Stick “The True Story of Coca Gomez”

The techno-comedy “The True Story of Coca Gomez,” starring Otilio Warrington (“Bizcocho”) as the world-famous beauty and polishing product businesswoman, has to have her assistant Gloria (Tita Guerrero) handle, perhaps, an unexpected challenge on Saturday night. , when the second performance of the play began on stage, this one at the Centro de Bellas Artes de Caguas.

The ultimate goal of theatrical comedy and the work that the actors strive for, is undoubtedly to make the audience not stop laughing throughout the development of the plot. and this, if attained, is very excellent for the production and the acting body, but the challenge for the actor on duty, when attacking his lines, is to be exact and precise, to await the pause indicated which occurs so organically. , Something so that his verbal and non-verbal action is not lost between the laughter of the audience.

And that’s exactly the kind of audience that Warrington, Guerrero, and the rest of the cast faced. Hundreds of people who went to enjoy, not stopping laughing, throughout the almost two hours that the show lasted, the main center of which was the character of Coca Gomez, one of the corridonas from Puerto Rico to through the television comedy show Los Kakukómicos, broadcast by Telemundo, (Channel 2), Throughout the 1980’s to 1990’s, in the production of Paquito Cordero.

Most of the time the actors were looking graceful in front of that audience and their laughter, and on other occasions the plot got lost. Anyway, people kept laughing.

The play began last Friday and continued with its second performance on Saturday, in front of the Full House. The production of the work, Alexandra LLC, has already confirmed the offers, for this Sunday in Caguas. Then, for Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th July at Centro de Bellas Artes in Santurce. Then they will be at the Centro de Bellas Artes in Humacao on Saturday August 12th, Saturday August 26th and Sunday August 27th, at the Yagüez Theater in Mayagüez.

Warrington’s character Coca Gomez got her first break from Puerto Rican audiences for nearly 21 years, from 1990 to 2011, when most of the Los Kakukómicos cast appeared in a show at the Centro de Bellas Artes de Caguas for the month of February.

Since then, no one has heard of Coca Gomez, the merchant, successful beauty entrepreneur, male and female, whose phrases associated with her products and new beauty and refinement formulas are forever stuck in Puerto Rican history. “I MAKE IT, I USE IT, AND I RECOMMEND IT!”.

In the 1980s, Coca Gomez, with the help of “Bizcocho”, led the local comics and in American cities where a large number of Boricuas live. A huge generation of Puerto Ricans grew up with her, followed her, captured her personality, and carried her on a pedestal. Warrington played her character respectfully, she thought, she acted, she spoke like a woman. He cared about dignity and did not offend women.

Well, after the departure of Los Kakukómicos from local television, and given this new comedy “The True Story of Coca Gómez”, the writer and screenwriter, Alexis Sebastián Méndez, who already had previous experience working on a script for a Los Kakukomicos special, He got into the skin of that generation who had a great time with Cuca Gómez’s character.

Thus, after revising old comic scripts produced by Felipe San Pedro and Shorty Castro, Mendes brought a “new twist” with the character, adapting it to our times and based on questions any son of the 1980s would ask a neighbor, about life as Coca Gomez today.

What happened to his life, what does he do, where is he, does he live in Puerto Rico, in the United States, in Europe? Is she a bald millionaire marrying? And what about his loyal and always devoted friend and assistant Gloria? These and other questions gave rise to the creativity of Mendez, who deftly devised a script and narrative to answer and clarify these kinds of doubts.

Sure, there can be a good screenplay, but without a good director, it just doesn’t progress. The hand of veteran theater director Gilberto Valenzuela gave shape and direction to those lyrics, dialogues and sentences. He also worked on set design. A good success was the presentation of new recordings on screen of comic “sketches” with characters from Los Kakukómicos, while changes were made to the scenery.

A good script and a good director are not enough. Top-notch actors are needed to deliver a play that comes and goes like “The True Story of Coca Gomez”, in comic time, that flows with cadence, rhythm, elegance…and makes the audience die of laughter.

And here it was that production dropped the ball.

“Bizcocho” is in a role he knows, because he birthed it from day one. Tita Guerrero giving her own touch to a character like Gloria, initially developed by another favorite of the people of Puerto Rico, Rosita Velazquez. Seniority Cast as Marilyn Bobo, Yoyo Boing, Adrian García, Wilzka Seda, Braulio Castillo, Herbert Cruz, Rene Monclova, Gil Vieira (Hummingbird), Eric Chicho Rodriguez, Ali Warrington, Tyrese Warrington (Ali Warrington’s daughter Bizcocho’s granddaughter) and Special Participation For the tele-reporter Lourdes Collazo, she gave life to a lively, mischievous comedy, full of double meanings, adapted for these years, but more daring than what appeared on television, but that was to the taste of the general public.

The plot and its consequences, it is difficult to put into context in this writing, because although it seems simple, it is in fact very complex, it mainly refers to the fact that Coca Gomez and her lifelong beauty rival, Luba Sofia (Marilyn Bobo), are embroiled in a legal dispute over who is the intellectual owner of the famous phrase “I make it, I use it, and I recommend it!”. This is the beginning of the work, which will also reveal a great secret, obviously not known before, related to the life of Coca Gomez.

“Bizcocho” like Cuca Gómez, one could say the two have been making years together. Indeed, Coca Gomez from the 80s, although it maintains a good style, demeanor and dress, is not the agility and verbal aggressiveness of before. And this is normal. Most of the audience present does not look the same as several decades ago, when they enjoyed Los Cacocomicos. It goes without saying that everyone, in this aspect, is gaining years. But, facilitating laughter and making people laugh, is still latent.

Tita Guerrero, in character as Gloria, is the point and the ball. She is the one carrying this comedy. It’s the whirlpool, the energy, the spark, the match that lights up everything and takes Bizkucho and the whole world by the hand.

They look very good in their entries, García and Seda as Soledad, Solitaria, Colibri, Castillo, Bobo (with a touch of Cruella de Vil’s character), Monclova, Cruz and Rodriguez, who play three roles in stages. The crowd was very firm with the yo-yo Boeing, Castillo and Colibri divisions.

Finally, it is possible that this comedy cannot be fully understood or enjoyed by the current younger generation, but for those who are 45-50 and over, it is an opportunity to remember the old times, to see the old people on stage actors and tell the truth. And laugh at ease and win.