Rich@DallasVoice.com<\/a><\/p>\nThis weekend at Theatre Arlington, Daniel Hernandez premieres the new show that he wrote, directed and stars in: Mixtape: An Original Musical with Unoriginal Songs. The show is part of TA\u2019s Club Cabaret series, and Hernandez will open the show on Saturday \u2014 and close it that day as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal really is to test out the format,\u201d Hernandez explained. \u201cIt\u2019s a quick, fun scripted musical, but I want to continue ideas like this and see what stems out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
TA\u2019s series often showcases a night of music and stories performed often by a solo artist. This Saturday, July 19, will be different.<\/p>\n
TA Executive Producer Steven D. Morris explained, \u201cOur Club Cabaret series is not always what is considered \u2018true cabaret.\u2019 Often it is more of a concert or a performer showcase,
\u201cDaniel has done a couple of fun and successful shows, but I told him I wanted something more, with a theme and a throughline,\u201d Morris continued. \u201cHe took it several steps further and created a cross between cabaret and a jukebox musical \u2014 fun old songs that people know and brand-new characters figuring out long term friendships. He gathered up some amazing DFW singers and musicians.\u201d The out artist went all out.<\/p>\n
Hernandez has performed in the Club Cabaret series before, including an episode of his podcast Daniel Does DFW Theater. But this time he chose not to revisit the usual format of the series which often features a lone singer \u2014 or maybe a duo \u2014 performing a set list of songs and material.<\/p>\n
No. The out artist went all out.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s wild,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to bring an actual show to life, and we got a whole cast \u2014 a music director, a band, a choreographer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to just take a stab at doing this. There\u2019s no set, no scripts in hands and minimal costumes, but it\u2019s a show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hernandez is no stranger to writing scripts and songs, but for Mixtape, he relied on some of his own favorite songs for his story. \u201cI threw around a bunch of ideas when putting this together, but I love \u201990s music. I knew what artists I wanted in there, and all the songs tie directly in to tell what\u2019s happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He had to have Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, some Destiny\u2019s Child and other iconic artists of that decade all to help tell his comedy\/drama.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s semi-meta because all the characters are based on the actors in real life, but Mixtape is about six friends who have lost contact after high school. They each receive an anonymous letter telling them all to meet at a former cabin hangout. There they find this mixtape they all made with this music that also ends up telling the story,\u201d Hernandez said in describing the plot.<\/p>\n
Six people rendezvous at a cabin \u2014 and it\u2019s not a horror story? Hernandez laughs at the question: \u201cA mysterious letter to go to a cabin? Of course not!\u201d<\/p>\n
His cast of six includes Aly Badalamenti, Ben Meaders, Lexi Nieto, Peter DiCesare and Sydnie Roy along with Hernandez himself. The meta part of Mixtape is that he wrote the characters to be just like the actors. And it was an easy task for Hernandez.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone in this show are my closest friends,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean I\u2019m always in horrible relationships, so I wrote that into my character. I mix in real-life scenarios, but it\u2019s all comical, and the audience can sing along to all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside Hernandez as director is music director Adam C. Wright and choreographer Leslie Navarro-Bovaird.<\/p>\n
Mixtape may be just all for fun, but Hernandez notes that it isn\u2019t short on representation, as if his own many job titles on the show weren\u2019t enough. \u201cI\u2019m happy to say that the majority of cast and creative team are queer themselves and there is a queer storyline through it,\u201d he promised.<\/p>\n
But Mixtape is more about fun and friends for Hernandez \u2014 and maybe about personal challenge. Morris also ponders how this could be a new aspect to Theatre Arlington\u2019s series that could introduce audiences to more North Texas talents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this could create a new trend for performers to showcase their talents by creating their own roles with songs they excel at singing,\u201d Morris said. \u201cWe have so many talented people in this area looking for the right show for them. How great would it be if they could start creating their own that shows off their unique skills?<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited to see how audiences will react to it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a slight irony in the fact that Hernandez is the first to bring a show to the series with Mixtape. \u201cSteven wanted original material for the cabaret, and, at first, I said \u2018No,\u2019\u201d Hernandez admitted. \u201cBut I\u2019m glad I did this. It was challenging, to say the least. But it\u2019s a show with heart, and I close it with a nice bow, and now I\u2019m inspired to maybe do more.\u201d <\/p>\n
For tickets, visit TheatreArlington.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Hernandez RICH LOPEZ | Staff WriterRich@DallasVoice.com This weekend at Theatre Arlington, Daniel Hernandez premieres the new show…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":72675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[50847,5229,50848,50849,7371,7372,5603,44449,50850,4368,15408,9221,15409,50851,358,50852,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-72674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-adam-c-wright","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-club-cabaret","11":"tag-daniel-hernandez","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fortworth","14":"tag-lgbtq","15":"tag-musical","16":"tag-peter-dicesare","17":"tag-podcast","18":"tag-rich-lopez","19":"tag-stage","20":"tag-stage-notes","21":"tag-steven-d-morris","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-theatre-arlington","24":"tag-tx","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114874342619507591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}