The whole thing is a hot mess. At first, I thought it might be a tad interesting. It was sort-of like watching a foreign film but, unfortunately, I needed the subtitles. The closest thing I can liken it to is an SNL<\/em> skit of a pitiful foreign film.<\/p>\n Richard Lewis Warren and Mantha Balardou. Big White Bazooka Photography. (None of these pictures depict the actual show.)<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s the tale of real-life tango singer, Carlos Gardel, and takes place in his native Argentina, but every single character has a different accent! (I believe most of them are real, but all from each actor\u2019s native country.) And Richard Lewis Warren, who plays Maestro, doesn\u2019t even bother to disguise his heavy New York accent, except on a very few lines, which makes it even more confusing. He sounds more like he\u2019s doing a character out of The Godfather<\/em> than portraying an old Argentinian singer!<\/p>\n I was actually trying not to judge too much at first, but then Gardel\u2019s love interest, played by the dreadful Mantha Balourdou, mentioned her age. My friend, Alice, leaned over and asked, \u201cDid she just say she\u2019s fifteen<\/em>???!\u201d My mouth was hanging open, as well. The woman is a Lisa Rinna doppelg\u00e4nger…now<\/em>! Not as a young girl. As the action went on (and on…and on…) we realized that the main characters are all<\/em> supposed to be young<\/em> people, but they\u2019re portrayed by senior citizens! No lie. What a confusing mess!!!<\/p>\n Agustin Coppola and Anibal Silveyra. I ask you–do these look anything like the teen-agers they are supposed to be portraying?! Big White Bazooka Photography.<\/p><\/div>\n I did<\/em> love the singing of Anibal Silveyra, the man who plays Gardel. And I\u2019d be happy to hear him in concert, or anyplace else. But the real<\/em> Carlos Gardel became famous when he was still in his teens, and died at only forty-four. So, why in the world is someone who has to be around sixty<\/em> portraying him?! And his mother in the show mentions that he and his friend are in school now. The \u201cschoolmate\u201d is even older than Gardel; he\u2019s a very senior gent, with gray hair, to boot! The casting is just crazy and inexplicable. (About ten minutes into the play, my note was, \u201cWhat\u2019s up with the ages?! The mother just told her son that he\u2019s a man now, but he\u2019s like sixty! He\u2019s been a man for forty years! And they keep referring to him as a kid!\u201d I can’t improve on those notes.]<\/p>\n Saratoga Ballantine and Anibal Silveyra. Big White Bazooka Photography.<\/p><\/div>\n Those two men keep calling Maestro \u201cold man,\u201d but the actors are all clearly the same age! (Can you understand some of Alice and my mirth now?) This is the bizarro Bugsy Malone<\/em>, the film where a child Jodie Foster and her fellow kid actors play grown-up gangsters. In Gardel\u2019s Tango<\/em>, everyone is old<\/em>, but playing youngsters<\/em>! (I do not say any of this as a slam on any of the actor\u2019s ages or abilities; it\u2019s just that none of them are right for the parts, age-wise. It\u2019s worse than when forty-five-year-old<\/em> Kevin Spacey cast himself as twenty-to-thirty-seven-year-old<\/em> Bobby Darin in Beyond The Sea<\/em>! Talk about vanity. Yeesh.)<\/p>\n And why are the two men, who are playing single boys, wearing wedding bands throughout?! I\u2019m pretty sure those are their rings in real life, but here\u2019s a news flash for them–when you are acting in a play, you have got to take them off! Acting 101, people!<\/p>\n At least the sets, by Daniel Keough, are good. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the big one at the top of the page.<\/p><\/div>\n Here are a few more annoyances with this production: The lead character refers to himself as \u201cGardel\u201d all the time, rather than saying \u201cme\u201d and \u201cI.\u201d How pretentious! Also, there are a lot of crazy prop situations. At one point, Gardel is pretending to drink…from an empty glass. Oysh. Then the mother is crocheting…with no yarn! And they use obvious computer-printed pages…as an old French newspaper!!! How hard would all these be to correct?! (The answer is\u2014not at all.)<\/p>\n Then, at the end, a scene of Gardel and his lyricist pal talking ends, and the next scene is of Gardel\u2019s funeral! There\u2019s no explanation of his death. It\u2019s like we fast-forwarded the DVR! (Which we wish we could<\/em> have done for the whole show.)<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/GT6-e1481665428986.jpg\")
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