After enjoying Ireland in August, we started planning various trips to finish out 2021. We selected Sicily for early November because we figured we would have decent weather there. The best way to get to Sicily was to fly from Madrid, which gave us the opportunity to visit our dear friends Carlos and Ploy, who moved there earlier this year. And it also meant we could do something we had not done yet in Spain – go to the theater. While we’ve seen movies, concerts, and even a magic show, we haven’t seen a theatrical production. (I’m not counting the local high school production of “Legally Blonde” we saw a while back, which was cute and well done, but was still a high school show.)
I knew that Antonio Banderas had put together and starred in a production of “A Chorus Line” at his theater in Malaga, and when I saw it was playing in Madrid and that there were reasonably priced tickets available, I thought, why not? It’s not a complicated show after all – the plot line is simple, and the entire show happens in one place. (Sadly, Antonio wasn’t performing in Madrid.)
It wasn’t clear how much of the production would be in Spanish. Sometimes dialogue is changed to Spanish and musical numbers are in their original English version, but sometimes not. Plus, the previews online were showing the signature number “One” being sung in English. Of course, many of the songs in “A Chorus Line” serve as dialogue. Just in case, we “watched” an English version on YouTube while making dinner over several nights. Being familiar with the music in a show can sometimes be helpful regardless of the language of the performance.
The entire show was performed in Spanish, except for the encore/finale performance of “One.” So, it was good we had listened to it before attending. Overall, we understood nearly all of the show. The typical obstacles were present – fast and quiet speakers/singers and noisy audience members. Other than the overly warm theater (typical of the US as well), we enjoyed the show.
Chalk it up to one more “we did it in Spanish” experience. We’re not ready for plays or comedy in Spanish yet, but now we know we can handle familiar musicals.
Blog posts about our trip to Sicily coming soon!
Ciao,
Shana & Jeff
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