What is the History of Mexican Performers on Broadway?

Do you have a burning Broadway question? Dying to know more about an obscure Broadway fact? Broadway historian and self-proclaimed theatre nerd Jennifer Ashley Tepper is here to help with Broadway Deep Dive. BroadwayWorld is accepting questions from theatre fans like you. If you're lucky, your question might be selected as the topic of her next column!

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This time, the reader question was: What is the history of performers from Mexico on Broadway?

The terrific new musical Real Women Have Curves brings the story of a Mexican family to Broadway. Ana is a first-generation Mexican-American who dreams of becoming a journalist and must navigate being the only one with American citizenship in her family as she finds her own way in the world. Her mother, father, and sister have dreams of their own; her mother in particular struggles to align her experience as a Mexican immigrant with her daughter’s plans for the future. Meanwhile, the whole Garcia family tries to support sister Estela’s clothing factory, where she strives to find success amidst unfair obstacles given to immigrants. 

Florencia Cuenca, who is originating the role of Estela, is a Mexican immigrant herself, who is still trying to obtain American citizenship. Her personal experiences with the American immigration system mirror some of the struggles that are dramatized in Real Women Have Curves. Aline Mayagoitia who plays the role of Itzel, a worker who has just come to America, is from Mexico as well.

Artists from Mexico have brought great and important work to the Broadway stage over the years. A prominent recent example is Sara Ramirez. Born in Mazatlan, Mexico, Ramirez appeared in three Broadway shows before their Tony Award-winning turn originating the role of Lady of The Lake in Spamalot in 2005. Ramirez’s performances in The Capeman, The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm, and A Class Act also showed off their powerhouse voice. 

Historically, Ricardo Montalban was a star performer on Broadway who was born in Mexico City. The eventual movie and TV star, known for work from Star Trek to How The West Was Won to Planet of the Apes, made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the musical Seventh Heaven. His most prominent Broadway role was starring opposite Lena Horne in Jamaica in 1957, a role that earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. Montalban founded the organization Nosotros, “the oldest Latino arts advocacy organization in the United States”. 

Another Mexican-born actor who made history in America and was also involved in social causes was Anthony Quinn. Born Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca, Quinn changed his name before becoming the first Mexican-born actor to win an Oscar. Quinn’s Broadway credits include a stint as Stanley Kowalski in the original Broadway run of A Streetcar Named Desire, originating the role of Henry II in Becket which garnered him a Tony nomination, and leading the 1983 revival of Zorba as the title character. Quinn was an activist for civil rights and contributed funding to several causes fighting discrimination against Hispanic Americans. 

Another Mexican artist-activist was Margo. The one-named Margo was born Maria Margarita Guadalupe Teresa Estella Castilla Bolado y O’Donnell. The actor and dancer got her start in Mexican nightclubs before being discovered and put in films including Lost Horizon and Viva Zapata! Margo’s Broadway credits included the hit play A Bell for Adano (1944), adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Later in life, she co-founded Plaza de la Raza, an educational and cultural center.

While Quinn was the first Mexican-born actor to win an Oscar, Katy Jurado was the first Latinx actress to win a Golden Globe and to be nominated for an Oscar. Jurado was known for High Noon (1952) and she made both American and Mexican films throughout her prolific career. She received media attention for her relationships with Marlon Brando, Tyrone Power, and Ernest Borgnine (who she married). Jurado received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is known for her contributions to the genre of Westerns. Her one foray onto Broadway was the 1956 sex farce The Best House in Naples which closed after only three performances.

Although Jurado made important entertainment history, she did only participate in one Broadway production. One of the Mexican-born artists with the most Broadway credits is Romney Brent. Brent was born in Saltillo and made his Broadway debut at age 20, acting in The Lucky One. He followed this 1922 debut with 20 others in the next decade, including an appearance in the original Garrick Gaieties in 1925, before transitioning into writing as well. His plays included The Mad Hopes and Tomorrow’s a Holiday. Brent became a director on Broadway as well, with credits including The Night Before Christmas, The Lady Comes Across, and The Winter’s Tale. One of his final Broadway credits was co-starring in the hit two-hander The Fourposter (later the inspiration for I Do! I Do!) opposite Sylvia Sidney. Brent directed plays and taught drama in his native Mexico as well.

As far as multi-hyphenates, Luis Van Rooten holds the impressive distinction of not only being a force in entertainment, on Broadway and on screen, but also an architect and author of books. Van Rooten emigrated to America from Mexico in 1914 as an undocumented immigrant. On Broadway, he originated roles in the hit plays A Touch of the Poet (1958) and Luther (1963).

The actor and director Mario Van Peebles was born in Mexico. The multi-hyphenate’s father, Melvin Van Peebles was a groundbreaking artist who pioneered the Blaxploitation film genre and made history on Broadway with shows like Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. The younger Van Peebles appeared on Broadway in Waltz of the Stork, created by the elder Van Peebles. Waltz of the Stork (1982) was a semi-autobiographical original musical.

The San Luis Potosí City-born Lupe Vélez was one of the first Mexican actors to achieve major success in Hollywood. Nicknamed “The Mexican Spitfire”, Vélez died tragically of an overdose at age 36, after a busy career that included originating roles in a Broadway musical (Hot-Cha!), musical revue (Strike Me Pink), and play (You Never Know). In Hot-Cha! (1932), which had the subtitle "Laid in Mexico”, she played the role of Conchita, and sang a number of the same name as well as another Ray Henderson-Lew Brown tune named “Say What I Wanna Hear You Say”. Hot-Cha! was the final original production produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and its other performers included Gypsy Rose Lee in her Broadway debut, billed under the name Rose Louise.   

Alexander Kirkland, one-time husband of Gypsy Rose Lee, was born in Mexico. He was a player in The Group Theatre, a movie star who shared the screen with Tallulah Bankhead, and a prolific Broadway artist with over 20 credits. 

María Grever was the first female Mexican composer to achieve significant international success. Her songs “What a Diff’rence A Day Makes” and “Tippi-Tippi-Tin” were big hits on the radio. Grever was born in Mexico, to a Mexican mother and Spanish father. Her dream was to bring Mexican music to American culture. In 1941, she composed the Broadway musical Viva O’Brien which premiered at the Majestic Theatre. The show, called “a Latin-American musical” in the press, was a fantastical fable about a scientist leading a team to find a magical wishing stone in Mexico. Viva O’Brien incorporated Mexican sounds in its score, which was sadly never recorded as the show closed after 20 performances. I wrote about Grever in my book, Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy that the History Books Left Out. 

One of the Viva O’Brien’s stars, Victoria Cordova, was from Mexico herself. Cordova was often billed as “the Mexican Monsoon of the Night Clubs” in her work, which also included the Broadway musicals Around the World and Louisiana Lady. Grever cast her as the female lead in the show and later recorded a prominent version of “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” with her.

In the first half of the 20th century, opera companies sometimes played residencies on Broadway and there were occasionally standalone opera productions as well. Several of these starred the Mexico City-born Irma Gonzalez. She played Mimi in La Boheme on Broadway in three separate productions, and starred in Pagliacci as well. 

At age 22, the Culiacán- born José Limón made his Broadway debut in a minor role in a revival of Lysistrata (1930). He then appeared in a dance version of Candide (1933) as well as in the original cast of The Irving Berlin-Moss Hart revue As Thousands Cheer (1933). Within four years of Limón’s Broadway debut, he was choreographing the new Jerome Kern-Otto Harbach musical Roberta, which would become a hit. He continued to both perform and choreograph on Broadway, and in 1947, appeared at the Belasco in a self-titled show.

The 1939 Broadway musical Mexicana was actually produced by the country of Mexico! Intended to bring Mexican culture and musical theater to America, the show was directed by the Mexican theatre and film artist Celestino Gorostiza. Gorostiza was director of the country of Mexico’s Department of Fine Arts at the time. The show was part of a cultural exchange that also included the Mexican exhibit at the World’s Fair. Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas said at the time that he hoped the musical would help change Americans’ minds; instead of thinking of his country as only a source of oil and revolutions, they could think of it as a country of superior artistry. Over 100 Mexican artists were involved in Mexicana, which ran at the 46th Street Theatre, currently the Richard Rodgers, home of Hamilton. 

Bianca Marroquin, who has made history in her many stints as Roxie in the Chicago revival, hails from Monterrey, Mexico, as does Mauricio Martínez, who starred in On Your Feet! in 2017. Jaime Camil, who has also starred in Chicago, is a Mexican- born performer who was featured in Latinologues, the 2005 play by Rick Najera about the Latino-American experience; Eugenio Derbez, from Mexico City, was another of the show’s performers. Lupita Nyong’o, who is Kenyan, was born in Mexico; she starred in Eclipsed in 2016. 

Of course there are also many artists who have Mexican heritage and were born elsewhere, who have made a mark on Broadway, from Lin-Manuel Miranda to Lindsay Mendez to Mandy Gonzalez.

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