Review: Danny Bolero Livens Up Don't Tell Mama Audience With THEY CALL ME CUBAN PETE

At the end of his Desi Arnaz show, Danny Bolero broke character and told his audience that, growing up, he never saw people like him on television... until Desi Arnaz. Hence his admiration and devotion to the Cuban artist most well-known for playing Ricky Ricardo, the husband of Lucy. Just Lucy. Everybody knows Lucy. Everybody loves Lucy.

But people don't remember Desi Arnaz. They remember Ricky Ricardo. They remember the acting contributions that Desi Arnaz made to the I Love Lucy show. They remember Desi Arnaz, only in association with Lucille Ball. But Desi Arnaz was so much more. There was and is a great deal about Desi Arnaz that people did and do not know. But Danny Bolero knows it, and Danny Bolero is here to tell it. And that is a good thing.

THEY CALL ME CUBAN PETE: THE MUSIC AND GENIUS OF DESI ARNAZ is a one-man musical cabaret that Danny Bolero has been playing over at Don't Tell Mama on Forty-Sixth Street. Speaking personally, when I saw that someone was doing a show about Desi Arnaz, I was very excited. When I saw that it was Danny Bolero I was more excited. When I saw the run dates of his shows, I was disappointed: my schedule would not permit me to attend. But Danny Bolero kept selling tickets and kept adding performances and, finally (and happily), I was able to attend.

The reason I was excited to see Mr. Boleros' Desi Arnaz show is that I (like many) don't know enough about Mr. Arnaz, and I want to know more. Sure, I watched I Love Lucy, just like everyone else, I saw some of his movies, and I also watched Being The Ricardos. There is so much about Desi Arnaz that I hadn't known, and this was a chance to learn more, to hear his music, and to do it under the aegis of a performer whose work I have come to know and respect. My excitement about THEY CALL ME CUBAN PETE was not misplaced because Danny Bolero has created a good show full of wonderful music and interesting historical stories about Arnaz, and centered around Bolero's own appeal as a performer. The program he has created is one that is well on its way, though there are one or two things he and director Madeline McCray might consider taking another look at, but they are just suggestions from a reviewer with a wish to help them make their show the best that it can be, and they aren't anything drastic or hyper-critical.

They Call Me Cuban Pete is a tribute show, but it's not about Danny Bolero standing on the stage and sharing Wikipedia facts interspersed throughout a setlist. This is a cabaret play in which Mr. Bolero is actually performing as Desi Arnaz, and that can be a difficult format to perfect, the first time out. Presenting a character-driven cabaret play in which one person must stand on a stage, alone (save for their amazing band), and talk to the audience can lean into the precious, and that's what happens during They Call Me Cuban Pete, albeit not all throughout. It's about an eighty-twenty percentage, and it is entirely fixable if Bolero and McCray (and Musical Director Drew Wutke) will sit down with the script and smooth out the rough edges. They would need to look at the script with all the songs removed and consider the trajectory of the play as an entity of its own, and ask themselves what works best, and what needs restructuring.

For instance: there is a conceit applied to the play in which old-age Desi Arnaz appears at the start of the show with a walking stick and an overcoat and an aged vocal affectation, talking to someone that wasn't (at least to this audience member) made clear, and at the end of the play, the youthful version of Desi Arnaz looks up at the sky and thanks some omnipotent force for allowing him to come back for the day. By all thought processes, one must assume that god has sent dead Desi back to earth for an afternoon of telling his story. If that is, indeed, the storytelling device that Bolero and McCray wish to use, it isn't reading clearly enough, and if it is not the device intended, then clarity is even more apropos to the situation. Truthfully, the concept isn't necessary. The audience is there for Danny and for Desi - they don't need the fanciful flight back from heaven to terra firma thing - all they need is Danny Bolero and Desi Arnaz to walk in the room and start talking and singing, and they will be just fine. And Danny does that, throughout the show, with great ease and style. Bolero's connection to the audience on Monday night was very strong. Some cabaret performers are too scared of their audience to connect with them, so they play their show to the back wall of the Metropolitan Opera, never once actually looking at a single member of their audience. Meanwhile, Danny Bolero and his Desi Arnaz were in a continual loving, respectful, flirtatious, and informative conversation with the patrons of the club. The biggest thing that the art form of cabaret has going for it is the intimate relationship between the artist and the audience, and Danny Bolero understands that and he uses it, and it's a major boon to his production.

Another area of the script that Bolero and co. might take another glance at is the actual written dialogue Danny delivers. He has worked tirelessly to perfect Desi's speech pattern and cadence, though not to the point of doing an imitation: he has gone into Desi's house and is decorating it Danny's way. But the script is not written in Danny's speech pattern - it appears to be written in what he thinks Desi's speech pattern would be, and there are times when it comes off as uncomfortable and forced. Indeed, several times throughout, Mr. Bolero seemed to lose his way in the script, an indication that it doesn't live in his bones, yet, which it would do, if the speech pattern were more natural to him. Were he and McCray to rework the monologues in a manner more natural to Danny Bolero himself, the passages would flow from him as the rhythms of the conga flowed from Desi. It's all about keeping it sincere and keeping it real (to that end, a segment with pre-recorded dialogue should be swapped out with Wutke serving as Bolero's acting partner, for it isn't working as it is). There are no accuracy police sitting in the audience, checking to see if the dialogue spoken is conversation that Desi would have had, so Danny is welcome to say whatever he wants, however he wants, as long as he does it with the commitment he has for presenting a version of Desi Arnaz that tells the story he wants to tell, which is exactly what Danny Bolero is doing.

Like Desi Arnaz, Danny Bolero is both devastatingly handsome and life-threateningly charming. Walking in the door with just that puts Mr. Bolero ahead of the curve. And, musically speaking, the program is in great shape - Bolero and Wutke have curated an enjoyable score, the band is sounding solid, and Bolero is in excellent voice. It's a different voice than Desi's with more theatrical training and less vibrato, but Mr. Bolero sounds sensational, and what he is presenting on the stage is as close a representation of Arnaz as one is likely to get. The play and the performance are both very enjoyable, filled with value of both the entertainment and educational nature. With a little polishing up, Call Me Cuban Pete is a show that could, easily, play venues around this city and other cities around the country, where people remember and love Desi Arnaz, or remember and wish to know more about Desi Arnaz. Factually speaking, the sixty-minute cabaret show might conceivably be worked into a longer piece for what people call the legitimate stage. It is appropriately theatrical and Mr. Bolero has the chops (both acting and vocal) to carry a ninety-minute musical play. Since some of the music in They Call Me Cuban Pete derives from Arnaz's real-life catalog and some is pulled from more modern-day composers, Bolero and co. would have no trouble expanding the score to the show, and since the play ends right around the era of I Love Lucy, with only a few stories about Desi's innovation of television filmmaking having been shared, there is obviously more history to tell. There exists a palpable passion between Bolero and his idol, a clear intent to bring the story of Desi Arnaz to the public, and there is a public that wants to hear Desi's story. There is something real here, and Danny Bolero is the right artist to flesh it out and bring The Music and Genius of Desi Arnaz to the people who want to really know Desi Arnaz - and both Desi Arnaz and Danny Bolero are worth knowing.

They Call Me Cuban Pete has concluded its run at Don't Tell Mama but other great shows can be seen in the Midtown West club. Visit the Don't Tell Mama website HERE.

Danny Bolero is on Instagram HERE and Facebook HERE and he has a website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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