of a country, which is contained mainly in its culture and particularly in its popular romantic music and the lyrics of its love songs. The equivalent in English would be a non-native speaker living in the United States understanding the love songs and lyrics of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Rogers and Hammerstein, Steven Sondheim or Cy Coleman, to name but a few of its greatest popular composers.
The Latin temperament, with its drama, passion, philosophy, humor, irony, soulfulness, sadness and other special characteristics, is in full flower in this wonderful show. "Bésame Mucho," the show's title song by the recently deceased Consuelo Velázquez, can roughly be translated as "Kiss Me a Lot." It loses something in the translation, doesn't it? What it loses is the passion and poetic feeling that has made its composer immortal and globally renowned.
Imagine, then, a two and a half hour show that contains 26 of the greatest boleros and romantic love songs by 28 of Latin America's greatest composers and lyricists, played by a live orchestra of a dozen excellent musicians, and beautifully performed and sung by more than 25 actorsingers with crystal-clear, amazing voices in the course of 36 eye-popping musical numbers strung upon a complicated storyline that covers almost 80 years in time and moves mainly between Mexico City and Havana, Cuba. Spain and Cuba are generally considered the creators of boleros, but it's mainly Mexico that perfected them and made them internationally famous and instantly recognizable.
Choosing the songs to fit into the story line wasn't an easy task, because there are dozens of others from the Golden Age of boleros that could have been used. I missed some of my favorites such as "Perfidia" and "Solamente una vez," but you can't have everything, and we should be grateful for all the songs in the show which have seldom been sung better.
The story line by director Lorena Maza, Consuelo Garrido and Victor Weinstock concerns three love stories of three generations across a panorama of times and places, mainly Cuba and Mexico, their historical backgrounds, social problems and changing customs from the 1920s to 2005. The protagonists are played by young actors double cast in two different roles and are wellplayed and neatly sung by lovely Natalia Sosa and versatile Plutarco Haza, who, along with Daniel Araujo as a comic gay friend of both, squeezes a great deal of humor from the script. Outstanding is mature Miriam Bayard, who does a brilliant job singing "Cuando vuelvo a tu lado" and "No me platiques más." Others in the attractive, talented cast include María Filippini and José Antonio López Tercero, who give fine supporting performances.
In a show of this magnitude, with a large cast of actors-singers, dancers, musicians and backstage technical credits a mile long, limitations of space make it impossible to mention so many names that deserve credit. There are well over 100. However, I must mention the gorgeous musical arrangements and original music of José María Vitier, the varied choreography by Marianela Boan, the 29 set designs by John Farell, the colorful costumes, makeup and wigs by Violeta Rojas, the lighting design by Jason Kantowitz, the sound design by Isaias Jauregui, the music supervision by Isaac Saúl and the musical direction by Victor Manuel Aguilar.
But it's the beautiful, moving, funny, unforgettable romantic love songs that are the real stars of the show. Federico González Compean knew it, and his imagination, good musical taste and hard work in making his dream-show come alive on stage paid off handsomely. The opening night audience greeted the birth of his theatrical baby and shiny gift of love with a thunderous roar of sustained cheering and applause. There hasn't been as good or grand an original Mexican musical comedy since co-producer Morris Gilbert produced "Qué Plantón!," a delightful show about ecology, 20 years ago.
If you're a non-Spanishspeaking resident or tourist, go see "Bésame Mucho" anyway, and enjoy the sheer visual spectacle of it all. Listen to the audience's regular show-stopping applause, its constant laughter at the jokes, its respectful silences during dramatic moments, and enjoy the marvelous music, singing and dancing, which transcend language barriers and catch the Latin soul. I loved it, and can't wait for the double CD original cast recording of it to come out.
UNESCO Lifetime Achievement award winning journalist John Maxim writes regularly on Mexico’s cultural scene for The Herald. |
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