Review: Life is a Cabaret at Botiquín de Boleros
GALA Hispanic’s Botiquín de Boleros puts the audience in the thick of impassioned singing, dancing, and drama in Columbia Heights.
Life is a cabaret at the titular bolero bar in GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Botiquín de Boleros de Columbia Heights. Of course, for this lively, immersive staging, directed and choreographed by Valeria Cossu, we, the audience, are the patrons at the Columbia Heights Bolero Bar.
Seated at cabaret tables onstage, at stage level, or in regular seats throughout the house, audience members may find themselves in the midst of the action for Rubén Léon’s heartfelt backstage musical revue, adapted by GALA artistic director Gustavo Ott.
Formerly a mainstay of D.C.’s diverse Columbia Heights neighborhood, the fictional boîte was “one of the hottest cabarets” in town, we’re told. But due to the pandemic, it has sat dormant for years, until now — now being November 2024, just ahead of a presidential election that will prove particularly pivotal for immigrants like some of the performers who call the club home.
References to the looming election are met throughout the show with baleful claps of thunder that stop the characters cold, tongue-in-cheek and chilling at the same time. Generally, though, Cossu keeps Botiquín‘s tone tending towards upbeat, clap-along good times, or passionate romance.
Billed as an “interactive love experience,” the production involves the audience in the plot, and even enlists brave souls to warble along solo, as singers Verónica (Fran Tapia) and Claudia (Anna Malavé) assemble a new cast for the cabaret’s grand re-opening.
Following auditions, during which the pair plucks a few candidates from the house, they complete their cast with Valentina (Rachael Small), Dino (Luis Abed), and Simón (Facundo Agustín), each of whom, just like Verónica and Claudia, has traveled her or his own remarkable journey to this bar in Columbia Heights.
Well, they’re not all remarkable. Each character has their one narrow trait or slice of story to deal with, punctuated with a solo number — or duet, in the case of exes Valentina and Dino. She is “the one who kisses and leaves,” while he is “the Minstrel of Love.”
Together, they perform an amusing duel to “Besame mucho,” with Small and Abed belting from the house, steadily raising the stakes on who can flirt the hardest with a willing spectator. Sultry balladeer Claudia, an ex-con with a torrid past in San Juan, Puerto Rico, sings to a lover she can’t hold in “Adoro,” which Malavé delivers with fierce longing and regret.
Likewise, Tapia imbues Verónica’s lament, “Solamente una vez,” or “Only Once,” with notes of pain and resilience. On edge after a harrowing immigration experience, and given the state of the nation, Verónica also leads her bolero family to face the election head-on with a song in their hearts in “Amor di mi alma,” one of several numbers featuring the full cast singing and dancing.
Cossu’s choreography sometimes confounds — as in “Nosotros,” a beautiful song accompanied by labored contemporary dance moves that don’t quite fit. More than once, busy choreo has performers rolling on the floor where a simple turn or flair might do.
Musically, the ensemble treads more solid ground. Directing the four-piece orchestra, music supervisor and pianist Walter “Bobby” McCoy steers the performers smoothly through the score, whether with a snappy “Quizás, quizás, quizás” (“Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”) or by capturing the authentic feel of Latin torch songs.
Agustín’s Simón serves up a fine example performing “La luna y el toro,” a number that, in part, cements a major queer-coded revelation by the character that won’t come as too big of a surprise to many in the audience. Yet the show offers genuine spontaneity and gaiety, and just enough to think about between the laughter and tears to truly appreciate its tagline, that “What’s broken can still sing.”
Botiquín de Boleros de Columbia Heights (★★★☆☆) runs through June 29 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St., NW. Performances are in Spanish with English surtitles. Tickets are $48 to $70, with several discount options. Call 202-234-7174 or visit www.galatheatre.org.
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