The Capeman
The Capeman is a musical based on the life of Salvador Agron, written by Paul Simon and Derek Walcott . It premiered in 1998 in New York's “Marquis Theater”, but was canceled after almost three months due to low attendance. It was nominated for the Tony Award in three categories in 1998 .
The Broadway production cost Paul Simon over $ 11 million. After only 68 screenings, The Capeman was closed.
Paul Simon's studio album Songs from the Capeman contains a selection of pieces from the musical. An original cast album of the musical was released on iTunes .
The story of The Capeman
Salvador Agron (actually: Salvatore Agron) called "The Capeman" (German: "The cape man" or "The man with the cape") is a double murderer from 1959. The then sixteen year old Agron was a member of a gang called "The Vampires ". In 1959, Salvador Agron went to a playground in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan with gangmates Tony Hernandez, Pepé, and a few others . They were looking for an Irish gang called "The Norsemen". This gang did not arrive, however, only a group of young people could be seen. After a few provocations, a fight broke out. Salvador Agron stabbed two of the youths - Anthony Krzesinski and Robert Young, Jr., in the complicity of Tony Hernandez. The "Vampires" fled, and the police found Young dead in his apartment, to which he was able to drag himself after the dagger attack and where he was afterwards bled to death. Kreszinski was found in a pool of blood one house away.
On the evening of the murders, Salvador Agron wore a black cloak with red lining, Tony Hernandez carried an umbrella with him, the tip of which he used as a weapon. The press called Salvador Agron "The Cape Man", Tony Hernandez "The Umbrella Man".
Agron and Hernandez and the other gang members were caught and sentenced. Sixteen-year-old “Cape Man” was sentenced to death and was the youngest at the time to receive this sentence. The death penalty was supposed to be carried out using the electric chair, but then New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment in 1962.
From the idea to the musical
Paul Simon remembered in 1989, shortly after the end of his European tour for his hit album Graceland , of the brutal murders committed by Salvador Agron in 1959. It wasn't long before Simon designed the first basic structures for a musical about Agron, but the project was suspended until 1992, as he was already working on his album The Rhythm of the Saints . Paul Simon then began to write the first texts with Derek Walcott.
staff
- Paul Simon - music and text
- Derek Walcott - book and text
- Mark Morris - choreographer and director
- Bob Crowley - costume, mask
Original cast
main actor
- Marc Anthony as the young Salvador Agron
- Rubén Blades as the adult Salvador Agron
- Ednita Nazario as Esmerelda Agron
The Vampires
- Renoly Santiago as Tony Hernandez
- Raymond Rodriguez as Angel Soto
- Ray Rodríguez-Rosa as Frenchie Cordero
- José Joaquín García as Luis
- Élan as a cookie
Other important supporting actors
- Sophia Salguero as Bernadette
- Natascia A. Díaz as Yolanda
- Michelle Ríos as Aurea Agron
- Sara Ramírez as Wahzinak
- Nestor Sanchez as Lazarus
program
Act 1
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Act 2
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Web links
- The Capeman in the Internet Broadway Database (IBDb)
- Warner Bros. Records: The Essential Paul Simon The Story of The Capeman