Storytelling Takes Back Seat to Music in Dreamy ‘Selena’

The cast of “Selena: A Musical Celebration of Life,” now at the Doolittle Theatre, offers Selena fans and newcomers alike plenty to enjoy moment to moment.

It’s the moments between the moments that don’t help. This stage biography (verging on hagiography) of the martyred Latina singer, murdered by the president of her fan club at 23, runs into trouble whenever the music stops.

Much has been made of the travails endured by “Selena” en route to an L.A. opening, which also marks the inaugural Doolittle presentation under the Ricardo Montalban Nosotros Foundation banner. (The show itself is financed by Luna Theatrical Productions.) The problems, revisions and canceled gigs were nothing particularly exotic; these things happen all the time. But because this was a cultural rarity--an ambitious commercial venture about a Latina superstar--the problems were all over the newspaper.

Here’s what is actually onstage. “Selena” blends new songs by composer Fernando Rivas and lyricist and librettist Edward Gallardo with several Selena-made hits, among them “Como La Flor,” “I Could Fall in Love” and “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.” Our host for this tour of the tejano vocalist’s brief life and times is the Accordion Man (Sal Lopez).

“I wanted to listen forever,” he sings early on. “But the concert was over too soon.”

Immediately we’re into a re-creation of a Selena concert, right down to a “How ya doin’ Los Angeles!?” from the lady of the hour, played by Christina Souza (who alternates in the role with Veronica Vazquez). Like Jennifer Lopez in Gregory Nava’s 1997 film, Souza must fill some mighty tight pants and still manage “Baila Esta Cumbia.” She does. Her smile, deployed relentlessly, isn’t just blinding; it’s actually blinding and deafening.

Clearly, librettist Gallardo has seen the film. Flashbacks to life in Corpus Christi, Texas, for the Quintanilla family present young Selena (sweet Natalie Herrera) as a striver and a dreamer, akin to the movie. Gallardo’s lyrics trade heavily in dreams, dreamers and dreaming. The dialogue tends to sound like dialogue from every other TV or movie or stage portrait of a star you’ve ever heard. “I have a feeling she is going to be huge,” says the record company executive.

The staging, directed and choreographed by Miranda Garrison, only helps so much. It’s essentially a full-cast, quasi-staged, concert-style show, with musical director Bob Esty’s nine-piece band on a platform upstage. The actors must make do with various mini-platforms below. The show never establishes an easy flow or a storytelling rhythm.

It’s frustrating, because so many of them are worthwhile. In the book scenes, I particularly liked the way Liza Ybarra (as Suzette Quintanilla, one of Selena’s sisters) delivered some routine exposition, with swiftness and wit. Souza generates some sparks with Aaron Lohr’s Chris. And in an often plodding show’s final minutes, something bizarre happens: It finds itself. There’s a shrewdly judged dramatic moment wherein Chris and Selena’s father, Abraham (Danny Bolero the night I saw it), receive simultaneous phone calls regarding the death of Selena. Then, spotlighted along with her white rose, an ardent young fan (wonderful Agina Alvarez) gives “Como La Flor” her all, before the curtain call.

These and other pluses cut through the dross.

*

“Selena: A Musical Celebration of Life,” Doolittle Theatre, 1615 N. Vine St., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Through May 27. $25-$55. (800) 233-3123. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Christina Souza/Veronica Vazquez: Selena

Danny Bolero/Mike Gomez: Abraham Quintanilla

Marta DuBois: Marcella Quintanilla

Sal Lopez: Accordion Man

Gabriel Gonzalez: A.B. Quintanilla

Aaron Lohr: Chris Perez

Natalie Herrera: Young Selena

Liza Ybarra: Suzette Quintanilla

Mario Rocha: Billy

Book and lyrics by Edward Gallardo. Music by Fernando Rivas. Directed and choreographed by Miranda Garrison. Musical director Bob Esty. Scenic designer Randy Blom. Sound by Tom Sorce and David Dansky. Lighting by Jeremy Gossett. Production stage manager John M. Galo.