Carmen Miranda–The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat, presented by Tocayo Productions Inc. in association with Hudson Theatricals, opens June 11; plays Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 3 pm; through June 27. Tickets: $45. Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6339 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; 323.960.7740 or plays411.com/carmen.

Meager tribute has been paid to beautiful Carmen Miranda, the ultra colorful Portuguese star of ’40s and ’50s movie musicals. Carmen Miranda -The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat, a world premiere musical by Sam Mossler, directed by Beto Araiza, is the first American stage retrospective of her life and career. Its star, the beautiful Mexican actress Magi Avila, will be making her musical theatre debut in Los Angeles as Miranda.

According to Avila, a loving homage to the lady is long overdue. “She’s such an inspiration, a great example to follow for anyone in every career. She was born in Brazil. What a life … and her music! Most of her music is celebration. It’s about the beauty of life and how to do things to make people happy. It’s catchy and so healthy for the mind.”

Magi Avila

Avila hails from Ensenada, Mexico and was amazed to find the similarities between her life and that of Carmen Miranda. “For me, she’s the typical underdog. She came from a very humble family. Her father was a barber who immigrated. My father didn’t immigrate but he was a barber too. Her mother cooked to make some extra money for the family just like my mother. So, we both come from very humble beginnings.”

What made Miranda unique as a singer was her insistence on maintaining her Latin image, which meant her costumes – and those famous signature hats – were rooted in the Brazilian culture. Miranda fans first saw the famous hats in the 1943 film The Gang’s All Here. Avila relates the story of how it began.

“When she was singing she got invited to go to Bahia, a beautiful place in Brazil where she got to see a lot more of the Brazilian tradition. The African women who had come to Bahia wore these beautiful blouses and had these little baskets that carried fruit. They wore them on their heads and would move their arms a certain way and she loved it.

“A gentleman created a song about it that she wanted to do, so she started to create her own costumes from the inspiration these women from Bahia and their traditions gave to her. What is interesting too is she was a white woman from Portugal with light skin and green eyes. Not many people in the United States knew her costumes were inspired by African Americans. Carmen loved them and wanted to show their beautiful traditions to the whole world.”

Dennis Kaye, who served as musical director of the original musical hit  Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara when it was onstage at the Matrix, is also musical director of this show. He is essaying the role of Miranda’s husband David Sebastian as well as playing in the band. When asked about the challenges of bringing the piece to the stage, he commented, “Musically, my greatest challenge has been to recreate, as closely as possible, the Carmen Miranda experience for the audience. The singers, dancers and the band have all tried to remain as authentic as possible to her film performances.”

Magi Avila as Carmen Miranda

What will the musical selections include? Kaye continues, “All her traditional songs like ‘Chico, Chico,’ ‘Chica Chica Bun Chic,’ ‘Mama Yo Quiero,’ among other favorites. So many were famous, it was hard to select. We’ve also included some that were not samba like ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’.”

Avila adds laughing, “All the wonderful tunes people love. They will leave the theater chica.chica.bun.chic-ing.”

She is a great musical asset to this show having been a classically trained opera singer for 10 years. She left that career behind when she got married. Now divorced, she has been successful in Mexico doing film and TV commercials and here, working for major film studios like Universal and Warner Bros. She is a great admirer of Salma Hayek, another Mexican actress who had to cross cultural borders to achieve success. “A big responsibility comes with the talents you have. You have to develop and do the most you can with what you have. With that you can do so much good.”

“Good” for her means to do a show in which she can give work to a lot of people. She emphasizes this is not a showcase for her. There are eight in the cast and it’s a team effort. The show takes the audience through all of Miranda’s life, as a little girl growing up in South America through all the phases of her career to her untimely demise at the age of 46 in 1955, due primarily to spousal and drug abuse. But Carmen Miranda lived first and foremost a happy life.

Avila says, “Carmen had a very sad life at the end but as Shakespeare said, ‘It all depends on how you look at it.’ We want to entertain people, make people happy, like Carmen did. We hope they leave the theatre with big smiles on their faces and that tunes or images or flashbacks come to them two weeks later. That’s our mission.”

Feature image and production image of Magi Avila by Ed Krieger

Article by Don Grigware