Dan Guerrero - Growing Up Gaytino

It was more than 30 years since actor Dan Guerrero took to the stage as a performer. The last time was in 1973 when the then actor was featured in an off-Broadway musical. What brought him back to the stage is �Gaytino!, his one-man show that explores his dual identity as a Mexican-American and gay man. The show premiered in Los Angeles in the spring of 2006 as part of the Center Theatre Group's "Solomania!" festival. It has since been performed in New York (off-Broadway at the Zipper Factory) and Washington DC (at the Kennedy Center.)

"From Mariachi to Merman. Sondheim to C�sar Ch�vez: this remarkable life journey takes you from East LA in the 1950s to New York's Great White Way in the '60s & '70s, and back to Hollywood," reads a press release from the show.

"Guerrero possesses the highly energetic presence of a man decades younger," wrote Variety in reviewing the LA production, "and one would never guess from the polish with which he moves and the comfort with which he performs that he gave up his "singer-mover" career about four decades ago. He and director Diane Rodriguez execute the song-and-dance sequences to a T, splicing into them comic or biographical bits. They add even more joy to the proceedings."

In the show Guerrero offers a buoyant overview of growing up gay and Latino in Los Angeles. He grew up in the shadow of his celebrity father, Lalo Guerrero, who is considered the 'father of Chicano music.' But Don't look for some dark story of rejection and homophobia. Indeed Guerrero life journey is one of much light and little darkness: born in East LA, he moved to New York at twenty to be a performer. He appeared in musicals and plays off-Broadway, cabarets, summer stock and regional theater before becoming a successful Broadway talent agent. (Amongst her clients were the very young Sarah Jessica Parker and Fran Dresher.) Upon his return to Los Angeles, he became a "born again Hispanic," working towards establishing more positive Latino images on the screen as a casting director, writer and a producer/director of documentaries and films. Hispanic Magazine recognized him as "one of the 25 most powerful Latinos in Hollywood."

Boston experience

EDGE spoke with Guerrero this week from Los Angeles where he was preparing his trip to Boston for a performance of �Gaytino! at Northeastern University on Friday, October 5. "What should I wear? Do I need to bring my cashmere?" he asked.

Told a light jacket might suffice, we asked if he had been to Boston before:

Dan Guerrero: In one of my other incarnations - I was an agent. I would like to say my career went from A Chorus Line to Cats. Those were my agent years in New York. I had a number of clients who were in the original production of A Chorus Line. In those days there would the tryouts of new plays and musicals in Philly and Boston. And I would come up from New York to see my clients in pre-Broadway shows. And believe me a lot of them were clunkers. One time I remember being in Boston in the dead of winter. Alice Faye and John Payne, who were actors from Hollywood in the 1940s, were trying out in a revival of Good News. Alice was very sweet, but not much of a singer. She played this straight-laced teacher. At the end of the show she broke loose with this song called 'I Wanna Be Bad,' and while she was singing someone shouted from the balcony, 'You are honey! You are!' It was shocking. This was before such behavior was so commonplace. You know you're old when you think of that wonderful lyric from Chicago: "Whatever happened to class?" Back then it was shocking.

EDGE: Have you ever been heckled?

Dan Guerrero: I've never been heckled, and I Don't expect to start in Boston. I've been very lucky. I've never had a bad review.

New York experience

EDGE: You were a performer before you were an agent. How did that come about?

Dan Guerrero: I fell in love with musical theater at the age of 14. After a few years at junior college I took off for New York and loved it so much I stayed for 20 years. The first seven to eight years I was a performer. At that time musical revues were still popular. I remember being at the Upstairs at the Downstairs -- we were in a show upstairs and Joan Rivers was doing stand-up downstairs.

But it was the time -- I talk about in the show -- of the blond hair/blue eyed juvenile for the most part, so it was sometimes difficult. Accidently I fell into assisting a Broadway agent. Next thing I knew I woke up and it was 15 years later. I didn't mean to be an agent for that long, but I really liked it and had a good time. My last time on stage before �Gaytino! was in 1973 in a show off-broadway.

EDGE: What was it like going back on the stage after so many years?

Dan Guerrero: It felt like yesterday. Like I say, you can't cure a ham! I like variety in my life. It's exciting for me to direct a production for the LA Opera, then run off and do �Gaytino! somewhere. Come back and stage a solo show for Jasmine Guy, and go on to work on a documentary. I like to have different creative outlets and I'm lucky enough that I'm able to do them. It's a very good thing. And I'm writing a new show as we speak. I'm doing a stage reading in LA on November 7. It's an irreverent look on getting older. Very funny. We shall see what happens. Hopefully I'll be doing that all over the country. It's not specifically gay, but I can't go up there and talk about anything about me without talking about being gay.

EDGE: How did the show come about?

Dan Guerrero: With �Gaytino! I wanted to celebrate two people -- my dad (the singer Lalo Guerrero) and my best friend (artist Carlos Almaraz). They both were driving forces in the creation of Gaytino. I also felt that people Don't know Chicano history. They Don't know about the Mexican American experience. And a gay voice at my age is a little more unusual, especially the way in which I present it.

EDGE: In what way?

Dan Guerrero: I just deal with it in a much more humorous way, I think, and the audience thinks so to.

EDGE:You said the show was influenced by your father -- singer Lalo Guerrero. He was a major musical star in the 1950s...

Dan Guerrero: Yes. He was known as the father of Chicano music. He was born here in the U.S. of the first generation of Mexican parents. He was of the generation that they were Mexican at home until they went to school. He lived in the two worlds -- the bicultural, bilingual experience. When I produced a documentary for PBS I called it Lalo Guerrero the Original Chicano, because he represented the original Mexican-American experience. I just got back from DC two weeks ago. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus gala -- a big DC event. 2,000 in the dining room. Every senator, every representative of Latino descent, every ambassador form a Latin American country, Obama spoke. My table mates were Sonia Sotomayer and Nancy Pelosi. They honored leaders in the art, so they honored Marc Anthony and the honored my dad. So I was there to except and make a speech. So it was very cool that people remembered him.

Embracing his culture

EDGE: Didn't you think his music was corny when you were a kid?

Dan Guerrero: (Laughing) I couldn't bear it. I was busy with Rodgers and Hammerstein. I wasn't interested in a cha-cha at all. And that what the arc of the play is about --- embracing my culture. And I thought that was the universal appeal of the play. Everyone goes through that with their cultural heritage. I have people coming up to me saying, I couldn't stand that Polish music my parents played when I was growing up, or Armenian music or Jewish music. Everyone goes through this. And even though my dad was a public figure, my show is still about a father-son relationship. It is still about a best friend relationship.

EDGE: When did you know you were gay?

Dan Guerrero: Shortly after birth. It just was. As I knew I was Latino, I knew I was gay. There is a moment -- and it is in the show -- when I say 'Oh my God!' and I articulate it. But it was never an issue for me.

EDGE: But it has long been a issue for Latino culture...

Dan Guerrero: I think it is an issue with any culture. The Latino culture? Yes it has always been an issue, but is less than an issue it was even a few years ago. When I did the show a year ago June at the Kennedy Center I got a call from Miami. And there is this reporter called Jorge Ramos, which is like saying Tom Brokaw -- a revered journalist and for many years the lead anchor on Univision. And he has a political program. He invited me on to talk about being gay and how that is as a Latino and how my father dealt with it. I did this 15 minute segment on Spanish language television that wouldn't have been Dane five years ago.

But that's why I came up with the word �Gaytino! because you can't say that both groups haven't made tremendous strides, because they have; but the road ahead is very, very long and very, very bumpy. The battle continues. There is much, much work to be Dane, but I think we have to acknowledge how far we've come.

EDGE: Who was Carlos Almaraz, your best friend who also influenced the creation of the piece?

Dan Guerrero: We knew each from grammar school. We went off to New York together because he wanted to be an artist and I wanted to sing and dance. He was a very influential Latino artist. He is very important to the piece.

EDGE: You are a gay man of a certain age, which has given you a unique perspective on the gay struggle...

Dan Guerrero: Yes. I have been a witness to history for a long time. And believe me I am not embarrassed about my age -- I shout it out at the end of the show. And when the audience hears it, there's an audible gasp. That's the only reason why I Don't want to print it right now. Of course it makes me feel good because I look damn good. I look younger than my years I am told. And who knows how fabulous I'd look if I had taken care of myself?

EDGE: You've had a partner for 30 years. Have you planning on marriage?

Dan Guerrero: We will be together on November 15 for 30 years. But we are not really interested in getting married. Now isn't that interesting?

EDGE: Not really. Marriage is a generational thing...

Dan Guerrero: That it is. I'm from a generation where the thought of it was something we hadn't thought of in a million years. I just feel that whether we marry or not it is our decision, but we certainly should have the right to. Goldie Hawn has never married Kurt Russell. Susan SaranDan has never married Tim Robbins. No one says you have to, but we should be able to. That being said, I knew that with Proposition 8 we would lose. We did have friends who married during that pocket, but I thought I'm not going to get married so I'd have to return the gravy boat and toasters. When I marry I want to be able to keep my gravy boats in any place in this country. But it will happen.

EDGE: Are you pleased with President Obama's performance so far?

Dan Guerrero: You can't fix everything in five minutes. I think he will come through, but there is a lot of other stuff on his plate at this moment. We've all ben in situations where we have twelve priorities at the same time, and we have to put them in order. And I think that is what he's doing. There are so many issues.

EDGE: About �Gaytino!, what do you want your audiences to come away with?

Dan Guerrero: I want people to come away having been entertained, because that's the main thing. And, I know this is a scary word, educated. WHen we did the world premiere at the Center Theater Group. The audience was older, non-Latino. They never heard of my dad. They barely know anything about Mexican-American history. But they'd come backstage -- strangers -- and say how interesting they found it. So you'll have a great time and come away having learned something, and maybe come away with some new perceptions on being gay and Chicano.

Dan Guerrero performs �Gaytino! October 9, 8pm at the Fenway Center, Northeastern University, 77 Saint Stephens Street, Boston, MA. Tickets $20.00 General Admission; $10.00 NU Faculty/Staff/Alumni/Seniors/Students. For more information call 617-373-4700.