Dan Guerrero is 80 and Still Shaking Cages

In the Jerry Herman musical Mame the title character, instead of being depressed after losing her fortune in the 1929 Wall Street crash, sings “We Need a Little Christmas.” Given the way 2020 has gone, perhaps we all need to go along with her way of thinking. Enter Dan Guerrero, a producer, a writer, director and, this weekend, the host for The Soraya’s annual Nochebuena. Of course, it won’t take place live at the theatre, but rather online. Thus this year’s full title is Nochebuena en Casa and the show begins streaming on Friday, December 18th.

Guerrero will leads us through a program that includes Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles, Aida Cuevas, Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar, Suzanna Guzmán and José “Pepe” Martínez Jr. with Susie García.

His background, before writing and starring in his one-man show Gaytino! and producing award-winning television shows, includes being a New York-based talent agent working with Broadway talent (some of his clients were cast members in the original company of A Chorus Line.)

Last week I spoke with Guerrero by phone about Nochebuena, Latinos in the entertainment industry and his own still-alive dreams of appearing on Broadway. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What makes Nochebuena en Casa special for you personally?

Having to deal with what we’re dealing with and to create Nochebuena this way, it’s very personal. Most of the artists, Suzanna Guzmán, Susie García, Pepe Martínez have opened up their homes for this special. They are all artists who have performed at the Soraya many times. It’s a very family-personal look at Nochebuena which makes it very special.

The Latino community is one of the hardest-hit communities by the pandemic. Do you think this particular show will have greater emotional resonance for them?

Needless to say the Latino community is all about La Virgen de Guadalupe, Los Tres Reyes, so being able to escape for an hour to see artists performing that are close to them and personal for them, I think will be something special. Everyone will enjoy it, but it might be more personal and hit home and remind recent immigrants of home, so it might be bittersweet for them.

What will it take for Latino artists to start getting the same recognition other POC have increasingly been able to in the last year or two?

I wish I had the answer. I would bottle it up and sell it at swap meets. We get lost in the color war. Latinos can be blonde, blue-eyed, we can be anything. In order for an audience to go, ‘that’s a Latino’ then they have to be dark-skinned and more indigenous looking.

I know that a lot of it is business. We go to movies in droves, they don’t need to woo us when they’re selling to emerging countries. I went to a screening of a pilot. A one-hour drama and not a single Latino. The lights came on and I said, “Did you not see Latinos? You couldn’t find one that was right or good enough for this?” The room came to a screeching halt, but I couldn’t help it. I don’t understand.

Do you have any sense of optimism that it will get better?

I think the younger generation of Latinos is very aggressive in a good way. Most importantly, I find that they are very generous with each other. I hope the next generation will make more noise. Not just actors – we have to be in the room. We have writers, producers, directors, what we still don’t have are people who can greenlight a project. Is it better today? Absolutely. Is it still lousy? No question.

In 2008 you told The Oregonian, “I’m still waiting to star in a Broadway musical, but I ain’t dead yet.” Now that you’ve completed 80 revolutions around the sun, what would you like to accomplish?

I stand by my words! I go through moments. My 80th birthday was mid-October and I thought, “Maybe it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.” Then I thought, what the hell. I believe in reaching for the stars because even if you don’t get there, you’ve traveled a long way.

I remember being in the dressing room with Angela Lansbury opening night of Gypsy. Somehow I wound up in a conversation with her. She said how incredibly nervous she had been that night. She had already done it in the West End and all over the country. She said, “But this is Broadway, this is New York.” Even after all those years, she was just an actress nervous about an opening night. It never ends, you always feel like you’re trying to break in.

It isn’t Broadway, but you were in a summer stock production of Bye Bye Birdie. Is life still a ball and do you got a lot of livin’ to do?

Oh yes. Absolutely. Underlined and in ALL CAPS with an exclamation point! I’m thrilled to be able to feel that way. I’ve reinvented myself so many times. It’s impossible to shake that cage and keep moving forward. You might make a left turn you didn’t expect, but you keep moving and moving forward. I’m glad I always moved quickly. It’s important to always keep moving forward, even if it’s not on a straight line.

Nochebuena en Casa is free to view on The Soraya website.

Photo of Dan Guerrero (Photo by Steven Edward Chapman/Courtesy The Soraya)