Enric Cambray: “There is another way to look at life”
Henry Cambray (Barcelona, 1988) is Jaumet’s ass. He is one of the few actors who can both direct a great musical and star in a show (only this first half-season ago Hamlet 2.0, The wise women, A Macbeth’s song i the little prince), such as producing a gala or a television program (now, the tower). And all this with a commendable enthusiasm and joy. Let’s talk in a break from the essays ofThe day of the groundhogthe Nostromo musical that wants to ring in this Christmas, from December 23 to February 2 at the Coliseum Theatre. The team behind shows like The crazy cage i Singing in the rainwith Roc Bernadí i Diana Roig of performers, still his first major format in Catalan.
Teatre Barcelona: The resignation of Àngel Llàcer has caused you to throw yourself into the direction ofThe day of the groundhog next to Manu Guix. How do you live it?
Henry Cambray: I wish it wasn’t for this reason, because it means my friend has had a bad time, but it’s a natural path. It’s very complicated to do large-scale musicals, but I come trained. It had been years since Ángel stopped taking me as an actor because he wanted me to be by his side in the direction, first in the programs The punctual i the wolfand then a Time and the Conways i The producers. And I’m at ease, directing. I found my place.
How is Enric the director?
I had already directed glued, The success of the seasontwo Goya galas, three Gaudí… And in these large formats, what I try is to do something very horizontal, so that everyone has their space to express themselves creatively, psychologically or emotionally. I try to do a lot, a lot, team: let everyone know what’s going on all the time, what the show explains, what direction it takes, I don’t like them to make little heads.
Enric Cambray, Myriam Benedicted and Manu Guix, artistic directors of the musical ‘El dia de la marmota’
Do you sleep well or does it give you nightmares, groundhog?
I dream of groundhogs, but not in a negative way. It is true that the brain works all the time. The other day, Belbel calls me and says: “Are you having a good time?” and I didn’t know how to answer. I realized that I’m having a great time, everything has turned out as we had planned, but I don’t give myself the space to savor it, because I have the engine of work, work, work… The Angel has something very more playful and here we come super-concentrated and don’t waste a single minute. Now I’m forcing myself to feel like I’m enjoying it.
Why do you choose The day of the groundhog? It is a musical by Tim Minchin and Danny Rubin that adapts the film Caught in timewhich starred Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in 1993, and has been made in the West End and on Broadway, but had no version in other languages.
It is very interesting that a contemporary show is coming to Catalonia for the first time and, moreover, with the great pride it makes us, this year, to be able to say that we are doing it in Catalan. I think it connects very well with what is happening to us today, that sometimes we have to pause, stop and say: all this inertia that we carry is not life. Life is other things, it’s your children or my garden. Phil Connors is a pack guy, a scumbag, a narcissist with an outsized ego who doesn’t like anything around him and there’s a gods ex machina which tells him: you will stay here until you learn that there is another way to look at life. This, within a romantic comedy, within a musical, comes a moment that punches you. Man, it’s not Glengarry Glen Rossbut it does open your eyes to the little things in life.
It is not to put pressure, but Stephen Sondheim refused to do the musical because “it would be perfecting something that is already perfect”.
Well, I think they’ve improved the film, because the score takes us first to something super fun and then to a humanity that I’ve seen in few musicals, the ones that move you. In addition, the character of Rita Hansom, who in a film from the 90s remained only as ‘the woman of the film’ is here a contemporary character who has a transformative role.
as it sounds The day of the groundhog?
There are rock, pop, country references, there’s even a new bag. The world of Tim Minchin is that of the musical Matilda. The key is how to make a score repetitive in time without being repetitive. It really is a spectacular but hellish score, everything goes supersquare, it’s math.
This is Nostromo’s sixth musical and the first in Catalan, and it is thanks to public aid that has been specifically designed to produce large-format musicals. Do you think that Catalan is an impediment to reaching the general public?
No, I don’t share it. I think that, at the moment we are in, language should not be a handicap. I think it responds to economic decisions of a private production that has many risks and an investment of 3 million euros. And compare it with sea and sky it is a trap because it is a historical, concrete and fantastic phenomenon, but it is unique.
Now that he says goodbye sea and skydo you think there is a specific label for musical theater in Catalan?
There is not one, there are many and it is the greatness of Catalan theatre, that it is done soul, The joy that happens, normal parents, EGOs Theater… Perhaps we would lack a musical theater that explained things that touch us more. There is a lot of repertoire that should be recovered and revisited in a contemporary way. I think that one thing that our generation must do, now that we are starting to push hard, is to start celebrating the things that happen.
Why do you say that?
I started in the professional theater when I was 14, so I’ve been doing it for 22 years, and what I’ve heard the most are envy, suspicion and insults towards what the other person does, instead of celebrating it. And it makes me angry to compare it to Madrid, but in Madrid things are celebrated when they happen. We must enter a phase of celebration and enthusiasm. And also critical, but constructive, not destructive. But here we start to destroy ourselves before we start building and we never finish building anything. Let’s get excited about each other’s work. Let’s celebrate!, because we all know how hard it is to raise something, in the Maldà or the Coliseum. Are we going to do shitty stuff? yes Will we do things that will be successful? Also But at the outset let’s not have this wrinkled nose when it comes to getting in front of things.
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