Lilia Cabral impresses the lightness of Rita Lee in 'Balada da Crazy', a play about what it's like to be human in times of departure

Lilia Cabral plays Rita Lee (1947 - 2023) in the musical monologue 'Rita Lee - Balada da crazy'
Cauê Moreno / Reproduction Instagram 'Rita Lee - Balada da crazy'
♫ MUSICAL MONOLOGUE CRITICISM
Title: Rita Lee - Balada da crazy
Performance: Lilia Cabral
Dramaturgy and idealization: Guilherme Samora
Director: Beatriz Barros
Music direction: Dani Nega
Rate: ★ ★ ★ 1/2
♬ Rita Lee was 73 years old and weighed 37 kilos on April 9, 2021 when she was diagnosed with lung cancer and experienced a situation in which "we look at each other and don't know whether to go or stay", as the artist had already summarized, 50 years ago, in verse from the existentialist ballad "Things of Life" (1976).
Rita Lee Jones (December 31, 1947 - May 8, 2023) stayed for another two years on the physical plane and, during that time, wrote a second book of memoirs, passionately chronicling the days of struggle in the face of death announced by doctors, who gave her a prognosis of a few more months of life at the time of diagnosis.
Launched on May 22, 2023, already posthumously, the book "Outra autobiografia" continued the narrative of "Uma autobiografia" (2016) - one of the biggest best-sellers in the Brazilian literary market in the last ten years - and, three years later, became the basis of the theatrical show "Rita Lee - Balada da crazy", starring Lilia Cabral and premiered on May 22, 2023. 2026 at Teatro Faap, in the city of São Paulo (SP), where it will run until August 9th.
Designed by Guilherme Samora, who adapted the book's text for the stage, "Rita Lee - Balada da crazy" does not fit into the framework of a theater musical. It is, rather, a monologue punctuated by music.
In fact, at the opening of the piece, Lilia Cabral gives voice (well placed, in low tones reminiscent of Rita Lee's soft singing) to the hit "Nem luxury nor trash" (1980), one of the many hits from Rita's partnership with Roberto de Carvalho, whose piano is heard in voice-over throughout the show orchestrated under the musical direction of Dani Nega.
Although sewn by the lightness and mordacity typical of Rita's writing, the narrative of the book "Another autobiography" shamelessly and without self-pity exposes the progressive physical decline of the rocker as other tumors appeared throughout the artist's body, including in her head.
On stage, the text takes on softer tones, especially because "Balada da Crazy" builds a sacred aura around Santa Rita de Sampa, but the essence of the book is there.
Exceptional actress, from São Paulo like Rita Lee, Lilia Cabral embodies the artist naturally, in always serene tones, going from laughing to crying in less than a minute. However, the actress' occasional tears - symbols of the moments in which Rita allowed herself to cry in the face of the body's death, which was already appearing inevitable - never weigh down the atmosphere.
Without resorting to sentimentality, a trait that does not exist in the rocker's writing, the monologue "Rita Lee - Ballad of the Crazy" evolves with permanent lightness over the course of 70 minutes. The gracefulness of the piece extends to the direction of Beatriz Barros, sensitive, for example, when symbolizing the movement of opening and closing the lungs in the accordion.
The only strange thing about the text is the moment when, towards the end of the monologue, Lilia Cabral leaves the character to be herself in a confessional statement about the admiration she has always had for Rita Lee since she was a teenager. But Lilia Cabral soon returns to being Rita Lee in this friendly show, with good energy, which complements the biographical musical starring actress Mel Lisboa.
And, in the end, Lilia Cabral, one of the greatest actresses in Brazil, a devotee of Santa Rita de Sampa, is always worth the ticket to any show, including this monologue topped off with the revelry pop march "Dias Melhores Virão" (Rita Lee and Roberto de Carvalho, 1989), as if signaling that, "after the road, a new avenue begins"...
Lilia Cabral stars in 'Balada da crazy', a show based on the second memoir by Rita Lee (1947 - 2023), 'Another autobiography', released in 2023
Mauro Ferreira / g1

Source: G1

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