Chris Lopez in Top Form
It fits that the end of the season should be as crazy as this past season was. So busy in fact, it will take this coming week to cover just the weekend, from the fabulous house party at the Millers to Miss Conception’s first Vallarta Pride performance in her 25 years in the biz. From the second annual Art Auction – greatly expanded, I might add, to Kevin Anthony’s monthly concert at Nacho Daddy with a big surprise for Georgia Darehshori in the middle of it to the ultimate Sam Smith Tribute at Coco Cabaret.
So, beginning at the end, with Chris Lopez’s stunning final performance as Sam Smith last night. I was at the premiere of this blockbuster show and couldn’t wait for my sister Patrice to see it about mid-way through its run, and last night was the culmination of everyone’s hard work that equaled a flawless (except for one small thing in a sec) performance.
Chris’s voice was in top form, diving into deep bass to soaring falsetto in runs that gave me chills with their precision. Background vocals by Nacho Granados, Eva Jimenez, and Armando Chakham – each one a brilliant solo artist – together became the choir that backed their friend, Chris Lopez.
Everything about this tribute show is just a bit better than everything else in the city – the dancers – again, each one a soloist – melded into a tightly-choreographed team of movement. Costumes? Ay, ay, ay! Sequins to hoop skirts; business suit to faux fur, a captain’s hat to Norse god horns and those were just Chris’s changes!
Sound and light could not have been tighter, nor the audience more rapt. Likely half the audience were repeat Sam Smith/Chris Lopez fans; my seatmate Matt Karimi’s third time, mine, too.
About halfway through the show, Chris began singing “Lay Me Down” a cappella. You could have heard a pin drop, and the dancers’ voices babbling backstage. Chris parted the curtains and, with a big smile towards us, uttered a stern “SHHHT” and a few words pleading for quiet. It worked, and Chris carried on, perfectly on cue, in tune, and finished one of Sam Smith’s most beautiful ballads.
At the start and end of every song, I would think, Ohhhh, that one’s my favorite—every song. The funny thing is I had never heard of Sam Smith until Mark Rome, Entertainment Director of the Palm and Coco Cabarets, mentioned a couple of years ago, that Chris was going to do a tribute show. That gorgeous production has morphed and expanded into Las Vegas quality, super-headliner territory. I recognize a Sam Smith song almost instantly now, thanks to Chris’s outstanding delivery and phrasing. He has Smith’s vocal power and fragility in the lyrics. Standing defiantly for one minute and with the flick of an eyelash, he is as vulnerable as they come. The acting is as superb as the singing.
As a vocalist, actor, filmmaker, dancer, producer, and director, Chris Lopez from Argentina has put his gold standard on Vallarta’s art scene and has elevated it to levels unforeseen until now. If a show has “Chris Lopez Productions” somewhere on the billing – go. You will be thrilled.