Marga Gomez Takes One Last Solo

Marga Gomez Takes One Last Solo

PHOTO COURTESY MARGA GOMEZ

‘Latin Standards’ at The Marsh could be the last solo run for Marga Gomez.


Her one-woman show will be at The Marsh.

Shortly after playing a thinly veiled Fidel Castro in Central Works’ play King of Cuba at Berkeley City Club this summer, acclaimed comedian and longtime solo performer Marga Gomez returns to performing her 12th solo piece, Latin Standards, which she says will be her last one-woman show.

Latin Standards returns to the subject matter of some of Gomez’s earlier shows, A Line Around the Block and Los Big Names, in talking about (and playing) her father, Cuban immigrant comedian Willy Chevalier. (Her early Memory Tricks focused on her mother, a Puerto Rican dancer.) In her current show, Gomez talks about her father’s persistence as a showman in 1960s Manhattan in relation to her own experience coming up as a Latina lesbian comedian in San Francisco in the 1980s right up to her life as a performer today. She pays special attention to the songs her father wrote, brooding songs rooted in sadness and jealousy.

After premiering off-Broadway last year, Latin Standards played San Francisco’s Brava Theater Center back in January and again in March and now comes to The Marsh Berkeley this October and November. Gomez is always a hilarious performer and a skilled hand at weaving together these various personal threads into a narrative arc, so this last solo show of hers should be a must-see.

Latin Standards, Oct. 5-Nov. 17, Fri., 8 p.m., Sat, 8:30 p.m., $25-$35, The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley, 415-282-3055, TheMarsh.org.

This report was originally published in our sister publication, the East Bay Monthly.