By Marcia Blondin***Throughout his concert, I imagined Liberace sitting in a massive chair with his feet up in front of a fire, a feathered cape overflowing his shoulders, and draped in folds on the floor beside him. A look of cherubic satisfaction on his face as he watched David Maiocco channel him for his first Christmas Special in Puerto Vallarta.
It was that warm and fuzzy.
The Casa Karma Red Room was at capacity with David Sabella playing Jules, Liberace’s helper/servant/confidant and maybe lover, overseeing the arrival of Lee’s houseguests expected for a Christmas drink, adding something to the tree in the corner and singing a carol or two. The stage setting was precisely right, with Liberace’s candelabra replaced with a sparkly teeny Christmas tree and a punch bowl full of eggnog and glasses for the masses, which were filled and passed to the audience throughout the show.
The first houseguest to arrive was Costa Rican clown—think Cirque du Soleil—Dabit Azofeifa. He danced and did amazing tricks with his magic hat from Vacare, another production he costarred in some months ago. Dabit played his accordion brilliantly, and when he and Maiocco embarked on Brahms’ Hungarian Dance #5, the crowd, as they say, went wild. All that was missing were a gypsy dancer, maybe a Whirling Dervish or two, to match the precision musicianship of these two maestros onstage.
Cate Valcic, David Maiocco’s other half of the Vaude-Villains, was Lee’s second guest who brought her voice and made the egg nog for the Mexican Christmas fiesta in Liberace’s living room. Canadian Sarah Joy was the final guest to arrive with her fine soprano notes; her children joined her onstage toward the end of the show, lending their voices to a group caroling session that had us all a little misty-eyed by the end.
Puerto Vallarta has fallen in love hard with David Maiocco, first as a tribute artist over the last couple of years, with his tremendous virtuoso piano skills a la Liberace, and second as a warm, caring friend to all whose heart lives on his sleeve.His interpretation of Liberace is a massive labor of love – you can imagine the size and weight of the luggage being packed down to the tropics stuffed with ostrich-feathered capes and jumpsuits sewn with a million heavy sequins. Liberace, who passed nearly 40 years ago, is becoming less and less remembered as his mostly female fanbase is dying off. For as long as David Maiocco finds it feasible to continue his heartfelt tributes, those of us who are of a certain age will sit in his audience, remembering Sunday nights sitting together as children in front of the TV with our family, watching this brilliant piano player who didn’t look like or act like anybody we knew anywhere.
There was something about Liberace that was different from all other performers, maybe before him and even since. I didn’t know what that difference was until I watched David Maiocco perform for the first time at Incanto, here in Vallarta. With all of Liberace’s eccentricities stripped away, what is left of him – and David shares this same thing exactly – is sheer Joy. Thank you, Maestro Maiocco, for the comfort, joy, and music of Liberace and you in Mexico. Feliz Navidad.
