Gardel’s Tango

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Zephyr Theatre
Through December 18

Carlos Gardel was born Charles Gardès in France to an unwed mother who emigrated to Argentina shortly after his birth. He grew up in a working class neighborhood in Buenos Aires, later becoming an international celebrity famous for his baritone voice, his Latin-lover looks and his heart-fluttering female fans. Gardel popularized the tango in Europe and North America, dying prematurely in a plane crash in June 1935, along with his collaborating lyricist, Alfredo Le Pera, and other musicians he worked with.

Writer-director John R. Lacey’s play purports to track the events in Gardel’s life, from his days as an obscure shopkeeper’s assistant angling for an opportunity to sing in the bar across the street, through his giddy days in Hollywood and Paris, and up through his death. Apart from liberties taken with historical fact, forgivable in a drama of substance, this is a skill-free effort, with clumsy dialogue and no character development.

Anibal Silveyra, a middle-aged performer, assumes the role of Gardel, depicting the singer as a youth for the first half of the play. Agustin Coppola, another mature actor, plays his pal Lepera (Le Pera — the historical spelling — was actually 10 years younger and arguably would have been in grade school at this time.) The gist of their initial scene together is to establish that Gardel liked women while Lepera was a closeted gay man. The other characters we’re introduced to here are Isabel (Mantha Balourdou), the woman for whom Gardel had the most long-lasting affection, Maestro (Richard Lewis Warren) a successful entertainer who becomes Gardel’s manager and whose fame he eventually eclipses, and Maman (Hildy Brooks), Gardel’s mom, who never tires of reminding her son of his filial duties. In Act 2 we meet the Baronessa (Saratoga Ballantine), a woman with connections whose help is available in exchange for Gardel’s sexual favors.

Silveyra does have a mellifluous voice, but unfortunately the role calls for more acting than singing, and his portrayal of Gardel resembles a series of stylized expressions one normally associates with silent film stars. This leads to the impression of something weird and clownish in his interpretation. Balourdou’s Isabel is pouty and truculent but otherwise void of visible sentiment, while Brooks’s Maman is one-note, and Ballantine’s Baronessa seems to have drifted in from a 1930s screwball comedy (except that the character is bisexual). Of the performers who speak, Coppola comes off best simply by projecting a minimalist and down-to-earth persona, a welcome relief from the antics elsewhere.

A seventh performer, Hollie Sokol, appears as a lady of easy virtue. Sokol has no lines, but she’s lovely and graceful in her come-hither-ness, and makes the best impression of the evening.

Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 6 p.m.; through December 18. (626) 381-9767 or https://www.artful.ly/store/events/10033. Running time: two hours and 20 minutes with an intermission.