Bola: Cuba's Ambassador of Spoken Song at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Bola: Cuba's Ambassador of Spoken Song

GALA Hispanic Theatre
3333 14th Street, NW Washington

Afro-Cuban singer and composer, Ignacio Villa, known as “Snowball,” was an international sensation from the ‘30s to the ‘60. He was recognized for his unique “spoken song” style. Despite a successful and glamorous career, Bola was uncomfortable with his homosexuality in a pre and post revolution Cuba that was reluctant to accept it. This zesty musical highlights important moments in the private and professional life of the artist through his own captivating songs and those of other composers from the unforgettable golden age of Latin American popular music. In Spanish with English supertitles

Thru - Jun 27, 2010

Thursdays: 8:00pm

Fridays: 8:00pm

Saturdays: 8:00pm

Sundays: 3:00pm

Price: $32-$36

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 1 hr; 45 minutes with one intermiss

Buy Tickets

GALA Hispanic Theatre Seating Chart

Bola: Cuba's Ambassador of Spoken Song Reviews

Average Rating based on 4 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Recommended

"...It's hard to sort the naive from the tongue-in-cheek in "El Bola -- Cuba's King of Song" at GALA Hispanic Theatre. This world premiere musical biography focuses on Ignacio Jacinto Villa, the popular mid-century Cuban singer-songwriter nicknamed El Bola, and the storytelling technique is pure "Let's put on a show!" as a Washington, D.C., director ponders exactly how to celebrate this Latin entertainer."

Read Full Review

- Nelson Pressley

Washington Examiner - Recommended

"... Perhaps there was just not enough biographical material to write solely of Villa, but the most memorable moments in this show are still Villa's spoken words, his exquisite lyrics and music, and the ironic sense that this self-deprecating genius -- who seems always to have been photographed with a big grin -- was most adept at capturing moods of loss, longing and sadness."

Read Full Review

- Barbara Mackay

Washington City Paper - Not Recommended

"...The closest El Bola comes to stoking curiosity about its subject is when it allows Marcelino Valdes, who evinces a low-key charm as Villa, to perform songs like “Tu Me Has de Querer” accompanied by bits of Villa’s stage patter and barely interacting with the other players. His performances exist mostly in a vacuum from the rest of the cast, as though set inside Héctor’s mind. In its present form at least, that’s probably where El Bola ought to have stayed."

Read Full Review

- Chris Klimek

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

When Sin Miedo, the superb four-person combo led by the versatile musical director/arranger/and accomplished pianist, Didier Prossaird, cuts loose with the pulse-quickening Afro-Cuban polyrhythms, the results are awesome. Overall the show succeeds as a fusion of wild, swivel-hipped rhumbas, hypnotic mambos and cha-cha-cha’s, choreographed and danced by Jesus Gonzalez, Alvaro Palau Palomino and Ari Hernandez Myers. Goat-footed Dionysus would feel welcome.

Read Full Review

- Rosalind Lacy

Bola: Cuba's Ambassador of Spoken Song at GALA Hispanic Theatre