DVDs: Beautiful Maria of My Soul

What was to have been the second new Broadway musical of the 2005-2006 season, The Mambo Kings, which folded in San Francisco after discouraging reviews, was based on Oscar Hijuelos' 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. But the story is probably best known through the 1992 film adaptation, The Mambo Kings, directed by Arne Glimcher, adapted by Cynthia Cidre, and recently released on DVD. The novel covers three decades in the lives of a pair of musician brothers who leave Cuba for New York in the early '50s; the movie covers only the first half of the book, focusing on the years 1952 to 1955.

In the film, Armand Assante plays Cesar, the lusty older brother, while Antonio Banderas had his first English-language role as Nestor, the smoldering, sensitive younger brother. Known from his films with Pedro Almodovar, Banderas did not speak English at the time of Mambo Kings, and learned his role phonetically.

In Cuba, Nestor is in love with Maria, who is forced to marry a thuggish club manager in order to save Nestor's life. The manager nearly kills Cesar, after which Maria advises the brothers to flee. They do, but with Nestor unaware of the real reason for their exit, and believing that Maria did not love him.

Cesar and Nestor arrive in New York, where they hope to make their name by taking advantage of the current craze for Latin dances, including the rhythms of the mambo, salsa, meringue, rhumba, samba, and cha-cha. Cesar plays the piano and handles the bookings, while Nestor, still pining for Maria, plays the trumpet and composes the songs, including the Oscar-nominated "Beautiful Maria of My Soul."

Struggling to establish themselves in the industry, the brothers work by day at a meat-packing plant, but come alive in the Cuban clubs by night. Cesar falls for a cigarette girl Cathy Moriarty, while Nestor marries a fellow Cuban emigre, a maid and aspiring teacher Marushka Detmers to whom Cesar is also drawn.

Cesar forms the Mambo Kings band, but runs into trouble by refusing to do business with the underworld promoter Roscoe Lee Browne who books the clubs. As a result, the band is blackballed, and the Mambo Kings are forced to play bar mitzvahs and weddings.

The turning point comes when Latin hero Desi Arnaz played in the film by his son, Desi Arnaz, Jr. catches the brothers' act at the Club Babalu and invites them to Hollywood to appear as Ricky Ricardo's cousins on Arnaz' wildly popular TV series "I Love Lucy." A technically adept scene has Banderas and Assante interacting on camera with Lucille Ball in a scene from the sit-com. Thereafter, the act is made, but conflict and tragedy ensue before the picture concludes.

With appearances by salsa legends Tito Puente and Celia Cruz and the use of pre-existing songs like "Guantanamera," the film is far stronger at capturing the sound of the music and the heady atmosphere of Latin clubs of the period than it is at telling its sentimental, melodramatic story. It was the first film directed by Glimcher, who also produced, and his inexperience shows in the number of scenes and plot strands that are never quite fulfilled. Some of the picture is saved, however, by Michael Ballhaus' vivid cinematography.

The Mambo Kings was also Glimcher's first Broadway musical, and he was director, lyricist, and co-author with Hijuelos of the book. The stage composer was Carlos Franzetti, who also contributed music to the film. Esai Morales "NYPD Blue," La Bamba, Broadway's Salome played Cesar; Mexican stage, screen, and television actor Jamie Camil was brother Nestor; and David Alan Grier played the corrupt club manager. Christiane Noll was the cigarette girl who attracts Cesar, while Cote de Pablo played Nestor's love interest, Dolores. Justina Machado "Six Feet Under" played Dolores' older sister, and had as love interest a character not in the movie, a Jewish saxophone player named Mandlebaum. Celebrated Cuban singer Albita had the role taken in the film by Cruz and also functioned as narrator of the show.

The stage musical retained from the film the sequence in which the two leading actors are absorbed into an actual episode of "I Love Lucy." Also retained from the film was its song hit, "Beautiful Maria of My Heart," with music not by Franzettit but by Robert Kraft.

Neither Glimcher, Franzetti, nor Hijuelos appeared to have had previous experience with Broadway musicals, and that seems to have proved fatal to a big-budget $12 million production without a luxurious period of development. Like the season's first Broadway musical, Lennon, Mambo Kings played a traditional out-of-town tryout. But perhaps a previous regional production would have helped.

With one exception, the San Francisco reviews were downbeat. Winning the best notices was choreographer Sergio Trujillo All Shook Up, but then the story allows for an explosion of Latin dance styles. Apparently harder to come up with were convincing character songs for the principals and a coherent, emotionally powerful narrative.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, critic Robert Hurwitt wrote, "Whenever it mambos, the Broadway-bound new musical is a quick-stepping, skirt-swirling, energetic blaze of lavish color, exciting choreography, and high spirits. That, unfortunately, doesn't happen often enough. The Mambo Kings bogs down in a cut-and-paste book, too many journeyman ballads and, except for the dancing, a puzzling lack of charisma onstage....More mambo would certainly help. So would replacing most of the original songs with ones that advance the story or provide insights into the characters."

Others put matters more succintly. Chad Jones Inside Bay Area: "Pity the poor actors who have to make something of the lame dialogue. And did I mention the lyrics are atrocious?" Tiger Hashimoto The Examiner: "dramatically sluggish, musically dreary and full of every cliche in the American musical comedy handbook...the new songs are virtually tuneless." Karen D'Souza Mercury News: "This Mambo Kings needs a major overhaul before it congas onto Broadway in July or it's destined to flop there."

It was reported that such Broadway talents as Tommy Tune, Maury Yeston, Jerry Zaks, Jerry Mitchell, Walter Bobbie, Jack O'Brien, David Ives, and Lynn Ahrens were asked to help fix the show's tryout problems. At one point, it was announced that Mitchell had taken over the direction, Ives had taken on the book, and Jason Robert Brown was writing new songs. But that appears to have been only a momentary notion. Hopes had apparently been pinned on Tune and Yeston, and when they turned the show down, it was decided to fold it rather than continue on to New York.

The DVD release of the film was clearly timed to coincide with the Broadway opening of the stage musical. It now stands as a wistful reminder of one of the theatrical season's major non-happenings. For its DVD premiere, The Mambo Kings has been outfitted with two significant bonuses, one a behind-the-scenes featurette including interviews with the principal actors.

Then there's a full-length track of audio commentary by producer-director Glimcher, who recalls almost losing the movie when he clashed with the studio on the casting of the leads they wanted Jeremy Irons and Ray Liotta. He also recalls that Annabella Sciorra had Detmars' role until two weeks before shooting began.

Glimcher says that studios didn't want to make the film because it was a Latino story. But Glimcher sees the film as being about all immigrants who come to this country, looking to make it big and become integrated. For him, it's an American story about two brothers who come in search of the American dream, have it in their hands, then lose it.

Glimcher reveals that while Assante actually played the drums, Banderas faked playing the trumpet. He says that offscreen, each star actually evinced the personality of the brother he was not playing. Glimcher was surprised when Arnaz Jr. revealed to him that the Los Angeles studio they were shooting the picture in used to be Desilu studios.

Former art gallery owner Glimcher talks a lot about the psychology of color. And he is particularly happy to include in this "director's cut" a restored scene omitted from the released film, one that gives Moriarty's character an ending in the story.

Glimcher notes that the assistant to the film's choreographer, Michael Peters Dreamgirls, was none other than Sergio Trujillo, the choreographer of the stage version. It must have been too late for those involved in this DVD release to remove Glimcher's words about the stage musical version opening in July 2005 at the Broadway Theatre.