Obscure Recordings: Mexico and Spain
In a few cases, there are both Spanish usually from Madrid and Mexican cast recordings of the same show, the Mexican versions employing a different Spanish translation from the Madrid versions. Both Evitas feature strong leading ladies. The Madrid Evita 1980, two LPs boasts the more elegant Paloma San Basilio, while the Mexican version 1981, two LPs offers the rougher, beltier Rocio Banquells in the title role.
Annie was done everywhere, so it's not surprising that there are both Madrid and Mexico City recordings. In Mexico, the show reverted to the name of its source comic strip, Anita La Huerfanita. Miss Hannigan, Rooster, and Lily St. Regis are in the Mexican version renamed Minerva, Gallo, and Azucena. Warbucks becomes Dolariza, and Grace becomes Lucy. The Madrid version is called Annie, and features a single-monikered actress named Serenella as Miss Hannigan. Although the translations differ, both versions include a song called "Manana."
There are Madrid and Mexican Jesus Christ Superstars; the former is called Jesucristo Superstar, while the latter goes by the title Jesucristo Superestrella. Most surprisingly, there are both Mexican and Madrid recordings both two LPs! of El Diluvio Que Viene, the Spanish title for the Italian musical Aggiungi Un Posto A Tavola Add Another Place at the Table, a contemporary reworking of the Noah's Ark story. It's not entirely unusual that this show made it to Spain and Mexico; it also played London, under the name Beyond the Rainbow 1978.
Otherwise, the number of Mexican cast recordings is vastly greater than the number of Spanish ones, and it's possible to isolate several key personalities of the Mexican musical. In the LP era, Mexican grande dame and stage and film star Silvia Pinal preserved Annie Get Your Gun, under the title Annie Es Un Tiro, and Mame. Later, she would get CDs of her Hello, Dolly! and Gypsy runs. Pinal's Mame is noteworthy, for while Angela Lansbury's 1983 Broadway revival of Mame was a short-lived flop, Pinal's revival was so successful that it produced a second cast album. So there are two Pinal Mame LPs, the first from 1973 and the second from 1985. Pinal doesn't possess a lovely singing voice, but you can tell just from her recordings that she's a zesty performer with a lot of star quality.
Then there's Virma Gonzalez, who can be heard on one of the rarest and most desirable Mexican show LPs, in the title role of La Pelirroja 1960, the Mexican version of the Gwen Verdon Broadway vehicle Redhead. Like the Broadway Redhead, La Pelirroja was an RCA Victor LP. The leading man, the established Armando Calvo, gets first billing, as Gonzalez was new at the time. While La Pelirroja employed the sets and costumes from Broadway, it replaced Bob Fosse's choreography with that of Kevin Carlisle Hallelujah, Baby!.
La Pelirroja changed the heroine's name from Essie to Lisa, and the heroine's aunts, the Simpson Sisters, were played in Mexico by actual sisters. But perhaps the most interesting credit here is the singer of the somewhat operatic number "Two Faces in the Dark." It's none other than Placido Domingo, who preceded his career as one of the greatest operatic tenors in history with work in Mexican musicals and operettas.
As for Virma Gonzalez, her other Mexican cast recordings include Anita La Huerfanita Miss Hannigan, Mame 1985, as Gooch, and Lili. The latter is the Mexican version of Broadway's Carnival, reverting to the source film's title, recorded live in 1977, and mounted as a vehicle for Enrique Guzman, who two years earlier had recorded the Mexican cast album of Sugar<.
In Lili, Gonzalez played Rosalie, the Kaye Ballard role. But taking the title role is young Rocio Banquells, who transforms what was on Broadway a soprano part into a tour-de-force of belting. A year before Lili, Banquells sings Liesl on the Mexican cast recording of The Sound of Music, which goes by the title La Novicia Rebelde The Rebellious Novice. Lupita D'Alessio is Maria; "So Long, Farewell" is called "Ding-Dong"; and there are no movie songs, but also no Max-Elsa songs at least not on the recording.
As indicated, Banquells soon went on to star in the Mexican Evita. In 1984, Banquells was back, this time on the Mexican recording of Todo Se Vale, better known as Cole Porter's Anything Goes. This production features an unusual tunestack that includes "Let's Do It" and "Night and Day." Although Banquells played "Elaine Harcourt" rather than Reno Sweeney, she still gets to sing "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," while sharing the title song with Reno. Also in the company are Rafael Banquells as Moonface and Marypaz Banquells as Bonnie, who in this version sings "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love".
Then there's the single-named Julissa, who appears to be a pop star and who recorded the leads on the Mexican cast albums of Pippin as Catherine, and getting first billing, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Grease. Julissa appears on the 1973 Mexican Grease; there's also a cast recording of a subsequent Mexican revival of Grease, performed entirely by "Timbiriche," the name of an all-children troupe. In both Mexican productions, Grease went by the title Vaselina.
If Silvia Pinal is the first lady of Mexican musicals, the first man is Manolo Fabregas, who not only starred in the local versions of My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof, but also produced and directed many other Mexican musicals. Fabregas made one New York stage appearance, co-starring with Eileen Brennan in a City Center revival of The King and I.
Fabregas can be heard on the Mexican recording of My Fair Lady, which is called Mi Bella Dama, was released in the U.S. by Columbia, and preserves a production that was also directed by Fabregas. Unlike Rex Harrison, Fabregas is definitely a singer, even if he chooses to talk-sing much of the material, and he's superb. Continuing with Lerner and Loewe, Fabregas also recorded Gaston for the Mexican soundtrack of Gigi. Opposite Fabregas in Mi Bella Dama is Cristina Rojas, whose Eliza shifts markedly from cockney belter to soprano lady. "The Rain in Spain" is called "El rey que hay en Madrid." Mi Bella Dama includes another appearance by Placido Domingo, this time playing one of Alfred P. Doolittle's cronies in "With a Little Bit of Luck."
Let's conclude by looking through a random collection of additional Mexican cast albums of English-language musical titles. I've previously discussed El Hombre de La Mancha, which features the thrillingly guttural Aldonza of singing star Nati Mistral, who managed to get first billing over the Quixote, Claudio Brook. Like Mi Bella Dama, El Hombre de La Mancha was released in the U.S., on Decca. I've also written about the Mexican recording of Can-Can, from 1979, and the Mexican Fiddler on the Roof starring Fabregas.
There's Nunca en Domingo Never on Sunday, the Mexican version of Illya, Darling which, like Lili, reverts to the source-film title. A vehicle for Sasha Montenegro, this is another rare one, especially as the Broadway Illya, Darling cast album isn't even available at this writing. The Nunca en Domingo recording includes one song that was cut on the road and is not on the Broadway album, "Take a Little Drink of Ouzo."
The 1974 Mexican production of Hair was released as three LPs shoved into a single sleeve. A live, '70s Mexican recording of No, No Nanette is notable for an audience that, for no discernible reason, constantly interrupts the music with applause. There's a 1987 Yo Y Mi Chica, the Mexican incarnation of the popular revival of Me and My Girl. Barnum is one of the most internationally recorded of recent musicals, and its Mexican LP stars Emilio Aragon.
Because of its size, They're Playing Our Song was also done and recorded everywhere; the Mexican version, produced and directed by Fabregas, is called Estan Tocando Nuestra Cancion, and the female star goes by the single name of Macaria. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is called Jose el Sonador. There's even a Mexican cast album of Brigadoon, but that RCA Victor LP is one I've never been able to track down.