As a powerful blizzard blankets the East Coast in snow, another force of nature is preparing to take over the chilly streets of Manhattan.
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno will make her Broadway debut as Persephone, the leading lady of Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown,” beginning Tuesday at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City.
Exploring themes of climate change to a New Orleans jazz- and American folk-laden soundtrack, “Hadestown” — a retelling of the Greek myths of Hades and Persephone, as well as Orpheus and Eurydice — will open just as New York transitions out of the harsh winter. Moreno, 44, takes a video call from The Times during her second day of rehearsals, as she is learning how to play Persephone, goddess of spring — and in this play, a wine-drunk lush.
“For the first few minutes I was like, ‘Can I do this? I feel like a klutz,’” she says of her character’s flailing steps, meant to distinguish the inebriated goddess, who splits her time between the underworld and the surface of the Earth.
“I’ve never been drunk because I don’t like the taste of alcohol,” says Moreno, giggling. “But there’s a lot of numbers where I’m drunk-singing and dancing around, so that’s the acting part.”
As a theatrical performer of her own songs, Moreno feels firmly in her element on Broadway. But she arrives as a decorated musician who has woven Latin American, blues and soul traditions into nine bilingual albums — including her 2024 Grammy Award-winning acoustic album “X Mí.”
For Moreno, who was born in Guatemala City, passion for musical theater was seeded during a trip to New York City with her family when she was 13 years old. That’s when they saw “Les Misérables” and “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway.
“I went back home [to Guatemala] thinking, this is a dream of mine,” she recalls.
But the trip to the Big Apple also illuminated another path for Moreno. Then just a starry-eyed Catholic schoolgirl, she remembers walking down Times Square and hearing a woman singing in the streets in a style unknown to her. Curious, she went up to the busker to ask her what type of music she was singing; it was the blues, she says.
Moreno scored blues compilation albums she would bring back to her native Guatemala. Locked in her bedroom, the first track that played was Koko Taylor’s 1965 rendition of “Wang Dang Doodle,” the party anthem originally composed by Willie Dixon.
“That’s the moment I’ll never forget,” says Moreno.
She would absorb every cadence of the African American folk genre, transfixed by the bewitching vocals of 1920s blues icons like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, as well as luminous jazz ballads by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone.
“Every musician should always try to find the roots to see where all that comes from,” says Moreno of her early musical explorations. “You might discover something completely new.”
Growing up as the proud daughter of Lucy Bonilla, one of Guatemala’s most charming radio broadcasters, Moreno starred alongside her mother and sisters in a series of cheeky Salvadoran seasoning commercials. She even recorded voice-overs for Central America’s most beloved chicken restaurant chain, Pollo Campero.
At 10 years old, she performed as an opening act for Ricky Martin in 1991, to the credit of her father, a concert promoter who reeled international stars to Guatemala.
“It was such a wonderful experience. I got to discover that I loved singing on stage,” says Moreno, who sang Disney songs as well as her own compositions. “I felt right at home.”
Yearning to start a music career in the States — “that’s where the [music I like] comes from,” she says — Moreno recorded a cover of a popular Guatemalan waltz called “Luna de Xelajú.” Her mother sent her demo to a producer in Miami, who then linked the young singer to a music manager in Los Angeles.
At 18 years old, she signed a recording contract with Warner Brothers and moved to L.A. There she enrolled in the Musicians Institute’s Vocal Certificate program, which allowed her to apply for a student visa and remain in the U.S.
With a deep passion for American blues and folk traditions, Moreno wondered if she could integrate those sounds with elements of Latin American folk music. But her label discouraged her from doing so, believing it would “confuse [the] audience,” she says.
“It took a while for me to find my own voice and to find where I belonged in this music world,” says Moreno. “Because at the beginning, [labels] were telling me you can’t sing in both languages — you gotta pick a lane.”
Following a disastrous 2001 merger between AOL and Time Warner, Moreno’s recording contract fell through. She later signed with Epic Records under Sony Music Entertainment — then run by Chairman and CEO Tommy Mottola — but they dropped the singer, following the decline in CD sales and rise of digital file-sharing sites like Napster and Limewire.
“I didn’t even get past recording an album,” she says of this period in her life.
Behind the scenes, Moreno formulated her own Spanish-language takes on jazz, which listeners can hear in the 2006 funky, spy-like chromatic track “Escondidos” — which includes a kazoo solo in its outro. The enigmatic song earned her the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest that year, making it the first time a Latin category took home the top prize.
“People kept telling me what to do, how to sound, what kind of music I should do, how I should dress. Blah, blah blah,” says Moreno when she was under a label. “At some point I said, ‘Screw it.’”
With nothing to lose — and no label looking to strip her of tender heart and free spirit — Moreno saw an opening to release music independently on MySpace, where she uploaded her 2008 debut album, “Still The Unknown.” (Much of Moreno’s music is still archived on the social network.)
“If all should fail you, there’s still the unknown,” sang Moreno with a warm, coffeehouse-friendly cadence in the title track.
“Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t, but at least I’ll be doing something that I really love,” she adds, looking back on that time. After its debut, she says she gave a copy to her friend, composer Patrick Warren, who was touring with Tracy Chapman. The “Fast Car” singer heard the LP and asked Moreno to open for her Our Bright Future tour in the summer of 2009.
“It was just me and my acoustic guitar, going with [Chapman] for three weeks all over the U.S.,” says Moreno.
Moreno’s ingenuity as an independent bilingual creative allowed her to freely partake in various opportunities in entertainment. Some might recognize her bubbly folk theme from the NBC mockumentary sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” which stretched across seven seasons between 2009 and 2015.
Others might recall her smokey vocals in the song “Mal Hombre,” as featured in Guillermo del Toro’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” — or in the final season of Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” which featured her heart-wrenching cover of the traditional Mexican huapango “Cucurrucucú Paloma.” She can also be heard in the 2022 animated film “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” singing a swooning ballad titled “Por Que te Vas.”
Still, Moreno declares she hasn’t found mainstream success as a musician.
“I’m perfectly fine with that. I am so happy at this point in my life where I can make music for a living, [which is] hard to do as an independent artist,” she says.
For an indie artist, Moreno boasts an impressive slate of accolades. She’s earned three Grammy nominations, including in the category of Latin pop album in 2017 for “Ilusión” and Latin rock/alternative album in 2022 for “Alegoria.” In 2024, she finally took home the gramophone for Latin pop album for her album “X Mí (Vol. 1),” an acoustic medley of all her previously recorded songs, including the song that started it all: “Luna de Xelajú.”
“She’s powerful the way that water is flowing and it’s light, but it’s unstoppable and effervescent,” says award-winning actor Oscar Isaac.
A Guatemalan-born musician himself, Issac befriended Moreno in 2013. Emmy-nominated for his role in “Scenes From a Marriage,” the actor was in town for the 2022 awards show when he and Moreno recorded “Luna de Xelajú” at the Palace Theater in downtown L.A. The two would later perform the ballad live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2024.
For Isaac, the stresses of everyday life melted away when the two got to jam together. They’ve performed a handful of times over the years, including live at the Lincoln Center for its American Songbook series in 2019.
“When I think of her, she feels very much like home,” he adds.
Guatemala — which is also known as the “Land of the Eternal Spring” — is always on Moreno’s mind.
Last year, she starred in “Lamento,” a musical short film made inside an abandoned Guatemalan beach resort; once a popular seaside destination known as Turicentro Likin, it is now tucked away behind the mangroves. Starring a stacked Guatemalan cast, including actor Tony Revolori, the project underlined the encroaching impacts of climate change that corrode once treasured memories, including those of Moreno, who grew up visiting the vacation destination.
“It’s something that brings me joy to work with people from my country,” she says.
It was only fitting that the folk-soul singer would be selected to represent Persephone in “Hadestown” — a victim of environmental destruction, yet whose duality brings life and prosperity back to a world that is constantly freezing or aflame.
Yet before she can truly represent both the queen of the underworld and goddess of spring, Moreno must first survive the gauntlet that is the New York winter.
“One thing I can tell you is: I cannot wait to bring on the spring,” she says.
