Paquito Forever – Live at Zédel

Paquito Forever at Live at Zédel, London.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

The tale of a gay Catalonian growing up wanting to be dancer in Franco’s post-war Spain might sound like the start of a Spanish Billy Elliot – Guille Elliot? – but Fran Arráez and Gerard Alonso’s Paquito Forever isn’t ever likely to fill the Victoria Palace.

Instead, director Victor Alvaro gives us an intimate and personal account of the real-life adventures of the “flamenco dancer, comedian, transvestite… artist!” Paquito (Paco) Alonso, who grafted his way out of fascist Spain to reach the bright lights of Broadway and beyond.

Paco who? I hear you ask.

He might mean very little to UK audiences but Paquito – portrayed in this (practically) one-man cabaret show by the brilliant Joan Vázquez – is clearly a resonant name in his native Spain. There, this “new musical” has won a number of awards, and now, off the back of its success, it’s been brought to the UK for a one-night tryout.

Vázquez, who played the titular role in Spanish in Barcelona to great acclaim, returned to Zédel after a brief spell there in 2017, when he presented his love letter to Stephen Sondheim. In this new show, he’s joined – albeit very briefly and almost pointlessly – by Peter Caulfield, who gave that unforgettable portrayal of Herod in the recent Regent’s Park production of JC Superstar. Such a wonderful talent is very much wasted here – no fault of his own. Accompanying at the piano is (writer) Alonso, who does a faultless job.

There’s absolutely no doubting at all the talent of Vázquez – his passion and enthusiasm for the part of Paquito seeps from his pores, and he’s got the voice and the moves to back it up. He nails – to my non-Iberian ears, at least – that classic cante jondo flamenco sound that permeates the show (okay, perhaps with a little Broadway tinge and vibrato to it). But like the character he’s portraying, he’s very versatile, so can be delicate when required. (A pity that the budget couldn’t stretch to a guitar to round out that Spanish sound.)

He’s deliciously camp too, yet able to conjure up a very real and rounded character that you immediately warm to. His Paco starts off bumbling and awkward, almost racially stereotyped – a comedy figure like Fawlty Towers’ Manuel. But as Vázquez gently, teasingly reveals ever more about Alonso and his struggle to cope with the rigid – and anti-homosexual – regime of Franco’s post-war Spain, we discover a strong willed and courageous figure who refuses to let adversity, failure, bigotry or even his other dear mother back home in “Barth-e-lona” stop him being a success.

And success he was, by this account, taking on Broadway and Vegas and even touring internationally with West Side Story, complete with Jerome Robbins in tow. (The flamenco-flavoured Bernstein is delightful!) It’s a little tricky to follow the manic hopping around from adventure to adventure but it’s a pleasant enough experience and most probably captures perfectly this flighty, flickering-flame of a figure.

The book is sufficiently charming in Vázquez’s hands, although it doesn’t feel quite finished or polished enough. Perhaps something was lost in translation. The secondary roles, played by Caulfield, are few and far between and currently quite unnecessary. Arráez and Alonso don’t push too hard on the gay agenda – it’s there, of course, but doesn’t take too much of the spotlight. Like Paco’s outrageous outfits, it adds a bit of colour to the story.

Musically, it’s flavoured with jazz, blues and salsa and served with lashings of flamenco. There’s enough variety to let the 80-minute one act pass effortlessly, so even if you’re not fully following the unfolding biography, there’s enough to keep your ears happy.

Will it mean anything to – or attract or appeal to – anyone not of a Spanish origin with some knowledge of its colourful character? Perhaps not. I certainly wouldn’t have been compelled to see the show based on its publicity. It’s also not quite as sassy or sequinned as I felt it could be, given Paco’s seemingly glitterball life. But I’m glad to have caught it and witnessed the tour de force that is Joan Vázquez. For him alone, the ticket price is justified.

Craig Glenday