Cassandra Sánchez Navarro, own label for Sally Bowles

Cassandra Sánchez Navarro has the talent for theater in her blood. The great-granddaughter of Virginia Fábregas and granddaughter of Manolo and Fela Fábregas, a family with a great theatrical tradition in Mexico, she hopes to expose such potential in her most recent challenge on stage: the musical Cabaretat the Teatro de los Insurgentes, with the emblematic character of Sally Bowles.

It will be from January 20 when the actress, who stepped on the same stage in 2019 with the musical Sugarjoins the company also headed by Irene Azuela, Alberto Lomnitz and Anahí Allué, after the departure of Ilse Salas, who opened the curtain Cabaret in this version.

“It is a great challenge, it is a super important character and I feel that right now in my career I am prepared to take it on and I cannot explain the emotion of returning to this stage and in this staging.

“I’ve seen Cabaret in different countries and staging and there is nothing like the Cabaret which we are going to see here, because the story is told in a very deep, but very fun, way. It is a very hard story and today it could not be more relevant, unfortunately, because there is a war in Gaza, we see what has happened in Ukraine and it does not stop happening! It is not an ancient story, but very relevant,” said Sánchez Navarro in an interview with Excelsior.

As for the character, the actress highlighted that she put all the previous Sallys she saw out of her mind and started her performance from scratch.

“I grabbed the script and started reading it as if it were the first time and it worked for me. I found a very different reading, surprisingly. In mine I find such a deep fragility, because I see her as a girl who grew up very quickly. I see a girl who left her house, who is lying to her parents about where she is and she is trying to get ahead. She is a survivor!

“She is in this club wanting to fulfill her fantasy of being an artist, but she is in a fifth-class cabaret: in a non-glamorous place, working as a prostitute, selling her dream, her soul, her life, her time to be able to get ahead in a at a time when, historically, that was not happening and no one was going to stand out as the big star at that time.

“I feel very prepared to do it. From the characters I have played like Chisca (in the series The Dragon) or in SugarAt the singing level, I feel that each one has stimulated me, little by little, to be ready,” she said.

It was three weeks ago when she was invited to the project, so now she is more than focused on Cabaret.

“We are going to give this character what he deserves, because it requires all my attention and energy, so I start on June 20, I enter the room, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity.

“I know that my grandparents, right now, are seeing me very proud of what I have achieved in my career, but even more so knowing that I am doing this work,” he stated.

For Cassandra, as for many viewers and people in the acting industry, the name of the singer, actress and dancer Liza Minnelli is certainly a reference, since her name achieved worldwide fame in 1972, especially after her version of Sally Bowles in the film Cabaret, with which she won the Oscar for Best Actress. However, her interpretation will have her own stamp.

“I know she made it iconic and, in fact, when you think of her, you think of that character. But how many stories have we seen again? And we don’t think about the first one, if it is well done (the one we are seeing). I want to think that my performance is going to be interesting and captivating and moving enough that you won’t even have it in your mind, because from my hair, my performance, how I sing and dance is totally different. This version is different, although it is the same story. My character has to be mine,” she said.

Regarding the passing of the baton between Ilse Salas and her, she explained that they have not been able to talk to each other, although Cassandra saw their work, especially due to the technical demands.

“I had to see her to know where she comes in, where she comes out, more technically, because her Sally is completely different from mine. I would have loved the post office, but we haven’t had the time. I saw Majo Pérez four times and both times are different (interpretations). That also gave me peace, because I know that I will have the freedom to move on stage as I feel the character should move. I like that. It gave me peace to know that my Sally was valid, because she was different. “I feel confident,” he noted.

Sánchez Navarro shared that maintaining Sally Bowles’ spirits is perhaps one of the most complex aspects of the character, because, although it seems that everything is bad around her, she maintains hope.

“I think that if I had been in his place I would have cried many more nights and maybe he cries many more and we don’t see it, because that part is not in the story. Sally has a brutal optimism that everything will be fine, while there is a war outside and inside the cabaret, as well as inside her. I think that is super difficult, to always keep a smile,” she concluded.

With an eye on Hollywood

The actress of series like The game of keys, Consuelo y The strange return of Diana Salazar He stressed that one of his dreams is to reach Hollywood. Here is the story.

“Today there are two movies left to come out, one from Disney and another. There are also other seasons of other series missing that I can’t yet say. I’ve already decided that it’s going to be one lover (one project) at a time. Now it will be Cabaret.

“There is a film in the United States that I am dying for to be mine and if so, we will make it at the end of the year. I have always opted for Hollywood. As soon as I finished my studies that I did in London, I went to the United States for a whole year to break stones, two jobs: it was hostess in a restaurant and babysitting. I would go to any casting where they would let me in, with 300 taller, prettier women in line, and I was chomping at the bit, because I wanted to make my own name.

“One day my aunt Martha came to see me and said ‘Cass, did you study all that to be a hostess? Go to Mexico, caste there. With what you have studied, doors will open for you and talent will allow you to support yourself.’ Said and done, that’s how it was.

“I have broken stones here and that was always my plan. Have an incredible career here, and then use it as a platform and go to the United States. What I didn’t count on is that there is a lot of talent and good work here. So, just as I urgently need to go to the US… no, because they keep offering me incredible things here. I will continue working here in Mexico, but a big dream of mine is to go to the US, do Broadway in NY, and also make films in Italy.

“I am full of dreams, just like Sally, and I will work hard, breaking stones, to be able to fulfill them when it is my turn,” she said.

personal path

“When I arrived in Mexico I was ‘the granddaughter of, the daughter of, the niece of’ and I had not had my own name, but nothing happened, their names were more important than mine. They continue, but I have worked a lot and today I am no longer that reference, but rather, I am Cassandra. But, for me it is still just as important to leave her name high and a reference for where I can go. My dream is to fill those big shoes. I don’t see it as impossible and that’s why I continue working for it. It is a great honor,” said Cassandra Sánchez Navarro.