UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL AT THE PUBLIC THEATER

UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL AT THE PUBLIC THEATER
EVOLUTION OF A SONERO

Written and performed by
Flaco Navaja
Music:  Five muscians-aka The Razor Blades

Flaco Navaja is a poet, singer and an actor.  He is an original member of UNIVERSES and that famous Def poetry Jam cast.  He is from the Bronx and one can see how deeply proud he is of his roots. There is a saying about being on stage." If you have charm, if you have a personality, if you have humor, that's where you belong-on the stage."  And Falco Navaja has all of that and much more.
He has what's most essential, "THE TALENT" He can sing, dance, crack jokes, recite poetry with all it's essence intact and can tell a great story following all the intricate details.  Story telling is the greatest skill, all theater, all drama is infact story telling. And there is no story if one doesn't follow the details and punch lines and the pauses. Falco Navaja knows that.  Maybe he is the ancestor of Greeks and Sankskrit poets and story tellers who were tragic and comic at the same moment.
Falco knows the impact of his spoken words, his poetry, his beat and his dance.  And god bestowed
upon him the most pleasant and charming face with a smile to kill.

He tells us the sad story of his arrest on his mother's birthday and the beating by his father afterwards and we crack up.  He tells us the story of his wife giving birth on the way to Lenox hill hospital all the way from the Bronx in an Uber driven car with the road jam packed with trafic and baby being born and we sit on the edge of our seats with this anxiety and prayer, "Oh! god I hope everything goes right for him and the wife and the baby"  And there is such relief and joy at the end.

Music is just brilliant.  Falco makes fun of himself, his circumstances and of some musical numbers with devastating humor.  He is the most likeable performer I have seen on the stage in a while.
His body is made for the dance, his face is made for that smile and his self deprecating humor is to die.
I throughly enjoyed this actor and his craft and the muscians were equally talented. Hope to catch them all again soon.