Zorro - Cadogan Hall Concert

[ABr]

A post from Club 11 about the closure of Sloan Square tube station this Sunday!

[Dawnstar]

There's already been discussion about it on the Travelling to Theatres (and back) by Public Transportnthread. It's jolly inconvenient.

Yesterday they finally announced who would be playing Garcia, Jo Parsons. I'm afraid I've never heard of him.

[robertb213]

I often just walk from Victoria station to Cadogan Hall. Admittedly I've got long legs but it's only 10-15 minutes. By the time you've changed Tube lines to get to Sloane Square, there's not much difference in it.

[Dawnstar]

I wouldn't mind walking usually - I often walk from Kings Cross/Liverpool Street into the West End to save on the tube fare - but I'd really like to go a Sunday matinee at Sadler's Wells which isn't scheduled to end until 5.50pm so getting to Cadogan Hall for 6.30pm is an issue.

[Dawnstar]

I made it from Sadler's Wells to Cadogan Hall in half an hour this evening! I wouldn't recommend it though & I did cheat & get a taxi from Victoria. As I was legging it up from the box office to the auditorium I found myself alongside FrontroverPaul doing the same!

I've just spent half an hour having an emotional outpouring on Twitter & can't do it over again right now so if anyone wants to look up @auroraestella & I'll try to assemble something vaguely coherent on here tomorrow. Right now I'm still on the train home & have to get up for work in 6 hours!

[digne]

I booked this solely because I was absolutely blown away by Ricardo Afonso's Judas - needless to say I was delighted when they announced Robert Tripolino as well.

I went into it blind, having never listened to the cast recording before, and I had such a good time. A great energy at Cadogan Hall, and such a feel-good show. I was sad we missed out on any fencing duels, but Ricardo Afonso's gorgeous "Senor" in the second act more than made up for it. Obviously I have no idea how Ramon is usually played, but I was very entertained by Robert Tripolino's slightly psychopathic take on him, and I was wowed by Lesli Margherita's charisma and energy. And the obvious love she and Emma Williams had for each other in the song they had together was beautiful to watch.

I'm glad I went with this instead of The Pirate Queen, it was such an entertaining evening (even though now I'm sad all over again we never got a cast recording of last year's JCS cast).

[winonaforever]

I was there mainly for Ricardo Afonso too, he was phenomenal! Great performances from everyone though, I loved it!

[Dawnstar]

Sorry, I failed to get round to coming back to this yesterday evening. I had a Bolshoi Swan Lake livestream to watch!

Feb 24, 2020 18:25:45 GMT winonaforever said:

I was there mainly for Ricardo Afonso too, he was phenomenal! Great performances from everyone though, I loved it!

Feb 24, 2020 16:28:54 GMT digne said:

I booked this solely because I was absolutely blown away by Ricardo Afonso's Judas - needless to say I was delighted when they announced Robert Tripolino as well.

I went into it blind, having never listened to the cast recording before

I got the impression from overhearing comments on the night that most of the audience were there to see various cast members rather than because they'd seen the WE production, which slightly surprised me as I thought there'd be more former fans like myself there.

Feb 24, 2020 16:28:54 GMT digne said:

Obviously I have no idea how Ramon is usually played, but I was very entertained by Robert Tripolino's slightly psychopathic take on him

I'm not sure it's possibly to play Ramon other than somewhat psychopathic! Though I thought Tripolino was a bit more creepy-psychopathic whereas Adam Levy, who played the role in the WE, was a bit more angry-psychopathic. How much of that is down to re-writes & how much down to individual interpretation is difficult to say.

That gets me onto the subject of re-writes. There have been a lot since the WE. The biggest difference is that Diego & Ramon are now brothers, whereas in the WE version Ramon was only Diego's foster brother & therefore had no right to usurp the position of Alcalde. This change came in for the Paris production at the end of 2009, which I went & saw (& leaned the lesson that going to see a different producction of a show you adored a few months later is a bad idea!). Given my knowledge of French is only so-so I'm glad to get confirmation 10 years later that I did correctly understand that re-write! Personally I'm not very keen on it (although it did make the Confession scene funnier with the My Father/My Son mix-ups!) & it came across as pretty unfair that Don Alejandro decided to basically disinherit his older son in favour of his younger son. That relationship change had a lot of knock-on ramifications throughout, right up to the end where Luisa now has to kill Ramon because Diego can't kill his brother. There were no children in the WE production and, as someone who is not generally a fan of children on stage (or off) I did not think their inclusion was a good thing. It was no wonder Diego didn't recognise Luisa when she arrived in Spain given she went from a black-haired, Hispanic-looking little girl to blonde, English-rose Emma Williams! Other significant changes involve some of the songs. There's no song list in the programme so I don't know what the names are but Diego & Luisa's first duet is new (since the WE, I think it may have been in the Paris production), Ramon's short number in Spanish is new, & Diego's 11 o'clock number "Senor" is new (those both since Paris) & replaces a reprise of "Hope" that was at that point. I think some of the incidental music has changed too but would have to listen to the original to confirm.

Therefore while part of me was thrilled to finally get to see one of my favourite shows again, I was also very sad that the show I loved so much & saw 22 times in 2008-9 no longer exists. In the interval I briefly spoke to the producer, who was manning the programme stand, & he said that this is the only version that is licensed now. There were moments during the performances when I had such strong flashbacks to the WE production & missed it so badly. I cried through 5 of the songs, due to the mixture of emotions I was feeling. If I could have one trip in a time machine right now I might well choose to go back to 2009 so I could see the WE production one last time. Perhaps if there was a fully-staged production of this new verion & I could see it a number of times & get used to it then I'd grow to like the changes (although probably not the children!).

It was a pity that there wasn't the room (or, probably, time or budget) for a staging, as a lot is lost from not having the dancing or sword fighting. There were some parts where I think I would have been confused if I hadn't know what was supposed to be happening. I know there's probably no better way around it but having to do the two deaths by the actors just walking offstage doesn't give them much impact. Also Garcia's reference in Act 2 to "the sign of the G" I can't imagine made much sense if you didn't know that in the staged version Act I ends with Zorro slashing the letter Z into Ramon's bare chest.

In terms of performances, I thought this cast were excellent & would very happily see them in a staged version in the highly unlikely event anyone fancies putting one on in London in the near future. Obviously Emma Williams & Lesli Margherita were both terrific, & it was amazing to see them in their roles again 11 years (less 3 weeks) later. There was an interview with Ricardo Afonso on I think it was Broadwayworld last week where he said he had auditioned for the role when the show was new but didn't get it. There were times during the concert where I found myself rather wishing he had because he was fantastic as Diego. Not just the singing, which is basically a given, but the detail of his acting, both comedic & serious. In fact the only downside of his presence was that not only was I missing the orginal production of Zorro like mad but I was also missing Top Hat on the side! (In case anyone doesn't know, he created the role of Alberto Beddini in Top Hat.) Robert Tripolino I'd not seen before, as I didn't see JCS, & I imagine it must have been funny for those who did see it to see Afonso & Tripolino effectively having swapped roles between hereo & villain. I couldn't really imagine what Tripolino must have been like as Jesus because he made such a great villain! Again, brilliant detailed acting, though he didn't really get enough solo singing to be able to judge his voice (Adam Levy didn't sing at all in the role). Jo Parsons was the only one of the leads who I'd not even heard of before but I'll certainly look out for him in the future as I thought he was lovely as Garcia. Zubin Varla had very little to do as Don Alejandro but was fine doing it. The role probably didn't need such luxury casting to be frank!

At the curtain calls I found that my muscle memory includes how to clap in time with all the songs from Zorro used during it, including the double claps for Djobi Djoba. I'm usually terrible at clapping in time but got a lot of practice at Zorro! Though I was a bit annoyed that I asked an usher in the interval if photos would be allowed at the curtain calls & got a very sharp "No", then realised during the curtain calls that one person nearby was taking photos & 2 others were blatently videoing while said usher stood by & didn't try to stop them.

I'd probably better stop now, as I doubt anyone will even get this far, but at least if I die of coronavirus I got to see Zorro one last time first!

[theatremadness]

Lovely post Dawnstar! Glad it brought back such nice memories for you, even if some changes weren't to your taste! With the “sign of the G” line from Garica, it garnered a huge laugh from the audience and almost an applause - personally I think that's one of the lines anyone could get without seeing a full production. Zorro is such a famous character and is completely is synonymous with cutting a 'Z' into a tree/the air/a person etc (Shrek 2 makes loads of jokes out of Puss In Boots which you may or may not have seen, a Zorro-like feline voiced by Antonia Banderas who played Zorro in the film Mask of Zorro), so I don't think you need any backstory to understand the joke Garcia is making!

[Dawnstar]

The only thing Zorro-related I've ever seen apart from the stage show is The Mask Of Zorro & that was years ago so I can't remember whether or not Banderas did any Z-cutting into anything. I didn't know it was such a well-known thing. I don't think I've ever seen Shrek 2; I did once see the first Shrek but can't recall being keen enough to hunt up sequals. I'm really not much of a film watcher, the last time I saw a film as opposed to a livestream at a cinema was 2002. I'd much rather be at the theatre!