THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS AIRDATE: May 06, 2005
Luis Valdez saunters back onstage after a two-decade hiatus.
It’s Valdez Redux in “Corridos Remix, A Musical Fusion of Ballads Beyond
Borders” at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. The music is a multicultural mix
of folksong narratives. But the story is pure Valdez. A patriarch is trying to
preserve his cultural history -- and keep it in the family. Offstage, the
legendary Father of Chicano Theater, founder of the groundbreaking El Teatro
Campesino, is passing the dramatic baton to his children, all of whom are in
the family business. Kinan Valdez collaborated with his father in this remake
of the original “Corridos” that won a Peabody Award when it aired on PBS in
1987.
Now, he’s directing his father, who stars in the updated,
funkified new show that’s a delicious mix of Valdez Senior’s ‘60s mentality and
his son’s 21st century sensibilities. Luis plays a stuffy, academic
ethnomusicologist, who’s collected a literal trunkload of international corridos, dramatic stories typically
related in song, dance, action and often, comedy, usually referring to actual
historical events, and told from the perspective of the lower class or
underdog. El Maestro, the teacher/master, is trying to pass the heritage on to
his new-found and reluctant granddaughter, a hip, “transnational troubadour”
who looks to the future, not the past. They’re connected in their pain, though,
and their search for the long-lost junkie punk rocker, Eddie Gallo, her father,
his son. Mostly, they bond musically, retelling old Mexican tales and this morning’s
narcocorridos, sharing stories from
Asia, Africa and Latin America. The music ranges from Dylan to Woody Guthrie,
the Beatles to Rage Against the Machine. Mostly, the mix works. At all times,
the passion is palpable, as is the tragedy and universality of the immigrant
experience.
Kinan’s direction is terrific, energetic and inventive,
abetted by Javier Velasco’s imaginative choreography. The killer 4-piece band,
under the direction of keyboardist Fred Lanuza, sounds like a huge ensemble,
with 13 instruments adding spice to the mix. And the chameleon cast is
outstanding, with Luis Valdez a quietly charismatic presence, counterbalanced
by the amazing Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, a multi-talented, triple-threat knockout
who sings, acts, dances and plays fiddle and slidewhistle, all the while
lighting up the stage with her sexy, electric presence.
The narrative thread is a bit tenuous, and breaking the
fourth wall doesn’t always work. Some songs don’t really mesh, and the FaMuLan
sequence seems misplaced and over-extended. But quibbles aside, the show is
irresistible. You’ll be clapping along, and maybe, if the Valdez family has its
way, your consciousness will be raised along with your spirits.
©2005 Patté Productions Inc.