La llamada (musical)

Lore & Background

La llamada premiered in the lobby of Madrid's Teatro Lara on 2 May 2013, playing eight sold-out shows. After its early success, the show moved to the main stage of the theatre starting on 18 October 2013. It began a Spanish tour in 2014, visiting more than 30 cities including Palencia, Valladolid, Valencia, and Soria. On 15 April 2015, the show celebrated its second anniversary with a special performance.

The plot is set in August 2013 in Segovia, Spain, where two seventeen-year-old girls, María and Susana, attend a Christian summer camp run by nuns Bernarda and Milagros. María experiences apparitions of God, who sings Whitney Houston songs to her, leading both girls to question their lives and futures. The musical includes original pieces by Alberto Jiménez alongside songs by Whitney Houston, Presuntos Implicados, Henry Méndez, and religious songs, accompanied by a small band of four musicians.

In 2015, INK Teatro and Claudio Sodi bought the rights for a Mexican production, which premiered on 28 August at the Teatro López Tarso but had poor reception and closed after a few weeks. Plans for productions in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, and Chile were announced, and the show was also performed in Moscow.

Reader's Guide

La llamada received positive reviews from theatre critics, who praised the actors' performances and the script. Marcos Ordóñez of El País called the story 'simple and captivating' and noted the 'natural dialogue', highlighting Macarena García's performance as 'sensational'. Saúl Fernández of La Nueva España wrote that the creators produced a 'prodigious musical' that transforms Whitney Houston's songs into 'a collection of mythic verses'. According to a survey by El País, La llamada was the best theatrical production of 2013, and Metrópoli magazine included it among the ten best theatre productions in Madrid. The musical's success led to a film adaptation announced on 4 November 2015, produced by Apache Films and Sábado Películas, starring Macarena García, Anna Castillo, Gracia Olayo, Belén Cuesta, and Richard Collins-Moore. Recordings include a 2014 short recording with four songs by the Spanish cast and a 2019 recording of the current Spanish cast.

Did You Know?

• The song 'Todas las flores' was replaced in the Mexican production with 'Eres mi religión' by Maná.
• A film adaptation was released in 2017.
• The show was performed in Moscow.