Malandro

This Brazilian musical, loosely adapted from "The Threepenny Opera," features Celulari as a pimp working in WW II-era Rio. When Ramalho, the classic hooker with a heart of gold, is fired from the nightclub where she works, Celulari decides to get even with Sabag, the Nazi club owner who fired her. Celulari sets out to seduce Sabag's daughter, Ohan, but she requires more work than the smooth-talking sharpie imagined. As in so many musicals, the plot and characters in this one are thin, since the song-and-dance numbers take precedence. Those numbers are done in a splashy style that harkens back to the 1940s Hollywood musicals, with homages to CASABLANCA and a number ...