Interview: Jaime Lozano & Florencia Cuenca Celebrate BROADWAY EN SPANGLISH at 54 Below

Husband and wife duo Jaime Lozano and Florencia Cuenca are back at 54 Below on September 22nd with their acclaimed project "Broadway en Spanglish" to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and the upcoming release of their anticipated album by Concord Theatricals Recordings. Featuring live accompaniment from the renowned Mariachi Real de México de Ramon Ponce, the show includes some of musical theater’s most iconic contemporary tunes with a Mexican twist. You’ll hear songs from shows such as "Hamilton," "Waitress," Disney’s "Frozen," and others, along with exciting new arrangements by Lozano. (Tickets are available on 54 Below's website.)

Lozano and Cuenca are both tremendously talented singers, and they're working to introduce Broadway musicals to an entirely new audience – and re-imagine it for current fans. Read a conversation with Lozano and Cuenca about the show.

How do you feel about your upcoming “Broadway en Spanglish” album release?

JL: We started working on this project during the pandemic as a necessity, first to stay busy and sane, but also because as immigrant artists in this industry and community sometimes it is really hard to feel welcome and accepted. That’s why we have been creating our own projects, our own musicals, and telling our stories. And in this project, we decided to put together the two things we love the most: on one side musical theatre, Broadway and storytelling, and on the other side, our culture, our music, Mexican music and mariachi. That’s why this project means a lot to us, because it really came from being ourselves doing what we love. I remember Lin-Manuel texted me very excited when he listened to our version of “Burn” - that was the first song we did for this project - and we could felt how the audience was really embracing what we were doing, so now three years later being able to release an album with this collection of songs by some of our favorite Broadway writers and having their blessing make us feel so grateful to be part of this community sharing who we are.

FC: I feel so excited that finally after more than three years of working on this project, we’ll be able to share it with more people. This project started as a necessity to create a space for us. A project where we can our full selves. We are two Mexican immigrants who love our country, genres, culture and traditions and at the same time we love musical theatre as an artform of storytelling. For me, "Broadway en Spanglish" is literally what we are. If you are curious to know who Florencia and Jaime really are, I think by listening to this album you’ll get to know us deeply. 

What was the process of recording the album like?

JL: We are so lucky to have a lot of amazing musician friends from all over the world. We recorded all the instruments in different studios in New York, Texas, California, Monterrey and Guadalajara in México. The album includes eight songs with a mariachi/Mexican folk style arrangement and two songs with a more Latin/salsa style. We chose songs that really mean something to us, that we felt connected to. That helps a lot because all the arrangements and adaptations come from the heart because we love those songs, and those songs have been part of the soundtrack of our lives. After choosing the songs, I go crazy and start exploring rhythms, styles, harmonies, changes that help me to tell those stories with our sound and point of view; this is the fun part, how to make something sound different but always respecting the original material. I do the arrangement that is creating the new structure of the songs, any reharmonization, new intros our new music sections, groove, style and then I send that to my amazing guitarist Pavel Cal, who is based in McAllen, TX, and we record the guitars that will be the map and base of our orchestration. Then we start creating all the new colors with my co-orchestrator Jesús Altamira, and we create the charts that I send to all my musicians. Some of the vocals were recorded at my home, in our bedroom, others in my studio in Monterrey, México. And after having all these different tracks, I have the most amazing co-producer and mix engineer, Demián Cantú, who is practically my ears, my extra pair of ears, and he takes care of making everything sound clear, cohesive, and interesting. 

FC: It feels like we’ve been recording this album for forever [laughs]. It wasn’t a linear process. It took us many years to finalize it. For me the highlight of recording this album is the collaboration. I’m so honored to have collaborated with so many talented musicians and how richer this project got by all their ideas and input they put into this album. 

What kind of response have you gotten, generally, to your fusion of Broadway and traditional Mexican music?

JL: We have been having a great response from a very diverse audience. There’s obviously the people who love musical theatre and know the songs and they are always very surprised by the way we approach the songs and how different but organic they sound. And there’s the other side, people who are listening for the first time to these songs with our versions, and they fall in love with these versions and when they hear the originals those are the versions that sound “different” to them [laughs], because they were introduced to those songs with these mariachi versions that they couldn’t imagine those songs originally were conceived to sound in other way. But that’s the beauty of doing this, having the chance and responsibility to make a song ours and then the audience, each listener also connecting with that song and making it theirs.

FC: I think when you do something from the heart and from honesty people get that. And for example, even people who don’t know anything about Mariachi or Latinx rhythms appreciate this project because it feels authentic. Also, for the musical theatre lovers, it is always nice to listen to their favorite songs reinvented. 

What have each of you been listening to lately?

JL: At home we are very eclectic; we listen to all kinds of music. Of course, a lot of Mexican music, artists such as Grupo Frontera, Cristian Nodal, Alejandro Fernández, Natalia Lafourcade. Also all kinds of Latin music, from pop to salsa: Camilo, Juan Luis Guerra, Marc Anthony, Luis Enrique, Jeremy Bosch… Musical theatre, our favorites: Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Some jazz, Latin jazz, funk… Of course, Jacob Collier is part of our playlists, and even listens to some Jaime Lozano.

FC: Just what Jaime said. We love all kinds of music. We share our Spotify [laughs]. And actually, we have some listening session every morning, or during lunch we sit and listen to new and old music with Alonzo, or we have some “dance parties” as we listen to some music. But being completely honest with you, there are sometimes when Jaime says: “I don’t want to hear any music today.” Hahahahahahaha. Music and storytelling are our life and what we live to do but I guess having a rest from it is also important.

What's coming up next for each of you?

FC: Our album “Broadway en Spanglish” is being released digitally on all platforms on September 27 (that’s actually our son Alonzo’s birthday) and a few days before, on September 22, we are having this celebration concert at 54 Below. We are also working on Jaime’s new album “Songs by an Immigrant Vol. 3,” to be released hopefully before the end of this year, also by Concord Theatricals Recordings. Jaime is working on three new musicals; two of them I am directing and helping with the development process: Desaparecidas -also I am a lyricist I this one with book by Georgina Escobar- we are having a workshop/reading in Chicago this October; also another show called ROJA, that Jaime is writing with Tommy Newman and we are having also a reading at Forestburgh Playhouse as part of the festival In The Works / In The Woods the first week of September.

JL:  I am so grateful to all the people, audiences and organizations who support us and believe in these Mexican immigrant artists and our stories and music. What I love the most is that I have the privilege to do this with my family, with my wife, and sharing this journey with my son and with a great support system of friends, collaborators and organizations. Oh…  we are having our last concert of the year, we will be back at Lincoln Center on December 4th, to celebrate the release and preview some of our “Songs by an Immigrant Vol. 3” album. And also, I am working on our Frida Kahlo musical, with collaborators Georgina Escobar and Neena Beber. I hope we can have some news about this and I can be able to share some of this beautiful material with you all.

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Tickets to “Broadway en Spanglish” are available on 54 Below’s website.

Learn more about Jaime Lozano including where to follow him and purchase his upcoming albums on his website.

Follow Florencia Cuenca on Instagram @FlowCuenca.

Header photo credit: Lawrence Sumulong

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