Leading Lady Waltz
Alice, just mail the damn letter. You’re still his leading lady. And that other guy’s too…
IDOLIZED has a classic Broadway score fusing 1920’s Jazz Age dance forms, cinematic ballads, and the music of Old Mexico. The score is written in long-line form in which “songs” are part of a larger musical development, giving the orchestra an arc and point of view just like a character.
Action!
Rex teaches the novice cast how to “act” in front of the camera… Action!
Hollywood Dreammaker
Enter Louis B. Mayer… he makes stars! And makes them sign right here on the dotted line!
Ramón Novarro came from Durango, a region of Mexico rich in musical culture. Mariachi, Huapango, and Danzón are all represented in the score…
Durango Polka
Fasten you seatbelts (errr, life preservers). Howe, the Hollywood columnist/rapper is going on location to get the latest dirt on Rex, Alice, and Ramón… to the South Seas…
Sueño con Mañana
Should Ramón, bitten by the acting bug, tell his traditional Mexican-refugee parents of new his aspirations?…
Opening Sequence
“In the PROSCENIUM hovers a mysterious projection—an AZTEC CALENDAR STONE. Grainy and tinted like on old celluloid, the stone’s central carving resembles a theatrical mask of comedy. The grinning face slowly morphs to that of tragedy, then to the skull of Mictlantecuhtli, god of the Dead. As this strange FILM loops, crackles of radio voices long ago entombed in the stratosphere tune in and out of a hypnotic SOUNDTRACK, a kind of heartbeat…"