Entertainment Turns to Magic
Live entertainment is fraught with danger, which is why it’s so compelling. A dozen things can go wrong and often do, which can bring a superstar down to the level of a mere fan who is sitting in the audience, both wondering wtf happened to the microphone.
When all the elements come together, however, that’s when live entertainment Magic happens. There are individuals in the arts who conjure magic and somehow scrape together all the components of what takes a show from good to great, sets it before you onstage like a feast for all your senses, and carries you away for an hour or so to a state of unadulterated bliss.
So goes the Sam Smith Tribute at Coco Cabaret. Produced by and starring Chris Lopez, this spectacular production combines Chris’s incredible vocal range with three ”backup singers” – Nacho Granados, Eva Jimenez, and Armando Chakam, each one stars of their own shows, come together like a well-rehearsed choir, leaving their egos at home and bringing harmonious melody to perfection behind the voice of their producer and great friend Chris Lopez. Even a cappella, their voices rise as one with not so much as a breath taken out of turn.
The dancers, well-choreographed, are all over the place, bodies glistening with sweat, athletic and robust, again surrounding their producer and great friend, Chris Lopez. They ramp up the pitch during Chris’s dramatic costume changes and flow around the videos being projected, which Chris Lopez also engineers and edits to perfection.
The hours and hours of rehearsals, costume fittings, the design of the lights, and getting the sound just right require so much time and so much cooperation in a field of easily bruised egos, Chris Lopez, in his many hats, stands head and shoulders above all the rest. He gives himself entirely in every performance, with unmatched brilliance in his artistry. Wherever his fingers wander, magic occurs. I have said it before: “If a show has a Chris Lopez Production tag on it, go.” It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a clue who Sam Smith is; you will when you leave Coco Cabaret. And you’ll be a forever-Chris-Lopez-fan with Sam Smith being incidental.
Happy First Birthday to The Social Club. The Speakeasy was crammed to its venerable rafters last night with well-wishers vying for a seat and a drink in this wildly popular bar on Basilio Badillo. JT Horenstein produced the birthday party, and I think he invited every entertainer in town! Patrice and I had seats reserved at the bar, thanks to owner Bryan Stocks, so we had a bird’s eye view of the dancing, singing, and mingling of the Puerto Vallarta movers and shakers.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today. Be grateful for the abundance we have every single day and share it willingly.