Coco Cabaret’s Musical Dreams
Musical Dreams is the accumulation of months and months of work by students of Sebastian Coronel and Chris Lopez. About 35 students began the program in June, following the last show of the season at Coco Cabaret. Classes took place twice a week for two hours and stretched over four months. I popped into one class, as the students were learning the moves, lyrics, and dreaming of their spotlight on stage for the Footloose segment of Musical Dreams. The title song played over and over (and freaking over…) until everyone had a shot at singing and performing the steps.
Some students had danced but never sang in public (for good reason); the singers who had never danced learned how. It was a long, patience-filled summer.
The results are fantastic! Musical Dreams is fun, certainly worth seeing, and a great way to cheer on your faves. There were a couple of stand-out students, and it will be interesting to see where and when they pop up on another stage on the road to stardom. Musical Dreams has one more show this coming Friday at 9 pm at Coco Cabaret.
The Day of the Dead is a complex tradition blending pagan and Catholic rituals celebrated by all Latino cultures, but nobody does it bigger, better, and with more gusto than Mexicans.
A simply superb homage to this mystical day, November 02, can be seen at Coco Cabaret every Saturday at 5 pm, continuing through November. Produced by Alejandro Barron Ortiz and Sebastian Coronel (who also stars), ”Dia de Muertos” is hosted by Roy Cruz, alternating with Nacho Granados, and the lovely if unrecognizable Ale Matus! The costumes are elaborate, the hair and makeup (that must have taken an entire team of face painters hours!) are absolutely outstanding, and the voices… straight from heaven.
Death and tears go hand in hand, so bring some Kleenex to dry your eyes watching BOYS ON FIRE superstar Angel fall in love, then experience his tragic loss when she dies in his arms. Her return for one day is joyful, and her spirit lives on in the carefully tended flame of Angel’s candle.
Ale Matus sings La Llorona (The Weeping Woman), the epic tale of a woman driven mad by her husband’s infidelity that results in her drowning her three children. Remorseful and damned, she haunts rivers searching to no avail to recover her family and terrifying everyone who hears her lament or sees her ghost.
The history of this pre-Hispanic day is told by the cast in two languages in filmed vignettes, and even Mexican folk art, brightly colored alebrijes, spring to life and cavort overhead in Cirque du Soleil-worthy visuals.
There truly is magic afoot in this breathtaking depiction of Mexico, beautifully presenting itself to the world. Run and get tickets to this show; bring your kids and your grandparents. Mexican or foreigner, I guarantee you will learn something new and will leave Coco Cabaret with a hope-infused heart.