‘La Ursurpadora’ Cast Transforms Ricky Martin and Ana Gabriel Classics Into a Dramatic Medley
Viewers watching La Ursurpadora The Musical in theaters this weekend are going to have a hard time not singing along to the film’s re-imagining of Nineties classic songs. On Friday, the bilingual film, which is based on the iconic Nineties telenovela of the same name, premieres in theaters — and its soundtrack features a selection of the nostalgic Latin pop hits.
Rolling Stone has an exclusive first look at one of the film’s musical numbers: a mashup of Ricky Martin’s “Vuelve” and Ana Gabriel and Vikki Carr’s “Cosas del Amor,” performed by the cast’s Isabella Castillo, Alan Estrada, and Valentina.
The number, arranged by Doug Emery, opens with Estrada’s character Carlos Daniel crooning the Martin song with tears in his eyes. Then, it cuts to Castillo’s character Valeria as she sings about her wounded heart while cleaning tables at a restaurant.
“The man I love is leaving. I’m losing him and I’m suffering,” she sings in Spanish, before being joined by Valentina, who encourages her through Carr’s lyrics: “Friend, while there’s still hope, you have to fight for that love.” The musical number jumps between the two scenes for a seamless medley.
Sebastian Krys, who produced the film’s entire soundtrack, tells Rolling Stone he sought to do the original arrangements “justice” in the film. “I wanted to do the material justice,” he says. “To me, this is the song that made me feel like we were really doing a musical. It’s very dramatic.”
“There’s a beauty about bringing new life to these songs that have been with us for many years,” Castillo adds.
Krys explained his soundtrack-building process in a recent interview with Rolling Stone saying he wanted to keep the music “in that era” of the Nineties, like the original telenovela.
“We went through and researched, country-by-country and regionally, the popular songs of the decade in Latin America and ended up with a playlist of about 50 songs,” Krys said. “When we got the script, we sat around and said, ‘Okay, here’s a slot for a musical number. What song has the lyrics that pushes the story forward?’”
Valentina, who starred in Rent: Live and was a fan-favorite when she competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race, celebrated the fact that, like her, her character Lydia is non-binary.
“We really should be pushing for more of the rights of our nonbinary and trans brothers and sisters in the U.S. right now,” she said. “If in that, we’re representing diversity, let’s break down the door and have more of this happening in Latin entertainment and in the media in general.”
