519 Reviews as of : 03/06/2010

Celia, the musical bio of the late, great Celia Cruz, doesn't exactly do the legend justice. In the oldest format possible, we see her life in flashback through the eyes of her surviving husband who relates the story to his wise-cracking home attendant. There is a musical number, and then this happened - musical number, and then this happened, musical number and so on. This could all be very well and good if the book writers (Carmen Rivera and Candido Tirado) lent any substance to it. Ms. Cruz's displeasure with Castro and the subsequent flight from her homeland of Cuba might have been very exciting and emotional but it ends up just being another blip on the bio radar. Worse, there is an actress for the book scenes and a different performer for the music so that many dramatic excuses must be made to get the actress off and the singer on and then off and the actress back on. And if you're like me, a little salsa goes a long way so that by intermission you might want to shun that next margarita. Many Cruz fans were in the audience eating this stuff up so maybe I am not the one to be asking about this production. I will say the costumes of Haydee Morales were dazzling, the on-stage, 7-piece orchestra was excellent and Xiomara Laugart as the singing Cruz has a powerful voice. Otherwise, a CD and its liner notes would do just as well.

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