Maradona: Dramatised

Buenos Aires, Jan. 11 (Reuters): Graphic scenes filled with drugs, sweat and tears marked the premiere last night of a stage musical chronicling the turbulent rise and fall of Argentine soccer mega-star Diego Maradona.

A warts-and-all portrayal ranging from his impoverished youth in a shantytown to his celebrated goals in Argentina’s 1986 World Cup victory over England, the show entitled Number Ten: Between Heaven and Hell played to a full house in downtown Buenos Aires.

Audience members said they were shocked by the frank treatment of Maradona’s dark side. The mixture of fact and fiction depicted orgies, violent scuffles with paparazzi and clashes with everyone from Britain’s Prince Charles to a corrupt Argentine President.

The retired 43-year-old star, who has mostly resided in Cuba for the last four years recovering from drug abuse, was not present for the opening night. Producers said he had given the project his approval and was getting a cut of the profits.

Within the first 10 minutes, the show dealt with its touchiest topic: a fictional young Maradona, looking shifty and overwhelmed at a cocktail party in Paris, is approached by a beautiful woman who opens up a small, silver carrying case. “Want to try some?” she slurs, thrusting the box at him. “Try some what?” Maradona asks innocently. In another scene, Maradona kneels in a starry field and weeps as he asks God: “What good is it to be the best soccer player in the world if you’re not happy?”

Some present said the show made Maradona look too much like a helpless victim exploited by greedy soccer club owners and politicians. “They turned this into a fairy tale,” said a tabloid journalist who followed the real Maradona for several years. “Diego would never say some of those things. They invented everything so he would look like an angel.”

Still, much of the cosmopolitan crowd seemed won over by a self-described “tragicomedy” that also included an appearance by Che Guevara’s ghost and a tear-jerking, baritone ballad sung by Maradona as he seduces his future wife.

“It was beautiful,” sobbed Maria Ines Mops after the curtain fell. “It’s the story of Argentina. I didn’t expect anything from it. I’m so surprised.”