Review: Marga Gomez Honors Her Music Icon Father in LATIN STANDARDS

"Are you ready for autobiographical solo performance!?!" Marga Gomez would enthusiastically ask the crowd to commence performances of her recently concluded run at The Public Theater's 2017 Under The Radar Festival.

"I'm a Cuban, Puerto Rican, lesbian stand-up comic," she explained. "But I'm not into labels."

In her 30+ years on stage, Gomez has worked her share of Comedy Clubs, cabarets, performance art spaces and even Off-Broadway theatres, earning Drama Desk and New York Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for her 2006 solo show LOS BIG NAMES.

So when she takes the stage at the Public's Martinson Hall for her newest, LATIN STANDARDS, she's not above using her status as a theatre artist as a safety net if a joke doesn't quite go over.

"Not funny? Cause it's a concert!"

Fortunately that excuse was rarely needed, especially with her opening material that covered current events like Mike Pence's recent Broadway excursion and the fate of Mexican-Americans after January 20th.

But the crux of the matter, and the subject that gave the evening's title its double meaning, was her relationship with her father, who became a Latin music icon using the stage name Willy Chevalier.

A handsome man with a flashy wardrobe to match his personality, Chevalier was especially beloved by New York's working class Latin Americans as a singer/songwriter who ruled nightclubs during the 1950s and 60s with his Latino variety shows.

Her mother, who she didn't mention by name, by every standard fit the definition of blonde bombshell. Their marriage was short, and one of several for both of them.

Being a woman of words, Gomez found that her favorite part of watching concerts and cabarets wasn't the songs, but the spoken patter that came between them. So in honoring Chevalier's hits like "De Mi Para Ti" and "En Ultimo Escalon" she would talk about their history and allow projections of her father and brief audio selections do the rest.

These moments were balanced with stories of her own career, focusing on her days as host of her own Latino drag variety show at San Francisco's Esta Noche. The decline of her generation's nightclub scene parallels with that of her father's. Always a workaholic who flourished in the spotlight, when times were tight he wasn't above taking a job endorsing the brand of coffee he despised.

As a simple memory piece, LATIN STANDARDS is certainly sweet and enjoyable, and Gomez, under David Schweizer's direction, is an engaging and energetic performer. Though she kept insisting that this would be the final performance of her career, don't you believe it. Mr. Chevalier's daughter flourishes in the spotlight as well.

To post a comment, you must register and login.