“In musicals, love conquers everything, it is a maxim that you cannot even question”. This was how forceful Daniel Anglès, director of the Condal, was when Jumon Erra and Daniela Feixas began working on the text of the musical comedy Un amor particular, which opens this Thursday at the Paral·lel theater.
Xavier is an executive from the upper part of Barcelona, ??with a high purchasing power and who has had everything easy, but he reaches a point in his life where his wife tells him that if he doesn’t make her laugh, she will leave him. This is where Ada comes in, an actress who lives in the Raval and who makes a living doing all kinds of jobs, such as private theater classes.
Xavi Navarro and Mara Jiménez are the performers who give life to these two characters, who belong to opposite worlds in the same Barcelona but who, despite everything, will end up connecting. Jiménez feels very identified with Ada: “I share many things with the character. There is a connection and an attraction and on the other hand there are his principles and his way of thinking”.
And it is precisely here where the two characters will have to learn to manage this connection, which upsets not only their social origins, but also their mentalities.
With them on stage are also Andrea Mir and Albert Solà, who are the musicians who play live. “We include the musicians in the dramaturgy, as neighbors of the performers, so that they are on stage and can interact,” explains Erra, who recalls that it was the author of the music, Miquel Tejada, who proposed it “so that the result It was like some kind of pop concert.” Anglès points out that, in addition, “the songs have their own entity”.
The surprise comes when Jumon Erra, who in addition to being a co-author is the one who directs this “musical comedy”, as they define it, confesses where the initial idea came from: “The origin of the story is based on a student of mine, who to save his marriage asked me to teach him how to make people laugh”. Erra doesn’t feel comfortable explaining it, he acknowledges that he hasn’t invited that former student to the premiere yet, but it seems the couple is still together.
However, he denies that in the opposition between the two Barcelonas they have used clichés. “Rather, we have worked on the prejudices of people who are different from us,” explains the director. For the movement, the montage relies on Gara Roda, who has brought the latest trends from New York and has ended up making them dance more than originally planned.
A particular love is a commitment to the musical created in Catalan by Focus and the Barcelona Grec Festival, which will be performed at the Condal theater until August 6.
Catalan version, here
