This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

[0:02] Welcome to the fabulous Feinstein's/54 Below.

[0:05] Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder.

[0:07] Please take this moment to silence your cell phones.

[0:09] Also, there is no flash photography, please.

[0:24] Jaime Lozano is a prolific composer whose works have been produced at venues across New York City and the world.

[0:31] His recent productions include The Yellow Brick Road, for which he wrote music and lyrics with Tommy Newman, book by Mando Alvarado, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2011 and was followed by a successful national tour.

[0:44] And also Children of Salt, a new Latin musical, book and lyrics by Lauren Epsenhart, which made its New York City debut in 2016 as part of the New York Musical Festival and won the Best of Fest production award.

[0:57] Recently, Jaime's song cycle, A Never-Ending Line, a collaboration with nine female lyricists, had its world premiere in Paris, France, as part of the concert series Broadway au Carré at the Comédie Nation Theatre.

[1:11] It had its Spanish-language world premiere in Mexico, followed by an Off-Broadway run at The Players Theatre here in New York City.

[1:18] His other works include Con Amor…Isa Colibrí, Estocolmo, Savage, Present Perfect - A musical in broken English, among many other works.

[1:28] In 2015, Jaime and his wife, Mexican actress and singer Florencia Cuenca, created a jazz project called The New Standards, an album of contemporary musical theatre songs accompanied by jazz arrangements.

[1:41] Written by Jaime and Jesús Altamira, it has been performed at prominent venues in New York City, Mexico, and across Latin America.

[1:50] In addition to being a composer, Jaime is also an accomplished director.

[1:54] He has staged Into the Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and The Fantasticks in Mexico.

[2:02] In August 2003, he directed the Mexican premiere of Jekyll and Hyde and adapted, produced, and directed the Spanish world premiere of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World.

[2:14] Jaime Lozano, welcome to the Feinstein's/54 Below podcast.

[2:18] Jaime Lozano: Oh, Nella, thanks for having me.

[2:20] It's my pleasure to be here.

[2:22] I use the word prolific in your intro because when I was reading your bio, there was no way that I could mention all of your projects in a short intro.

[2:31] It was a lot.

[2:32] So I left out a lot because otherwise we would be here all day.

[2:36] But I want to talk to you about where you get your ideas and what your work process is like and how you're able to do so much.

[2:43] Jaime Lozano: I'm from Mexico, and back in Mexico, to be honest, there's not a lot of musical theater.

[2:49] So I realized that there were a lot of my stories, like stories related to my country, with my people, that they haven't been told.

[2:59] So what I started doing since I guess like 20 years ago or something like that, was focusing on all those stories that haven't been told, like stories about people like myself, stories about immigrants, stories about Mexico, stories about all these things close to my heart, because I strongly believe the first key to write a story, the most important thing is being honest.

[3:26] And the only way to be honest is writing something from the heart and something that is close to you.

[3:32] So I just tried to find those stories that are close to me.

[3:36] Nella Vera: That makes a lot of sense.

[3:37] You're from Mexico.

[3:39] Tell us how a boy from Monterrey becomes interested in musical theater, which is a very American art form.

[3:46] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, yeah, it's funny.

[3:48] When I was a kid, I remembered that I used to watch TV.

[3:52] And every like around April, they used to broadcast in the Mexican TV channel, the old Jesus Christ movie, the one from the 70s.

[4:03] And I remember that actually I hated that movie.

[4:06] I didn't like, I mean, it was just weird for me to see people singing and like, you know, like that very specific story about Jesus Christ.

[4:17] And it was just weird for me.

[4:18] I mean, I was a kid, I guess I was around seven, eight years old.

[4:22] And time passed, and I was supposed to study criminology.

[4:28] I actually did the test to get into criminology school.

[4:33] And for some weird reason that I still today I don't know what it was, I just decided not to get into school.

[4:40] And I had my sabbatical year, I waited for one year, and a year after that, without having any serious musical training, music training, I decided to enroll in music school.

[4:55] I believed that everything has to come from the heart.

[4:59] And I believe that that decision that wasn't something that I actually planned until today, I don't know why I chose to do that, changed my life forever.

[5:08] I enrolled in music school when I started doing music school.

[5:12] Originally I was studying music and singing.

[5:15] I wanted to be like an opera singer at that time.

[5:18] And I realized that all my classmates, they were way ahead of me because usually when you study music, you start when you were like three, four, five years old.

[5:30] They have been playing piano since they were five years old or four.

[5:33] So I was like really behind all of them.

[5:36] So I told myself that I need to make up for all the time that I didn't study before.

[5:43] So I started studying as much as I can, like 24/7.

[5:49] And when I was doing my first semester at school in singing, they posted an audition for a musical in my college.

[5:58] Can you guess which musical was it?

[6:00] Nella Vera: Jesus Christ Superstar.

[6:02] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, exactly.

[6:04] Jesus Christ Superstar.

[6:06] So I auditioned, like I auditioned for Jesus Christ Superstar.

[6:10] I got into the ensemble, into the chorus.

[6:21] And that was my first, that was in 1998.

[6:21] Wow, like 20 something years ago.

[6:21] And that was my first approach to musical theater.

[6:24] Nella Vera: And now I understand.

[6:25] Did you change your mind about the show?

[6:27] Jaime Lozano: I did.

[6:28] I did.

[6:29] Actually, after that, I directed Jesus Christ Superstar back in Mexico.

[6:32] I directed that show two, three times back in Mexico.

[6:36] And that was like my first, that was like my school, because in Mexico we don't have musical theater training, not even as a performer.

[6:43] There's nothing about musical theater.

[6:46] So this director, the one who directed that show, Jesus Christ Superstar at my college, he had been studying here in the States.

[6:55] He went to Berkeley and other schools, and I became like his assistant.

[7:01] And he had in his office all these musical theater books.

[7:06] At the time, I didn't know how to read English or speak English.

[7:10] So that's the way that I learned to read first, to read English, like using all those musical theater books.

[7:17] And that was the way that I got interested in musical theater.

[7:21] That I just realized that it's one of the most powerful ways to tell stories.

[7:26] I guess telling stories is something natural as human beings.

[7:30] As human beings, we're always telling stories every single day, like to our sons, to our daughters, to our boyfriends, girlfriends.

[7:38] I mean, we're always telling stories about what happened with us and making up stories.

[7:43] We are good at creating stories.

[7:45] That's something that is part of our human nature, and doing it through a musical, putting together lyrics, music, and all the art on stage, like set design, costume design, all that.

[7:59] I strongly believe that it's one of the most powerful and beautiful ways to tell stories, and I just fell in love with that.

[8:06] Nella Vera: Yeah, it's interesting because I think in Latin America, we don't have such a tradition of musical theater, and I love that that's changing.

[8:15] But I just saw the Revolution Rhythm documentary about the production that they did in Cuba, and at the beginning of the documentary, Andy Señor, who is the director, is trying to teach the cast how you sing and how you act for theater and what musical theater is.

[8:33] And it was really interesting to watch that because what you just said, the same thing, they have no experience with how to do a lyric for the stage, even though they learn the song, but it's a different art to sort of theatricalize it.

[8:48] And so yeah, I think that's very true.

[8:50] And it's really interesting to me, but I think that's changing.

[8:54] I think that musical theater is becoming more popular in Spanish-speaking countries.

[9:00] And hopefully it'll continue to grow.

[9:04] Jaime Lozano: There's a phenomenon in Mexico that, to be honest, in Mexico we are in heaven compared with other Latin America countries because we have at least two or three big musical productions.

[9:17] Two or three every year.

[9:17] I mean, it's nothing, but usually the musicals that they do in Mexico are like Broadway theater.

[9:27] They get the rights from the licensing company and they put the show exactly as is in New York City or London.

[9:35] So we have had big productions like Wicked, The Lion King, The Phantom of the Opera, blah blah blah, and many, many more.

[9:35] In Mexico, we are lacking a lot of our own stories.

[9:48] It's good that we are learning and we are using all these big musicals to bring musical theater to the Mexican audience, but it's sad that that's the only offer that we have in Mexico.

[10:01] And we don't have any formal acting schools like a musical theater school.

[10:07] I mean, there are many academies, they call it in Mexico, not formal schools that might have great teachers, some of whom actually studied in New York City or in London, but they're not schools with an actual musical theater program or with an actual degree in musical theater, and all the people have to go out of the country to study that.

[10:28] And that was my case. I was studying originally singing, but then because this guy, the director, the one who directed Jesus Christ Superstar, he was actually a composer.

[10:37] So I decided to change my major.

[10:41] And I actually started over.

[10:43] I quit singing school.

[10:44] I went to major in composition.

[10:47] And after I was already like halfway through my degree, I had been studying for two years and a half.

[10:54] And I started over and did another again, those two years and a half of now studying composition.

[11:01] And that's why I started writing my first musicals.

[11:01] But it was a very different kind of composition.

[11:06] What you studied in this mixed music school was more like classical contemporary music.

[11:12] So I like to call my first musicals like anti-musicals because I actually broke all the rules when I was writing those shows.

[11:21] But actually I did it on purpose because I already knew what was the way to, I mean, because I had been reading all those books, and I knew a little bit about writing musicals.

[11:32] But all those first shows that I wrote, I mean, usually are like all the opposite things that you're usually looking for in musical theater.

[11:40] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[11:41] So Mexico is such a beautiful country.

[11:44] I was just there last month in Yucatán.

[11:46] The terrain is stunning, the people are so warm and welcoming.

[11:49] Do you think Americans have misconceptions about Mexico?

[11:53] And what do you wish that Americans knew about Mexico?

[11:57] Jaime Lozano: Definitely when we always put labels on each other.

[12:01] Not just Americans put labels on Mexicans.

[12:03] I mean, we as Mexicans, we put labels on other people.

[12:06] That's also part of our humanity.

[12:09] Unfortunately, we are afraid of the things that we don't know.

[12:13] And the best way to deal with that is putting a label and just to believe something about that.

[12:19] So putting a label is to, oh, I already know that this person is brown and short.

[12:26] Jaime Lozano: Because they're Mexican. And not all Mexicans are like that. Or all Mexicans speak in this way, or Mexican, I like that. No, I mean, they're all kind of colors, all kinds of people. And I think that that's very important also to know, because at the end, not all of us, we don't have the same stories. For example, I am an immigrant in this country. You can say by my English, when I got to New York City in 2007, at that time I spoke no English at all. And I started learning here. I have been an immigrant struggling with English, struggling with money, struggling with papers to be able to work. And that's my story. And there's other people that they have more privilege than I, or less than I, you know, less than myself.

And those are other stories. So I think what is important to know is that me as a Mexican, as a Mexican immigrant, as a Mexican immigrant composer, storyteller, even I'm trying to tell the stories of my people, it's a paradox. I'm trying to represent my people, but I don't represent all of them.

[13:34] Jaime Lozano: Right. So I think that it's important to know that those are my stories and the ones that I feel close to my heart and the ones that I want to tell. But for example, my son, he is four years old now. He was born here in New York City, he's a Mexican-American, and he's gonna have a different story, a different journey. Both are as important as the other one. It's not like one is more important than the other one, it's just different.

[14:01] Nella Vera: Yeah, there's so many stories out there. And I think you're right. For all of us who are immigrants, yeah, we all have different stories. Even myself, uh, I came here when I was seven or eight, but my brother was born here, and he definitely has a much different story. We're seven years apart. And I love what you said about that because we forget we're still all immigrants, and we're still all hyphenated Americans. So we share that, but each of us has a different journey and a different story to tell.

[14:34] Jaime Lozano: It has been a while since performances have been able to take place in person. How do you feel about getting back on stage?

[14:42] Jaime Lozano: I feel uh a little bit scared, to be honest. So far, I have had a couple of concerts. I did a concert at Lincoln Center, but it was outdoors. I actually had two concerts at Lincoln Center outdoors. I did another concert, like they was like pre-recorded and streamed, and I have had the chance to perform a little bit since three, four months ago, that we slowly start to come back. But this is my Feinstein’s/54 Below debut. I have performed there before as a music director as a pianist, but this is the first time that I actually like that the headliner with my name. So it's a different story, a different journey, different feeling.

[15:25] Jaime Lozano: I was there a few weeks ago for a Mauricio Martinez concert. He's a very close friend of mine, he's like my brother. And I was actually like crying during the concert during the first two, three songs. Of course, because he's a great performer. We're also because all that meaning, I mean, being there in that room with a Latin and immigrant performer on stage, singing in Spanish with all this audience from all around the country, you know, different nationalities, being in the same room, being together. For some of that people, that was the first time that they were actually being in a concert after almost two years. That was my case as an audience. That was my first concert as an audience. Even I had a few concerts before as a performer.

That was my first concert as an audience. And getting into the door, having to show my vaccine record, all this new routine, and all this new ritual to get into a performance space. It just feels like we're trying to do our best. I mean, I'm really grateful that everyone is trying to do their best to have live music and live events back.

[16:45] Jaime Lozano: And I think that we all need to do our part, the same way that 54 Below is doing its part with all protocols. We as audience, we need to do the same, perform the same. It's like a mix of things that only having all those things, we're gonna make things work in the right way. Because if one ingredient is missing, we don't want to go back to what it was these past two years. And I'm very excited to be doing like, as I said before, my debut in this space, and to bring all these people that I like to call my family, like Mauricio Martinez is performing with us, my wife, Florencia Cuenca, who is also a singer actress, she's also performing. Joel Perez, an amazing also Broadway performer. He's joining us. We're still putting the lineup together, but we're having an all Latin lineup, all Latin performers, all Latin music band, and I'm very excited to share all the stories after two years not doing it live.

[17:48] Nella Vera: Yeah, your show, I love the language for your show because it said Jaime Lozano and the Familia. So how did the familia come together? Are these people that have been in your shows or that you've met through the community?

[18:01] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, it's like my shows and family. You don't have the chance to choose your brother, your sister. I mean, because God or the universe or whatever you believe, they send you that. And sometimes your brother, I mean, we have different experiences. I have great experiences with my brother. So I can speak bad about him, but not all people is as lucky as I am. But we don't have the chance to choose that. And this other family, my shows and familia, is all these Latin performers. Some of them, like Mauricio Martinez, I have been collaborating with him for our first collaboration was back in 2013, almost 10 years ago, was our first collaboration. And since then we have been keeping together and helping each other with our own projects. My other like longtime collaborator is my wife. We have been collaborating like for seven years, something like that now.

[18:56] Jaime Lozano: Marina Pires was an amazing musical theater performer and writer. For example, my story with Marina, she came to audition for one of my shows. And at the end, we didn't pick her. I mean, she wasn't part of the show, but I just fell in love with her voice and the way that she told stories. And then I realized that she was also a writer. And I asked her, do you want to write a song with me? And we ended writing two songs for this female song cycle called A Never-Ending Line. And we went to Paris together. We were in Paris together, like uh premiering the show, and I met her in an audition room, and she didn't make it to the show. You know, at the end she wasn't like selected, but that was my first contact with her, and thanks to that, we are now collaborating and we have been writing songs together.

[19:45] Jaime Lozano: And it's a different story with this one. There's other people that I have never met, and I just reached out to them by email or by phone. And do you wanna song or do you want to sing a few Latin stories? And they say yes, and we just try to, as a community, I think that we need to stay together so we can be stronger.

[20:04] Nella Vera: Yeah, I love that story. It's funny because I always when I talk to young people entering theater, especially actors, I say, just work, do anything you can, go to every audition, do any reading, because you just don't know what's gonna come out of that. A lot of people think if you don't get the part, oh, that it didn't work out. But such a great example of she didn't get the part, but it turned into something else, something wonderful. And people do remember people from auditions, they may not be exactly right for that one show, but I know I've sat in in many auditions and remembered, oh, that guy was so great. Yeah, he wasn't right for this show, but we should remember him for something else. So yeah, what a wonderful story. And I love that you're reaching out to people also that you haven't met and welcoming them into the family as well.

[20:54] Jaime Lozano: I'm gonna tell you a quick story about one person that I met back when I was in um I went to school to NYU. I got a full tuition scholarship to come to NYU to do a master's program. That was the only reason why I came to New York City because I didn't have the money to come to New York City or to pay a school, blah, blah, blah. So I was doing my master's program in musical theater writing at NYU, and I used to work in the office. And one day, this is back in 2007, 2008, I found in my desk a name and an email. And that email was Alex Lacaimore's. So it was an email I can use to talk with him through some kind of chat. So I asked him to a chat and we start talking. And I asked him one day, oh, you know, I'm starting this musical theater writing program.

I'm also an orchestrator. Do you think that you can let me in the heights full score so I can study the score and go through the songs, blah, blah, blah. And he told me, you know what, Jaime, I can't just give you the score. But why don't you come to the theater between shows? And you can use my score, sit here in the house and just go to the score. And that's what I did. I went to the Richard Rogers Theater one day between shows. I met him for the first time. We hugged each other. He gave me his full score, the one he used in the pit to conduct the orchestra. And I sat in the house with headphones, listening to In The Heights and reading Alex Lacaimore's score.

[22:29] Jaime Lozano: And after that day, Alex Lacaimore started recommending me for every single job that he wasn't able to do. When they asked him, oh, do you know any Latin composer or Latin orchestrator or someone who can translate a song? He always, he and Lin-Manuel were always passing my name to other people just because I was brave, I could say, to use his email that I found somewhere and reach to him, you know.

[22:57] Nella Vera: Wow.

[22:58] Jaime Lozano: Wow. First of all, the generosity of Alex and the trust.

[23:01] Nella Vera: Exactly.

[23:02] Jaime Lozano: Because to hand you the score for a show that is happening, and not think that you're gonna run off with the score, you know, in the middle of the show. That's incredible. Wow. I absolutely love that, but also just a testament to your tenacity, and you have to go for it. You have to go for your dreams and go all in. And in the same way that I reached out to Alex Lacaimore, I have reached out to hundred people, and most of them they never get back. Some people do, some people don't. But I think networking is a very important part of any career. But more in this musical theater business, networking is very important. And I'm trying, you know, like to create that networking and being a you know, always trying to go as a good person for that networking because this world is very small, and you never know what one day you are the assistant of the assistant, and the other day you are the director, so you never know where you're gonna be.

So you need to be good at what you do and be a good human being, and that's what I have learned from Alex Lacaimore and Lin that more than they are geniuses, they are one of the best human beings that I know, noble, very human, and I just love their generosity.

[24:18] Nella Vera: And also, what a great lesson what you said about one day you're somebody's third assistant, the next day you're the director. Also be nice to everybody because that assistant could be your boss one day. And it's about how we treat each other and treat everybody in the community, uh, not just the high-level people. So you've obviously had an incredible career that is exploding right now, I think, with incredible accomplishments, critically acclaimed off-Broadway productions, international tours.

[24:51] Nella Vera: When you look back at these experiences, are there any memories that stand out to you? Is there any moment that is very special that you can share with us from your shows or your career?

[25:03] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, I think the most special moments are the one that one I just told you that it's not actually about a show, it's not actually about success, like performing in Paris or performing here or there, but it's more about people learning from Alex and being able to collaborate with him and different shows. I think those are the kind of things that I can take with me forever. Like the other story with Marina, that she came to the audition, and then we just became collaborators. That's actually the case with my wife. My wife is and was a musical theater performer back in Mexico, and I was a vocal coach, and that's the way that we met each other. And then we started collaborating together, and then we fell in love, and here we are like years later, doing our own projects in this city.

So I think that's what I would like to take from all my experiences, more than the actual experience or the shows, I think the people, because at the end the shows are gone, but the people stay. So you need to embrace that.

[26:27] Jaime Lozano: You have to, and when I say community, I'm not talking about it's not like, oh, this is my community and that's your community. No, it's way beyond that. There's community that they cross each other. That keys, how to learn to make those different communities can work together with the same goal. And that this community can be an ally for the other community. It's not exclusive community. I think that we need to, uh more in and in the world, we need to learn that yes, we are advocating for whatever for our immigrant rights or for diversity or for equality, but we're not advocating just for ourselves. We're advocating for many people like us from other communities, that we need to more than fight one community against the other. It's more about working together.

[27:20] Nella Vera: Yeah.

[27:21] Jaime Lozano: Trying to look what's the best for my community at the same time that what is the best for the other community. Yeah, I think that's something that we are as a theater community examining now. How lifting up one community lifts up all of us.

[27:37] Nella Vera: Does it do that?

[27:38] Jaime Lozano: I look at representation of Latinos on Broadway and very disappointed by the numbers, especially because we're in New York City where we're 26, 27% of the population, but we're only 3% of the Broadway roles. That doesn't seem right to me. And I don't even want to talk about the non-stage roles or the writer composer roles. And it seems like there's something off there. So I love the idea that somebody helped you and that you are reaching out to other people, and we're all trying to pull each other up and trying to have some representation and a voice in this art form that we love.

[28:16] Jaime Lozano: Two things about representation. I can't believe how many musicals they're supposed to be set in New York City. I mean, that you know that musical is happening in New York City. If you walk around New York City, you can see all kinds of people. So why a musical that is set in New York City when you're looking at that musical in a theater, there's not that all kinds of people on stage? If it's supposed to be happening in New York City, for example. And I mean from the stories and from the people trying to put those stories on stage. If we don't have more diverse writers, if we don't have more diverse producers, it's gonna be hard to see like a diverse cast or diverse stories on Broadway. So I think that we as writers we have a huge responsibility now taking ownership of our stories because for a long time other people have been telling our stories, good or bad, it doesn't matter.

I mean, uh, I'm really grateful that other people want to tell our stories. And I love those shows. I love West Side Story, and I know people have issues with it, but that's all we had for a long time. So shows like that that people remember and now, but we need to tell our own stories.

[29:36] Nella Vera: I agree with you 100%.

[29:39] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, but that was the 50s. During the 50s, I mean, it was another, it was different, you know. Now, if there's a writer wanted to write a show like West Side Story, and there's no like Latin composers or writers involved, there's something wrong there. These are different times. I love those shows as well.

[29:58] Nella Vera: Exactly.

[29:59] Jaime Lozano: Especially because we know so many now. We know there's Latin composers. Maybe in the 50s you can pretend that there weren't, and maybe they weren't as prominent, but now there's no way that there's Latin composers, there's Asian composers, there's black composers. They're out there. So I think you're right. I think now if you wrote that show and did not have a creative team that was diverse and Latin, you're just being willfully ignorant and willfully ignoring of the talent that's out there.

[30:31] Nella Vera: I want to ask you about Children of Salt, because Mauricio talked about it and he got me very interested in that project. So can you talk a little bit about that project, how that came about, what it's about, and how you're developing it?

[30:45] Jaime Lozano: That musical was actually my thesis back in 2009 at NYU. During my program at NYU, the second year, it was a two-year master program. The second year we were writing a full musical. And we have two options. We could write an original musical, or we could write an adaptation. In musical theater, like I think 80% of the shows are adaptations because it's easier and safer to go with stories that are already crafted in some way. So I remember when they asked us for an adaptation, a title to adapt. Back in Mexico in Monterrey, I have seen this play called Los Niños de Sal. I saw the play, I think, in the year like in 1999 or 2000, something like that. I saw the show, and eight years later, when they asked us for a show to adapt, that was one of the first titles that came to my mind because I remember that I fell in love with that show.

It was so poetic and different. This was a play that won, they have won like a very important award in Mexico, like a dramaturgy award in Mexico. It's by a Mexican playwright named Hernan Galindo. So I contacted the playwright, and he allowed me. We signed all the paper, blah, blah, and he allowed me and my partner to do an adaptation of his play. That is something weird because for a Mexican writer that someone in New York asked you for your play to turn it into something else. It's weird because they are not used to that. For example, in Mexico, when you do a show, the few original musicals that are the few plays that exist, there's not a workshop process. You write a show and the show is done. That's why in New York City is in the state, it's a show business, because you are really thinking in the product the whole time, trying to make it better and better and better.

[32:45] Jaime Lozano: So I asked him at the beginning, he was a little bit hesitating because we were changing things and the musically wasn't exactly like his play, but he was very generous all the time and very open. And we presented the show at NYU as a reading in 2009. Actually, we presented a show the 5th of Mayo of 2009, May 5th. NYU hired Broadway performers, uh, Broadway director, music director, and we did a reading. That was like the first time that we see the show. And then we kept rewriting the show and trying to find more opportunities, blah, blah, blah. And we applied for NIMF a few times and we never made it. And it was till 2016 that they actually picked the show. I mean, the first reading was 2009.

It was in 2016 that we were selected to be part of the New York Musical Festival. And that was the show that I invited Mauricio to come to New York City because we actually did together, I directed him back in Mexico in Last Five Years, Spanish version. He was Jamie in my version of Last Five Years in Monterrey. And then we became very close. And when I was putting the show together, he just felt right for the character. And I just called him and I told him, Do you want to come to New York City to be part of the show? And he's the lead character, blah, blah. And he said, Yeah, let's do it. He came to the show, he stayed in my apartment. My wife was pregnant. My wife was also in the show, and she was performing on stage, and she was eight months pregnant.

[34:20] Nella Vera: Oh my goodness.

[34:22] Jaime Lozano: And they actually have a scene together. My wife and Mauricio, they have a scene together. I mean, we are really family. We have been like collaborating on stage and off stage for a long, long time. And we have many, many experiences, good and bad as a family. Thanks to that show. I mean, I don't want to say thanks to that show because Mauricio is amazing. And if it were in that show, I'm sure that he would even find another way to get to Broadway. But some people, yeah, some people saw him in that show, and then they started making him offers to do other shows to do Evita in a regional theater, and one thing took to the other one, and then he was coming to audition for On Your Feet many, many times.

It wasn't just the first, I mean, it's not like he auditioned and he got in like right away. He was coming, uh, like I think almost for a year, like back and forth. He was staying at our place. I remember that he was doing concerts in Mexico one night. The concert was done at midnight, and he was taking the flight at 6 a.m. to come to New York City to an audition. He was doing the audition and then going back to film a TV show. I mean, he was just crazy. And finally, he got in On Your Feet because he's an amazing musical theater performer, an amazing human being. And I'm just glad that in some way this little show that was part of this musical theater festival helped someone like Mauricio that it was his destiny to be on Broadway, you know.

It was just his destiny, and that's why it happened. And yeah, and we have been collaborating and just pushing each other. I think that's something that familias, families need to do, like push each other, trying to raise the other one to be better and to find better opportunities. And I'm so glad that Mauricio, I have many other people in my life that we are just rooting each other and trying to make a name by ourselves and also as a community in this industry.

[36:23] Nella Vera: Well, I'm a big fan of his and of yours. I haven't seen you live, I've only watched YouTube, but I love your music, so I'm really looking forward to your show. It's been a pleasure having you here today. We're really looking forward to your show.

[36:41] Jaime Lozano: Thank you, Jaime. Muchas gracias.

[36:43] Jaime Lozano: The pleasure is mine, and I hope to see you there at the concert. For everybody listening at home, you can see Jaime Lozano and the family celebrando the Hispanic Heritage Month on September 23rd at 9:45 p.m. Tickets are available at 54below.com.

[37:04] Nella Vera: You've been listening to the Feinstein’s/54 Below podcast, part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.