By Kevin Wynn

	Mexican cabaret diva Astrid Hadad, who has been described by the New York Times as “so surreal she makes Salvador Dali look like Norman Rockwell”

An Astrid Hadad concert is a raucous whirlwind. Mariachi music and samba collide with punk rock. Iconic images and pop kitsch whirl together like salsa verde in a Cuisinart. Social commentary and outrageous shtick fly from the stage, and at the center of the storm is Hadad, a petite, dark-haired woman with a smoky, expressive voice and an on-stage attitude that’s three or four clicks past in-your-face. 

Or is she really a woman? That’s the question newbies often ask. Maybe it’s the lush profusion of Hadad’s wardrobe – a typical evening features more than a dozen costume changes. Or perhaps it’s the antic surrealism of each ensemble – a flaring skirt festooned with glowing hearts, accessorized with a three-foot-tall, glow in the dark, heart-shaped headdress, is, if not typical, certainly not out of the ordinary. The clothes, the voice, the style – to many it all spells “drag queen.”

But Mexico City’s Chanteuse of Shock is, in fact, a woman, born in the Mexican Yucatan state of Quintana Roo. Hadad throws together her passion for Mexican music and her discontent with Mexico’s macho culture with layers of imagery, ranging from Diego Rivera murals to religious icons to cheesy party favors bought at her neighborhood mercado, and then it’s show time.

Astrid Hadad’s show – in its current incarnation, Lúdica Mujer Impúdica, which roughly translates as Fun-Loving Hussy – opens Tigertail Productions’ 2006-2007 season on October 20 and 21 at the Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road.

	Mexican cabaret diva Astrid Hadad, who will perform at the Colony Theatre October 20-21

“Astrid is great at packaging,” says Tigertail Artistic Director Mary Luft. “Her show is all vivid costumes and wild performance, but there’s a message. It’s beneath the fireworks and under the radar, but she slips it in.”

Above all, a Hadad performance is a show. Students of art history could write scholarly papers about her costumes: the Frida Kahlo-style peasant dress backed with a mass of the same white lilies that Diego Rivera painted over and over, the black skirt studded with Aztec-style images of skulls, hearts and hands, all sculpted in foam . But for audiences, each new outfit is a fresh, hilarious outrage.

“Sometimes, although I look through all my books, leafing through them over and over, nothing appeals to me,” says Hadad.   “And suddenly, I don’t know how, I’m in the street eating or doing something else and all of a sudden I have a kind of flash. An image has formed in my brain and a costume comes out of it.”

The costumes, and Hadad’s multilingual patter introducing the songs, all of which are performed in Spanish, give Hadad’s selection of traditional numbers and pop hits an ironic tilt.

“When people ask me if I write songs, I answer, ‘No! I “unwrite” them!’ Because I keep changing the songs until I like them.”

“Astrid sings in Spanish, but combines Spanish and English in the rest of her show,” says Tigertail Associate Director Robert Rosenberg. “It’s totally accessible and perfectly geared to Miami’s multicultural audience.”

	Astrid Hadad: The Chanteuse of Shock

In addition to Astrid Hadad’s performances, Tigertail is celebrating its season kickoff with a striptease of its own. A panel discussion, “Cultural Striptease: Sex, Humor and Latin Identity,” includes Astrid Hadad, Miami drag star Adora, local theater director and peformer Teo Castellanos, Miami’s favorite performance curator Susan Caraballo, arts writer Javier de Pison, and journalist Celeste Delgado, is the centerpiece of Tigertail’s season opener and meet-the-artist event. The evening also includes liquid refreshments provided by, appropriately, Frida Kahlo Tequila and light fare. Etra Fine Art, located at 50 Northeast 40^th Street in Miami’s Design District, is hosting the evening. Admission is free.

Tickets to Astrid Hadad’s Lúdica Mujer Impúdica are $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors, students with a valid ID, or $50 for patron tickets with priority seating.  Tickets may be purchased by visiting tigertail.org or phoning 305-545-8546, through Ticketmaster at 305-358-5885 and in-person at the Colony Theatre box office.

A season pass that saves 20 to 30 percent on single ticket prices can be purchased, and includes the performance by Astrid Hadad and four other Tigertail shows throughout the season. These can only be purchased with a credit card by calling 305-545-8546.

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