The Chastiser Women (1927)
Genre: picaresque musical in seven scenes.
Text: Francisco Lozano, Joaquín Mariño and Eduardo Mariño Lozano.
Music: Francisco Alonso.
Premiere: May 13, 1927, at Teatro Eslava, Madrid.,
Performers of the premiere: Celia Gámez, Loló Trillo, Julia Castillo, Ignacio León, Faustin Bretaño, Rafael M. Labra, Enrique Suárez, Antonio Segura.
Considered the first great variety-show, the action of “Las Castigadoras” takes place in the imaginary town of Villafogosa and was the first great success of Celia Gámez, who, had once been a singer of tangos but going on to become a leading lady of the variety-show genre.
It is a picaresque story, with spicy jokes which enjoyed a lavish and luxurious presentation and was all together a great success.
An interesting piece of trivia concerning this show was that pastries, lemonade and balloons were handed out to the public before the performance commenced.
Among their musical numbers the most applauded were a foxtrot (“Nights of cabaret”), the “One-step de Las Castigadoras”, a “Romantic song”, the “Charleston of the penguin” and even today, the very popular “Chotis de las taquimecas”.
Currently there is a recording of this work. In 2000, the label Blue Moon, in its collection Serie Lírica, released a CD containing Las Leandras, Las Castigadoras and El Cabaret de la Academia.
