POP CULTURE: CHE DIAZ IS THE GREATEST MUSICAL THEATRE STAR SINCE AUDRA MCDONALD… AND DON’T YOU EVER FORGET IT
This is an earnest post to give flowers to Sara Ramirez, one of the pre-eminent musical theatre performers living today.
Forgive the headline, for we live in an era of clickbait. This is an earnest post to give flowers to Sara Ramirez, one of the pre-eminent musical theatre performers living today.
I say ‘living today’ and not ‘working today’ because, if trends sustain, Sara will NEVER return to stage again. They will simply hoard their gifts as one of (again) the pre-eminent souls to undertake the musical theatrical arts ever throughout time. And here’s proof in blurbs and links.
A breakout like none other: Ramirez gives an unshakeable, career defining performance as Lady of the lake in the original Broadway cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot directed by the legendary Mike Nichols. Every choice they made then is ‘The Perfect Choice’. Note that jammy, irresistible, prime-90’s Juilliard training —which was all about identifying power while having the finesse of elegant deportment and world class language skills.
Ramirez innately possesses the materials and mettle needed for a MUSICAL THEATRE SUPERSTAR: a wide open face with camera subtle control for the first row coupled with an elasticity that can reach the mezzanine, a vocal tone equally balanced between the textually articulate and the sung melodic, and a banging va va voom bod. I love the effortlessness of the vocal melismas, in character, as Lady of the Lake—they’re actually good runs, not mugging— and I love the comedic restraint (only two riffs are used for laughs instead of….every single one — a modern trope that trivializes and defangs the comedy.)
No surprise Ramirez is smashing as an Evita in concert. (Original Broadway Eva Patti Lupone is Juilliard Group One!) See clip above: this is chops to build a revival around.
The final clip above is one of my most cherished performances captured on grainy VHS film. It represents that far gone window of time where musical theatre writers still had radio ambitions. ‘And I Will Follow’ is a standalone song by Jason Robert Brown; but, one could easily imagine it being penned by a peak era Paula Cole. Ramirez brings a full throated earnestness to this song that renders a sensation I can only describe as “how good I felt in my skin riding in the car on a sunny Saturday afternoon with the windows down and FM blaring in a time long before the internet.”