Before closing sails with the umpteenth renewal of Mar i cel, the most famous production of Dagoll Dagom, the company directed by Anna Rosa Cisquella, with Joan Lluís Bozzo and Miquel Periel, wanted to produce one last great musical. The joy that happens, based on a story by Santiago Rusiñol, premiered with great success at the Poliorama in March and is now back to be there until January 28.
Directed by Marc Rosich, with music by Andreu Gallén and choreography by Ariadna Peya, the success of the musical also lies in the protagonist, Àngels Gonyalons, the Barcelona actress who has just turned 60 and who has returned to the company with what succeeded in the first assembly of Mar i cel.
How does one do it to represent this dual protagonist role, the mayor of the town and the head of the company of artists, which is so demanding in all disciplines?
I’ve done very hard things, like Memory, at 28, or Chicago, at 35, when I weighed 51 kilos and couldn’t gain a single gram. I think the body has memory, I have an athletic build like my father’s, I’m tall and I like to move, and that helps: I can’t wear many medals.
So he did nothing when he was called for this musical?
Yes, I prepared to go back, because people warned me that how could I do this now, but I didn’t think about it: I’m doing it and that’s it. It’s true that now I’m hurting here or I’m hurting there, but the people who go on stage have a very high pain threshold, because we have to do certain heroics, given that the function cannot be suspended: we have no substitutes . But the stage also keeps you in shape; just by singing you already do a lot of abs.
And that’s eight functions a week.
Fair, and that’s why we can’t give one hundred percent every time. We have to manage the forces at 80% to be able to finish the week in good interpretative conditions, because it is a very demanding show, no matter how resilient you are. But we must not make the public suffer and we must pretend that what we do is easy. When I was little I didn’t like the circus because it hurt.
On the tour she was replaced by Maria Molins.
Yes, because I had a commitment with Sergi Belbel to do The Party, but everything was already said. I also have to say that I am very much a puppeteer and I like bowling more than signing in the office every day, even though the Poliorama is a wonderful office.
How do you work with all these young people?
The most wonderful thing is the human quality of the company, the self-demand and professionalism they demonstrate. Because we are difficult and, sometimes, with young people, the elders sin of arrogance, and the young also suffer from youthful arrogance.
How is it that after so many years he returns to Dagoll Dagom?
I go back because they offer it to me. The first person who told me about this project was Andreu Gallén, who with Marc Rosich had wanted to work with me for some time. And I, honored, because they are younger people and I think that with transversality we will all be enriched. They told me that when they were writing it they thought of me and that they would surely have the complicity of Dagoll Dagom, and I was delighted to put myself in their hands.
But I had to sing and dance again.
I hadn’t done it for nine years: the last musical was Sister act in 2014. But the choreographies are by Ariadna Peya, which is another code. I discovered her in Spring Awakening and I thought that what she was doing, which is choreographing by explaining things, is still difficult for us and that I could learn a lot from her. And so it has been.
We say that the role it plays is twofold.
I like working with Marc Rosich because he is genuine. And I like genuine people because they are new, they refresh you, they force you to reset yourself and they make you go to places I had not been before. I was told that they were two characters and that they would also meet in a scene. I thought of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and I was told that I should not suffer, because we would do it with the essence of the black room and the actor. And I’m having a great time.
And doesn’t it make a mess, with these two characters?
Look, luckily we have a councilor who is a crack, Tere Navarro, with a lot of professional experience, and during the first month of the function I had to ask her every time where she entered and what character she was playing. “Now what do I do, clown or mayor?”. And she, always with a smile, indicated it to me.
What has evolved since a musical like Mar i cel?
First of all, 35 years have passed. They were more lyrical musicals, with an epic, like The Phantom of the Opera, and now they drink from other sources, like Hamilton, but in L’alegría que passa a text from more than a hundred years ago is recovered that unfortunately is still valid. But something new has been done, starting with Rusiñol, which includes references to his other works and which ends up being a tribute to them.
But everything happens in a gray town.
Yes, it is true that there is a certain grayness, but there is also a message of hope in the young characters, who connect very well with the young audience, with a real feminism, not alluring. The bottom line, without being pretentious, is that as a society we talk a lot, but we don’t quite move.
And how do you do it to shine like it shines on stage?
I go out on stage to give my all, I can’t imagine doing the job any other way, and I love challenges. It’s true that I didn’t expect to do something of this nature and I really like singing and dancing: it’s very therapeutic for me, even though it makes me suffer. I’ve been working on this for 43 years, it’s about time I got it right.
