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Zorro the Musical: Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts

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Today’s show is Zorro, playing at the Charing Cross Theatre (under the arches) until May 28.

Zorro the Musical, has a lot going for it: some great musical numbers, a few powerful scenes, an energy and excitement that runs through the theatre and audience. So, the experience as a whole is not bad; this is the rare experience where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts — and the parts could so easily be improved. But they do need to be. The show needs a good editing rinse-through, possibly with the services of a dramaturg (as always, I volunteer as tribute). Overall, it’s entertaining, and the audience has a blast, but the story does not pass the smell test, and all aspects could benefit from some more work.

The familiar story of Zorro (which I kind of didn’t know; I actually didn’t see the CZJ movie even though I grew up with the poster in my basement) starts with an important man in a Los Angeles pueblo sometime in the 1800s sending his young son Diego to Spain to get an education (opposite expected direction) so he will learn to take over command or kingship or whatever kind of leader he is. The older son Ramon is pisssssed because who has ever heard of bloodline succession that doesn’t go to the eldest male? Ramon calls bullshit! Come on Ramon, take off your shirt and tell us more! Diego goes to Spain, falls in with a group of gypsies, and has a gay old time drinking and dancing and performing and above all having a lottttt of hhhhhrrromantic times. (That’s my Spanish accent in print.) Meanwhile, Ramon takes over control of the pueblo after all because TURNS OUT, if the only person who can stop you is send to another continent, you can apparently fork up your dad and then take shit over willy nilly.

Interrupting Diego’s Spanish funtimes is Luisa, his childhood friend who we saw as a wee puppet and honestly I assumed was the boys’ sister until it came out that adult Luisa was in love with Diego even though she only knew him as a child. She boated over to Spain to drag his ass back to California to stop his brother’s authoritarian rule, because no one else had the courage to do so, which actually is highly believable. Diego goes with her but so does his entire gypsy gang! Alright sure! What fun! The portrayal of the gypsies feeeeels problematic, as does the whole ‘this rich Californian made us gypsies who we are, he’s our savior!’ feel, but I guess I don’t know enough to say more.

Here’s where we start needing more to the story. We see the three baby puppets play together for like, 10 seconds. We need more of this origin story for anything that follows to hold up. Nothing is established to make it clear that a) Luisa is in love with Diego and is not in fact his little sister, b) Diego cares about the pueblo enough to forge a lifelong connection to the land despite his words, and mostly c) Ramon is a psychopathic villain who doesn’t feel like his father loves him, even though the father seems fine and is as nice as someone can be while saying ‘I just don’t think you’re the right person to rule this land’, which is fair. It’s hard to believe that this kid would become pure evil just because his father says he’d be perfect for a DIFFERENT enormously powerful position.

As for b), Diego initially has no desire to return to Los Angeles with Luisa. He’s happy as can be partying and living freely with his friends in Spain. I mean yeah, IT SOUNDS GREAT. So then what changes for him to suddenly feel a connection to the pueblo, a responsibility to save it, and the courage to go full Pimpernel as the masked savior El Zorro? SHORE IT UP FOR ME, BABIES.

As for a), I need the character of Luisa to be developed…at all. She is a complete Cosette, where we are told that she’s so great and brave and amazing but we never see her do literally anything to merit her reputation. Show us, please, I’m begging. Why should we care about her, or want her to end up with our hero, when the Eponine of the show (the gypsy Inez) is the coolest fucking person for MILES? It’s also not clear (or understandable) why Diego and Inez who were happy little FBs in Spain are instantly no longer a couple as soon as their feet touch American soil, all ‘what happens in Spain stays in Spain’, when they seemed to have a pretty good thing going and, like I said, she’s the coolest person around.

Musically, I would love for the differences between Luisa and Inez to be highlighted just as they were for Cosette and Eponine, meaning Luisa should be changed from a belting role to a soprano. With both of the female leads belting (or trying to belt) pretty much 100% of the time, it’s too much of the same sound and it doesn’t help to differentiate them. Also, belting should be used sparingly and not as a sub for character definition.

The story is buoyed with well-fitting Spanish-style music from the Gipsy Kings, who give some of their most famous songs to the show….is this a jukebox musical? I think some of the songs are (must be) written for this, so it’s like a half juke, weird! I recognized several songs from, of all things, the ‘Bedazzled’ soundtrack (amazing movie btw). The highlights by far include the big cantina number led by Inez, ‘Bamboleo’, so fun, and the quintet of Spanish women wailing in the beginning which I just forking loved. The individual numbers don’t achieve as much and could use another pass.

The second act is a little slower and has a bunch ready to be cut. But it includes the most powerful dramatic scene of the show and the best book scene — the cave scene when the truth about the father is revealed, which is done masterfully as it builds to a climax as the energy and drama build and build and thennnnnnnnnn all forward momentum comes screeching to a halt for a random ten minute+ scene out of Stomp with the chorus doing meh choreo and losing all dramatic motion in the plot. It was nigh infuriating to finally have the book achieve its potential, all for what it established to dissipate for no good reason. Le sigh!

While we are talking about Act II book improvements, I think it’s a cop-out for Ramon to pull a Jud Fry. Someone just do a murder, it’s justified.

It’s also hard to believe that Ramon would NEVER notice that his brother is only not right at his side when the mysterious Zorro appears. I think it would be SO funny if they treated that humorously. Would def lighten the mood and help the show settle on the right tone between lighthearted romp or serious drama.

The highlights of the show include Marc Pickering (always great and hilarious) as Sergeant Garcia, our comic relief, and Phoebe Panaretos as Inez. We saw Diego’s understudy (I believe Maxwell Griffin), who did a fine job and it was lovely to see how much the cast supported him. A highlight that wasn’t meant to be was hearing all these white British people attempt Spanish accents (grathias for that). With more work on character development, making the book make more sense (and cutting prob 15-20 mins), improving some of the songs, and figuring out the buttons (no one knew when to clap), this could be a great show.

INFORMATION

Mask total: 14

Best seat in the house: M1, mine, the aisle in the second row (it’s a traverse stage) right by the exit.

It gets HOT in this place, they really need better ventilation and not just because of the mask count.

Start time: 19:30 (19:35ish as usual)

Act I ended: 20:44 (long!)

Act II ended: 22:12

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