By: Iris Shen
Frida Kahlo has been the subject of so much attention — movies, immersive experiences, and even T-shirts — and now there’s going to be a musical about her! Last Thursday, it was announced that the Mexican painter’s life will be made into a musical.
The production is expected to perform on Broadway in 2024 after tryouts next year, and it will follow Kahlo’s life from Mexico City to Paris to New York, and back to the “Blue House” where she was born and died. Named “Frida, The Musical,” the show will include music by Jaime Lozano and lyrics by Neena Beber, and it will be produced by Valentina Berger.
“In all the stories I heard when I was a little child, our family remembered Aunt Frida as a very joyful woman,” said Mara Romeo Kahlo, heiress to the Frida Kahlo legacy, in a statement to The Washington Post. “She was passionate about music, arts and Mexican culture. ‘Frida, The Musical’ honors everything she was: a real woman who fought for her dreams, loved like anybody else and always lived ahead of her time.”
Most Kahlo merchandise portray the artist as an influential feminist icon, but art historians tend to focus on her suffering — depicted vividly in her work. The creators of the musical say they want to capture something more 3-dimensional.
“We really want to see Frida through a wider perspective,” said Lozano in a phone interview. “Everyone knows a colder Frida, a suffering Frida, but she loved life,” Producer Valentina Berger said. “She was really, really fun. That’s what we want to portray. I used to have a sad view of Frida, like, ‘Oh, the poor woman.’ Now, knowing how she was so smart and so clever, I look up to her.”
Lozano visited the Kahlo family, who requested him to write the music for the production. The composer, who immigrated to the US from Mexico in 2007, has spent much of his career telling stories. He says relates to Kahlo, who, like him, was a Mexican immigrant in New York at one point in time.
“She is such an inspiration, not only as an artist but also as a warrior,” he said. “With everything she went through, she kept fighting, making her own art, telling her own story. As a Mexican, to be telling this story and bringing this authenticity to the show, I feel really honored.”
Source articles: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658696217464x382757243075349900/%27Frida%2C%20the%20Musical%27%20will%20take%20the%20painter%27s%20life%20story%20to%20Broadway%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/24/frida-kahlo-musical/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12521895/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0064842/
https://thebadassceo.com/bringing-broadway-abroad-with-industry-veteran-valentina-berger/