In the past year in the Metroplex, musical biographies have immortalized Al Jolson, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly and Dinah Washington. The problem is that these musical bios typically take a "and-then-this-happened" approach, loosely stringing together the artist's greatest hits with bits of dialogue in a straightforward chronology. The result is usually less than the sum of its subject.
Now it's Selena's turn -- and the creators of her stage biography, opening this week in Dallas, are taking a slightly different approach, combining elements of a revue with those of traditional musical theater. As an ambitious hybrid, "Selena Forever" earnestly tries to bring as much personality to the stage as did the late Tejano superstar.The good news is that, given the material seen at the world premiere in San Antonio last week and the quality of the performances, it could achieve that -- and more. The bad news is that it's not there yet. It could use a little more workshopping and a lot more rehearsal, from the staging and technical ends, before it makes its hoped-for run at Broadway.
Composer Fernando Rivas and playwright Edward Gallardo have written 20 songs that tell the events of Selena's life and are linked with several of her hits. Few, however, live up to Selena's magic onstage. The mother, Marcela, has the best songs with "Living on a Bus" and "To Him She's a Woman," beautifully sung by Margo Reymundo. In fact, the most memorable numbers are performed by everyone other than Selena: the brother, A.B. (Maxx) sings "You're Gonna Die Today, Brother" and the sister, Suzette (Liza Ybarra), does a lovely job with "Amame, Quireme."
Part of the problem is that the voices of these performers are stronger than that of Veronica Vazquez in the title role. Reymundo, Maxx and David Casanova, who plays Selena's husband, Chris Perez, all have powerful, textured voices. Vazquez's voice is pretty and precise, but she simply doesn't match the magnitude of the others.
Acting-wise, the performances are fine. Daniel Valdez, who plays Selena's father, Abraham, is a better actor than singer and does a nice job of conveying compassion and love for his family. However, he also plays the part more sternly and crankily than did Edward James Olmos in the movie about Selena's life. Maxx gets several chances to overact and comes away being the comic relief, and Reymundo's performance shows her pathos well. Eleven-year-old Denise Gonzalez plays the young Selena and is perfectly charming.
There's much that's promising, but there's also much work to do to get the show where it enthralls the entire time. As it is, those moments are few and far between, and technical problems opening night, mostly with sound, didn't help. As it is now, "Selena Forever" often feels like it lasts that long.