If you’ve ever wished your parents were glamorous theatrical
stars – and what gay child hasn’t? – Marga Gomez in her riotous
and touching one-woman show, Los Big Names, will disavow
you of all delusions of grandeur. Growing up as the only child
of two stars of the Sixties Latin theatre circuit, Gomez yearned
for a kind of normalcy which would enable her picnics in Central
Park with her mother – who when finally coerced to join little
Marga proceeds to a dalliance with a Central Park cop. Such are
the indignities Gomez relates as she recounts the years spent
bouncing between her two sparring and fame-seeking parents, from
whom it’s clear that Gomez has inherited her love of audience
and applause. With the merest trace of a smile, and mischievous
eyes which shift effortlessly from ironic to vulnerable, Gomez
has a physical presence reminiscent of the best mime artists.
And while her humor is limned by the ineffable sadness of the
parent/child dynamic - the distance we travel from our parents
in our pursuit for independence, and the continued need for
their approval, even from the grave – Gomez proves yet again
that there’s nothing like laughter for letting go of resentment
for being the butt of a family joke.