Some call Lalo Guerrero the King of Chicano music…or at least, the King of funny Chicano music. He's written and recorded some wonderful serious songs but a lot of us first knew him for his parodies and comedy tunes. He pressed his first record in '39 and followed it with hundreds more. I am not as schooled on his career as I'd like to be, but it seems like at one time or another, he recorded every kind of song he could think of, proving himself a master at all kinds of music. (If you'd like to learn more about him from someone who really does know about his career, try this article by his son Mark, who is following in his father's footsteps, occupation-wise.) Lalo has produced an astounding body of work and it has recently served as the basis for a new musical.
Last evening, my friend Carolyn and I attended a "workshop production" of Lalo, which was described as a work-in-progress. There are still some rough edges but it would not surprise me at all if the folks behind it can file them off, mount a full production and have themselves a genuine hit. Lalo's songs — most of them in English — are wovenly skillfully through the story of his life and the struggle to find his identity and success as a musician. A lot of that involved bridging the cultural divide between races, and a number of his early successes spun that problem to great advantage by burlesquing Mexican stereotypes.
This production was one of the first things to be staged in the new Ricardo Montalbán Theater, which is the old James Doolittle Theater in Hollywood. (And before that, it was the Huntington Hartford and before that, it was the CBS Radio Theater and so on…) It is now in the custody of a group that has renamed it for Señor Montalbán and which intends to mount theatrical productions for and by the Hispanic community. This is a much better use than the building has been put to for some time.
I have to mention something interesting about the set-up of the theater. A few years ago, there were a couple of plays like Noises Off and Footlight Frenzy that showed you backstage activities as seen from backstage. The back wall of the set in both those productions was a tableau of an audience and the actors often faced them so you were seeing their backs, as if you were on stage looking out at the seats. The current configuration at the Montalbán is that for real. They aren't using the 1100 theater-style seats in the house. The aisles have ramps that take you onto the actual stage, which is both the performing and seating area. You sit in folding chairs set on staggered risers that surround the performers on three sides. (I'm explaining this badly so try and imagine this: The actors are facing away from the fixed seats and the audience has been moved onto stage in front of them.) It's a very odd but intimate way to watch a small musical and I think it added to our enjoyment. The shows being mounted there are certainly too small for the whole, traditional stage…though I'm confident that, as the company flourishes, that will change.