Carlos Perciavalle

Carlos Ernesto Perciavalle Bustamante (born in Montevideo on May 16, 1941) is a Uruguayan actor, humorist, scriptwriter, director and theater producer. He is nicknamed "El rey del café-concert", a theatrical genre of which he was a pioneer alongside Antonio Gasalla and which he helped popularize in Argentina and his native country. At the age of 15, in 1956, he began his career debuting in theater in Montevideo. In the late 1950s he moved to Argentina and studied at the Conservatorio Nacional de Arte Dramático, where he met Antonio Gasalla. In 1963 he debuted in film in a small role in the film La Cigarra no es un bicho (“The Cicada Is Not a Bug”) by Daniel Tinayre. He lived in New York in 1965, where he presented, with China Zorrilla, the musical Canciones para mirar (“Songs to Watch”) by María Elena Walsh, which they later presented in Montevideo, on tour through Uruguay, and in Buenos Aires in 1971.

In the late 1960s, alongside Antonio Gasalla, Edda Díaz and Nora Blay, he presented the show Help Valentino!, the founding show of the café-concert genre, which achieved resounding success over years and catapulted its members to fame. The group disbanded and Perciavalle went on to form a very successful duo with Antonio Gasalla for several years, in shows such as La mandarina a pedal (“The Pedal-Powered Tangerine”), Gasalla y Perciavalle en Broadway (“Gasalla and Perciavalle on Broadway”) and Yo no, ¿y Ud? (“Not Me, and You?”). The duo split in the mid-seventies. In 1999, Perciavalle and Gasalla performed Gasalla-Perciavalle 99 in Punta del Este. In 1981 he received the Premio Konex diploma al mérito for his career as a humorist. He presented a staging of "Cabaret" by Kander and Ebb. In 1974 he made films such as Clínica con música (“Clinic with Music”) and Un viaje de locos (“A Crazy Trip”) (both alongside Antonio Gasalla) and had a brief role in La tregua (“The Truce”), returning to film in 2000 with Buenos Aires plateada (“Silver Buenos Aires”) and in 2015 with The Sky of the Centaur (El cielo del Centauro).

In 1977 he debuted on television in the program El humor de Niní Marshall (“The Humor of Niní Marshall”), alongside the actress Niní Marshall. In the 1980s he had his own television program, El show de Carlos Perciavalle (“The Carlos Perciavalle Show”), presented each Monday on Canal 11 (telefé) with a live audience. In the 1980s he produced successful musical comedies in theater, Kiss of the Spider Woman (El beso de la mujer Araña) at the Teatro Regina and Woman of the Year (La Mujer del Año) at the Teatro Maipo with Susana Giménez as protagonist. In 1985 he premiered, alongside China Zorrilla, El Diario privado de Adán y Eva (“The Private Diary of Adam and Eve”), a musical based on the book by Mark Twain. In 1986 he produced and starred in the musical La Cage aux Folles (La jaula de las locas) at the Teatro Metropolitan de Buenos Aires with enormous success, his co-star being the comedian Tato Bores. He then co-produced the musical Sugar, starring Susana Giménez, Ricardo Darín and Arturo Puig. In 2015 he released his first book Las mujeres de mi vida (“The Women of My Life”).