Queen of salsa Celia Cruz — with her flamboyant costumes, wigs, joyful energy, and legendary voice — deserves a jukebox musical, but it turns out to be difficult to dramatize a life that wasn't plagued with depression, personal conflict, or vices. Consequently, the husband-and-wife writing team of Carmen Rivera and Candido Tirado focus on her happy marriage to her manager Pedro Knight (Modesto Lac茅n) as he narrates it to his nurse (Pedro Cap贸) in his final infirm years after Cruz's death. By framing the story through Knight's remembrances, however, much of Cruz's own significance is lost, and the story becomes a sentimental, nostalgic journey through the decades of their life together — with a danceable soundtrack. The script was written in Spanish and is being performed in both Spanish and English (this review is of a Spanish-language performance). Of course, the songs are always in Spanish, but it will be interesting to see how the colloquial phrases come across to a non-Spanish-speaking crowd.
The singer Xiomara Laugart is credited with playing Cruz, but in fact she's only given the task of belting out the hits. Her voice is outstanding — close your eyes and you'll think you're hearing the real thing — but she's a bit too gorgeous for the role and has been nixed from any acting responsibilities: In effect, she's "Singing Celia." It's Selenis Leyva who does a wonderful job breathing life into sappy lines. Although she's credited solely as Woman in the program, she's really "Acting Celia." The production was originally intended to open nearly a month ago, and Leyva's addition seems to be a fix of sorts, so it's no wonder that the transitions remain clunky and confused. Take, for example, "Cumbachero," one of the first numbers. Celia's aunt (a hilarious Sunilda Caraballo) loosens her up to sing on the radio, but before the youthful Leyva can hum a note she steps off stage, and middle-aged Laugart takes her place to sing at the microphone, dressed in the same costume but wearing a brassy bobbed wig. When the number's finished, Laugart leaves and Leyva returns to speak her lines. Initially, it seems that Leyva has been cast to represent a young, preshowbiz Celia, and the idea could potentially work — an innocent, offstage persona vs. Celia the star — but it becomes apparent that isn't the intention. Ultimately, the dueling Celias fracture the piece, making any semblance of verisimilitude impossible.
The banter between Knight and his young Nuyorican nurse is meant to be light and humorous but turns annoying fast, perpetuating cultural stereotypes when in fact it would be best to focus on Celia, a talented woman who defiantly made her way in a music world dominated by men. Instead of exploiting her personal drama — news that Batista flees Cuba, an early confrontation with Fidel Castro, her exile from Cuba, and the heartache it caused — we get a soap-opera love story. Celia's magnetism intermittently comes through the songs, but we're left knowing little more about the woman behind the stage persona than we did going in.
Presented by Henry Cardenas and David Maldonado
at New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St., NYC.
Opened Sept. 30 for open run. In Spanish: Tue.-Fri., 8 p.m., Sat., 9 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; in English: Sat., 5 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.
(212) 239-6200 (English) or (212) 239-6240 (Spanish) or (800) 432-7250 or www.telecharge.com.
Casting by Orpheus Group Casting, Ellyn Long Marshall and Maria E. Nelson.