Loli Márquez-Sterling

May 9, 2012

“I Love That Story!”

The Triad  –  April 26 and 29

There’s an exuberant athleticism about Loli Márquez-Sterling. Whether performing in English or Spanish, she harnesses every inch of her slim self when she sings. An abundance of joy suffuses her performance–which is not to say she comes across as a Pollyanna who cannot acknowledge the sorrows of life as well as the blessings.

Her show at The Triad took its title from what she cited as a customary “Loli-ism.” When she listens to other people talk, Márquez-Sterling noted, she will frequently respond by saying, “I love that story!” whether or not the person has actually related a narrative. There’s a story—told or untold—behind everything that people say and do, she believes.

This theme is apparently what motivated the staging of the opening number, a song by Ñico Rojas, identified in the song list as “Hoy Te Quiero Mas.” The singer began by sitting in front of the audience with what turned out to be a children’s storybook resting in her lap—a pose she also struck in promotional material for the show. Maybe audience members fluent in Spanish got a better idea than I about the significance of the book. I was left momentarily confused—actually thinking for a second or two that she was thumbing through sheet music, looking for her place. She and her director, Linda Amiel Burns, seemed to have taken a misstep here. Better to have come onstage in full, swinging up-tempo mode, I think. In any event, Márquez-Sterling was on her feet before long—all but dancing, gesturing affectionately toward members of the audience as she sang to them.

Márquez-Sterling loves stories in part, it seems, because she is an engaging, natural-born raconteuse. In the early part of her show, she tended toward humorous anecdotes dealing with a somewhat absurd childhood as a Cuban-American girl growing up in Plymouth, New Hampshire. One tale early in the program had to do with her mother’s professed ability to detect a child’s lying eyes. This led to a spirited take on “Them There Eyes” (Maceo Pinkard, Doris Tauber, William Tracey) with Márquez-Sterling providing some amusing character voices while strumming a ukulele (she played accordion and xylophone at other points during the show). A story about her parents’ mangling of English words and phrases led to her take on Tony Hatch’s “Downtown,” with the singer stepping down from the stage to let audience members have their turns imitating her mother’s eccentric pronunciation of the song’s title. Normally this kind of audience participation gambit can make people uncomfortable, but Márquez-Sterling is such a warm, unthreatening performer that she seemed to bring out everyone’s capacity to be a good sport.

The musical arrangement for “Downtown” was a delicious rhythmic stew concocted by Márquez-Sterling’s musical director and pianist, Oriente Lopez. His talents greatly enhanced the success of the entire program. He led the small group of players, making them sound like a much larger ensemble. And he provided one of his own compositions, “Baila Cha Cha Cha C’mon,” which was one of the high points of fun during the set.

As the performance progressed, Márquez’s banter grew more serious and political as she spoke of her family’s exit from Cuba with the onset of the Castro regime. A highlight was her affecting, accomplished performance of “Sns Of” (Jacques Brel, Gérard Jouannest, Mort Shuman), presented as a swirling, emotionally resonant waltz in honor of Cuba’s Women in White, whose vigils protest the Cuban government’s silencing of dissidents. She lightened the mood considerably with Max Gronenthal and Scott Delawanna’s rousing “Only in Miami,” again venturing into the audience, this time to dole out mangos.

She reached a crescendo with her vibrant “Mi Manera,” a Spanish-language version of the Sinatra standard “My Way,” with uncredited Spanish lyrics set to Jacques Revaux and Claude François’s famous melody. The jazz piano accompaniment by Lopez was golden, and the audience—which apparently included a sizeable Cuban-American contingent—responded with wild enthusiasm both for the performer and for a song that serves as an anthem celebrating Cubanos who found new homes for themselves in places as unlikely as Plymouth, New Hampshire.

 

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About the Author

Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing reviews for BistroAwards.com in 2011. More recently he has contributed "Cabaret Setlist" articles about cabaret repertoire. Other reviews and articles have appeared in theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.