Stephanie Trudeau Brings 'Becoming Chavela' to Don't Tell Mama in March

Actor/cabaret singer Stephanie Trudeau will return to Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, on March 3 at 7:00 PM in the updated version of her docu-cabaret musical, "Becoming Chavela."

Written and performed by Ms. Trudeau, the piece is more than just a musical cabaret based on the songs of legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. It is also a documentary theater project that traces the famed ranchera singer's artistic evolution and her relationships with her musical mentor Jose Alfredo Jimenez (the world's greatest composer of ranchera songs), the painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, the great Cuban courtesan Macorina, and producer Pedro Almodovar, who enabled the singer's comeback at age 72 after a 15 year battle with alcoholism. Trudeau is accompanied by Ben Lapidus on guitar and percussion. Director is Tanya Moberly.

This performance was originally scheduled for December 30, 2012 but was postponed due to Omicron. Ms. Trudeau will travel to the West Coast to perform the piece March 13, 2022 at Arthur Newman Theatre, The Joslyn Center, 73-750 Catalina Way, Palm Dsesert, CA. Info: https://joslyncenter.org/les-michaels/, 760-340-3220.

The show won a 2020 Bistro Award for Outstanding Achievement: Tribute Show. This season a newly revised edition, which took stage at Don't Tell Mama November 22, prompted Andrew Poretz (Theater Pizzazz) to deem it "a modest winner that has the potential to be a much bigger show." He added, "Trudeau has a wealth of source material that deserves to be seen, and it will be a pleasure to hear Stephanie Trudeau sing again, in any language."

"Becoming Chavela" not only dramatizes the singer's life, but also examines the culture of Latin America's "golden age" from the 1930's through the 1960's. The narration and enactment of the singer's life story is in English, but Vargas' ranchera songs and Latin American pop hits are sung in Spanish with some translated lyrics. The piece is illustrated in multimedia containing historical images of the principal characters, the art world and social milieu of mid-century Mexico City when it was the cultural capital of Latin America.

Stephanie Trudeau has been an actress and singer for over 40 years, performing in NYC cabaret, Off-Broadway and regional theater. She had been developing a program of songs written by women, notably Spanish songs her Puerto Rican mother loved. These included songs by Maria Grever, Maria Teresa Lara, Maria Teresa Vera and Consuelo Velazquez. Discovering Chavela Vargas , she decided to refocus the project into a program focused exclusively on this artist. "Becoming Chavela" emerged as part bioplay and part homage--a cabaret show enriched with biographical narrative and enactment, Mexican songs and illustrated with multimedia. Ms. Trudeau says, "I'm Puerto Rican, but I feel this Mexican singer in my bones." She adds, "What I love about her music is its primal power. It's heart-breaking. This music has 'tripas'--tripe, guts." Trudeau explains she was also intrigued because Chavela's life story evokes so many of today's hot topics: gender issues, gay rights, immigration and Mexican culture.

Initially, the show was partly developed under the eye of director Deborah Wright Houston, who is best known for her work as Artistic Director of the critically-acclaimed Kings County Shakespeare Company (1983-2010). The show debuted at Pangea in 2017, where it was invited back for a return engagement. It has subsequently evolved through engagements at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles in 2019 and at Don't Tell Mama in 2019 and 2021, where it was directed by Tanya Moberly.

To post a comment, you must register and login.