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Marga Gomez’s latest
show, Los
Big Names, has been extended through Labor Day at the Magic
Theatre, Fort
Mason Building D, San Francisco. For tickets, call 415-441-8822.
www.magictheatre.org.
Marga Gomez in Los Big Names
Reviewed by Ed Brownson
"Just between you and me," coos Margarita, Marga Gomez’s mother in Los
Big Names, "Marga is too hard on herself." Yes, well: true, certainly.
But being hard on oneself is a legacy demanding parents pass on to
their children, isn’t it? A legacy those put-upon children value and
curse because it spurs their own achievements.
Los Big Names, written and performed by Gomez, is both tribute and
comeuppance to her demanding parents, Margarita ("One name, like
‘Cher’!") and her father, Willy Chevalier, entertainers in 1960s New
York. Her show business upbringing seems worse than some, but better
than most . . . but only Marga and her "very rich" analyst know
the details. In Los Big Names, we see only vignettes of their lives
together.
Gomez plays both parents and herself at several different ages. Willy
opens the show, informing us that Marga will narrate and oh, by the
way, Margarita, who never tells the truth about him, will be late as
always.
Willy is the stereotype of the Latin lover bandleader. It’s hard to
watch him without thinking "Ricky Ricardo! Ricky Ricardo!" He is
distant from his only daughter except when he is at risk of losing her.
Margarita, when she finally makes her entrance, is every bit the
beautiful showgirl. Values for her exist in her looks and her
attraction to others. Her lessons to the 12 year old Marga on how a
woman walks ("Glide, girl, glide!") have us howling, even while our
hearts break for the not-so-feminine little girl struggling with
identity and the morality of priests.
As if not sure her family is enough to entertain us, Gomez also brings
in "guest stars" from her own show-biz career. Early on she does a
cringe-inducing switch as Kathleen Turner, auditioning her for a role
as Turner’s Latina maid in a TV movie. Later she riffs Queen Latifah in
a gut-busting "interpretation" of Latifah’s role in Sphere, the movie
that launched and sank Gomez’s own film career.
All of Gomez’s characterizations in Los Big Names are spot-on except one: herself.
The Marga narrating seems like a PG/Lite version of the comic we know
and love so well. Earnest, polite (!), desperate for approval, this
Marga feels "contained," as if on orders from some publicist (or,
therapist). Those who remember the raw, spontaneous Marga, who worked
her early material at San Francisco’s Josie’s Cabaret and Juice Joint,
will wonder who this narrator is.
When she gets past the narrative bits however, the edgier Marga
resurfaces, if sometimes tentatively. The sketches become deft and
Gomez’s performance, engrossing. Once, the old spontaneous Marga breaks
through. She flees the stage for the audience as if fleeing from her
own life, pushes her own publicity photos on us in a rush of
self-questioning lines and we are engrossed in a bittersweet corner of
Marga’s inner terra incognita.
Director David Schweizer is also Gomez’s long-time collaborator, and it
is hard to tell where his efforts end and hers begin in Los Big Names.
One suspects he has been hugely helpful in herding Gomez’s widely
disparate material into a more-or-less coherent whole. However, if the
result of that process was the bland narrator-Marga, maybe it wasn’t
the wisest move. Other seemingly uncontrollable comedians have
benefited from being sat upon by a skillful director – Robin Williams
leaps to mind – but the trick is to focus their over-the-top
performance, not to bland it down.
The set, by Alexander Nichols, which "Willy" mocks in his opening
monologue, is over designed for the Magic’s small stage and the show’s
needs. Half an enormous theater sign and a large projection screen,
looking more like the TV section at Circuit City than a marquee,
distract more than they add. Anyway, Gomez doesn’t need the props: just
give her a stool and a coat or two and get out of her way.
There is a touch of sadness to the show, and not just in the inevitable
loss of aging and dying parents. In an early line, Willy says of his
daughter, "Every day she is persecuted for loving women - and she’s
still alone." There is a strong feeling of abandonment in Los Big
Names, and a sense that that abandonment began not when her parents
died, but years before and persists to this day. One wonders if Marga
feels somehow responsible. Often abandoned children do, and to tell
them otherwise - well, those are just words.
Marga, your mama was right: you are too hard on yourself. Okay, you’ve
done the tribute. The folks will always be with you now - that’s the
good news and the bad - but you don’t have to prove anything to them
any more. Exhale, give yourself a big "You go, girl!" and move on. Your
fans can’t wait to see where you’ll go next.
Bio & Past Articles
Past Articles
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On Stage Now!
Theater Reviews by Ed Brownson
Ed Brownson has been writing for the stage for eight years. His plays have been performed in the U.S. and Europe. Recent productions include his one-acts Another Ache and Soul’s Rust as part of Teatro Del Navile’s UAI Festival in Bologna, Italy, May, 2005, and The Dictionary Play in San Francisco’s Bay One-Acts (BOA) Festival, February, 2005. An evening of his short plays is scheduled in Italy in September. Also an essayist, Ed’s meditation on aging and mountains, Fifty at Ten Thousand Feet, was honored by Literary Traveler as part of their Summer Essay contest in 2002. He is currently editing a collection of essays on California titled California / Off Topic: Notes On A State Of Mind, scheduled for release in Spring, 2006. In various previous and parallel lives, Ed is/was a technical writer, a cyclist, cat attendant, and self-proclaimed computer geek. Reach Ed at ed.brownson@bettyslist.com. Read more of his writings at www.edbrownson.net.
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