Years ago, the nights of Barcelona’s Paral·lel were bathed in the red light given off by the giant blades of the El Molino theater. This space was the little brother of its Parisian namesake and thanks to it the avenue of theaters in the Catalan capital also began to be called the Montmartre of Barcelona.
El Molino opened its doors in 1898 and was filled with feathers and red velvet curtains to become the temple of the music hall, cabarets and the magazine. The dances, live music and spicy monologues gave identity to a theater that survived the censorship of the dictatorship and the puritanism of the Transition.
The project was a success well into the 1970s, but as the end of the century approached it began to struggle to fill the seats. The economic crisis of the 90s was the final blow that condemned El Molino to close its doors a year before turning a century, in 1997. In 2010 it was reborn, thanks to renovations that cost 15 million euros, but The small theater, with only 250 seats, was never viable and closed again three years later.
Finally, it was the Barcelona City Council that took charge. He bought it for 2.6 million euros in 2021 and, after new renovations, the blades will shine again starting this Friday.
But in this new stage, which will be managed by the same company that runs the Cruïlla Festival, there will be no showgirls or boas. There will be stand-up comedians, jazz musicians and flamenco singers. “The world of varieties, of spiciness, has little commercial impact now. When the theater is purchased, its potential is analyzed and it seemed to us that at this time it made more sense to bet on musical diversity,” says culture councilor Xavier Marcé.
Furthermore, he assures that the intention of the council is not to “do without anything” and they do not rule out being able to dedicate a session to the ‘music hall’. For his part, Víctor Partido, director of El Molino, insists that it is a genre whose acolytes now focus on musical theater, which can already be seen in other theaters in Paral·lel. “We want to get closer to unique and experimental music,” says Partido, who adds that the new stage is focused on attracting a young “and more dynamic” audience.
The stigma on cabaret performers
Both the City Council and the management of El Molino argue that the magazine does not have the followers it had in the middle of the last century. And they are supported by the fact that there is no offer of this type of shows in almost any theater. But for the protagonists of this genre, that is no excuse to do without “a heritage of the city”, as described by Lita Claver, better known as La Maña, one of the star cabaret performers of Paral·lel.
She acknowledges that the magazine may not attract a young audience, but she is sure that it would appeal to older people. “The problem is that no one thinks about older people when creating culture. What’s happening? That we don’t deserve to go to the theater? Are our interests worse than those of young people?” asks the young woman.
“I am delighted that they are reopening, but don’t forget that El Molino exists because of people like me, who used to go up on stage, and people of my generation who sat in the seats,” says this Aragonese born in 1945. who migrated to Barcelona to become one of the best-known faces of the show.
La Maña agrees that ‘music hall’ is not the most fashionable genre right now, but regrets that the City Council has not opted to preserve it. “They think it’s outdated, that we’re old, but it’s not true. I was already doing monologues at the time, we had shows ahead of our time. And, furthermore, contrary to what people think, they were elegant, well dressed, choreographed and very dignified,” recalls this cabaret artist who worked at El Molino for more than 11 years without a single day off.
In any case, La Maña is not surprised by the decision. “The stigma towards the ‘music hall’ is not new,” he laments. She wants to dispel the belief that cabaret artists only get naked and do daring dances. “Many couples came to see us and the biggest fans were the women, because we said what they were not allowed to,” he remembers.
Between dirty jokes and tight corsets, the cabaret artists also made fun of the Generalissimo when censorship was at its peak. Or they reflected on how hard it is to be a working mother. Or they claimed the sexual freedom of women and condemned the machismo that had them tied up. “And they had the audacity to call us uneducated. Salvador Dalí, Fellini, Rafael Alberti or Montalbán came to see us…were they also uneducated?” he asks.
A ‘Broadway’ in decline
El Molino is just one of the dozens of theaters and party and concert halls that make up this area of Barcelona that is also known as the Catalan Broadway. Its heyday was at the beginning of the 20th century, but over the years it has erased some of the names from that walk of fame. One of the most paradigmatic examples is the Talia theater, which was demolished at the end of the eighties, after being closed for years and with no one to take care of it.
“We could not let this building of heritage, evocative and historical value disappear,” says Marcé about El Molino. “It is an element of heritage that is hardly debatable,” adds the councilor, who insists on the council’s will to maintain the cultural life and historical memory of Paral·lel. That is why the City Council ventured to buy it, to prevent the building from deteriorating and “being the subject of undesirable economic transactions.”
The residents of the neighborhood also welcome the reopening of its doors. “I think it’s great. It won’t be like before, but it will be nice. An open theater brings joy,” says La Maña. She also lives in Paral·lel and is perplexed by “how neglected” the neighborhood is. “With what had been,” he laments. This degradation hurts him especially because of the link he has with the area. So much so that he went into debt to buy the Arnau theater when it closed, to prevent it from falling into oblivion. And now he is glad to know that El Molino has avoided this fate.
Starting this Friday, those red blades will shine again and, although artists like Lita Claver, alias La Maña, will no longer be on stage, they will make way for other musicians and comedians who will once again fill Catalan Broadway with life.
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