Más Dramáticas, a drag parody showcase of iconic telenovelas from the 80’s, 90’s and early aughts, will have two showings at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen this October 23 and 24. The Spanish language play will be shown as part of the 7th annual Destinos, Chicago’s international Latino theater festival, running from September 30-November 17. Destinos is produced through the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to elevating the profile of Chicago’s Latino theater community.
By Charlie Kolodziej
Written and directed by local drag icon “La mas mejor,” Esteban Pantoja, Más Dramáticas follows the headmistress of a prestigious acting academy as she holds auditions for the lead role in the school’s end-of-year recital. The action unfolds through a series of vignettes parodying classic telenovelas like Dos mujeres, un camino, Rosa salvaje, and Yo soy Betty, la fea, which readers may also recognize as the U.S.’s Ugly Betty.
“It’s parody, it’s Mexican comedy, but with a twist of music and drag shows,” said Pantoja, who also plays the school’s headmistress, a drag-ified version of the character Catalina Creel from the 80’s telenovela Cuna de Lobos. In the original telenovela, Creel is the matriarch of an aristocratic family who is feuding over their late patriarch’s fortune.
Creel is well known for the eye-patch she wears over her right eye; for their Más Dramáticas version, Pantoja camped-up the character by wearing a pair of dark glasses with one of the lenses missing. “Cuna de Lobos was really big in Mexico and obviously Latin America, so people connect with and recognize her right away,” said Pantoja.
In one scene, the queens spoof El Extraño Retorno de Diana Salazar, a telenovela about witches who, after being burned by the Catholic Church in 1640, are reincarnated in 1980’s Mexico City. The potential for drag queen camp is self-evident. During past runs of Más Dramáticas, people really connected with this scene in particular. “It’s one of the highlights of the show,” said Pantoja.
The music of classic telenovelas is often just as iconic as the divas that made them famous, said Pantoja, and it’s an important throughline connecting the vignettes of Más Dramáticas. In true drag fashion, the play features lip syncs of iconic telenovela tunes, and even a few live performances from the more vocally gifted queens. The queens also perform songs from the popular Mexican musical Mentiras, about four women who all discover they are in love with the same man. The musical has a popular drag queen fronted spin-off in Mexico City known as Mentidrags.
The cast of Más Dramáticas is composed entirely of local Latine drag talent and several of the cast members have also had out-of-drag roles in Chicago theater productions, something that was unheard of when he started doing drag in 2007.
“Now with social media and RuPaul, it has become a different level and there is global entertainment exposure,” said Pantoja. “Back then, we were so limited, so my drag queen style is really old school.”
Pantoja is a staple of the Latine drag community, performing regularly at After Dark bar and Fantasy nightclub as queen La mas mejor. Attentive viewers may also recognize cast members and local queens Miranda Kherr and Mariana Castro. Many of the Más Dramáticas cast often perform together under the name Cabaret Parodia, an all-LGBTQ+ Latine theater ensemble founded by Pantoja in 2015.
“Destinos knew what I did with Cabaret Paródia and I guess they really wanted a Latino LGBTQ theater ensemble to be involved as well,” said Pantoja. “We are glad we made it to their books and hopefully they invite us again next year!”
Come see the wigs fly at Más Dramáticas, Oct. 23 and 24, at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, drag queen is a universal language.