Return of the Spice Boys

Try to imagine it: the Spice Girls Reunion Tour.

It’s the year 2013 and Ginger Spice decides to revive the quintet, proving that Girl Power is still a viable proposition at age 45.

The overwhelming response to the concert leads to a triumphant world tour and a hit live album. The Spice Girls’ original teeny-bopper fans are now adults with lots of buying power and the right to exercise nostalgia.

That scenario is comical, perhaps, but not totally implausible--in fact, the equivalent of a Spice Girls reunion tour is happening right now in the Latin pop world. That’s right: Menudo, the ‘80s Latin teen-pop phenomenon, is back.

The group may now be calling itself El Reencuentro (the Reencounter), but it is actually a virtual re-creation of the original Menudo’s most popular lineup. When the reunion was announced earlier this year, observers wondered whether the group’s fans would still care after all these years. The answer came swiftly and dramatically.

“We contacted the guys as soon as we heard about the Puerto Rico gigs,” says Steve Sybesma of SFX Entertainment, the tour’s producer. “When I went to see them live, I couldn’t believe the crowd’s reaction. There were hysterical fans of all ages, grandmothers and granddaughters who knew the lyrics and were singing them together.”

Initially, the reunion was going to be limited to Puerto Rico. But what was to be one single concert soon became six sold-out shows there. And the enthusiastic response to a double live album, which broke into the Top 10 on the Billboard Latin chart, made it clear that the project could be turned into a big tour throughout the Americas.

“The response has been incredible. Anywhere we’ve been, they ask us to come back,” says Sybesma, adding there is already talk of recording an album of new songs, which could in turn lead to more touring. The first leg of the current tour, which is expected to include some three dozen shows, has stops Friday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim and Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre.

“The public’s reaction was surprisingly positive,” says Pio Ferro, program director for Los Angeles radio station KLVE-FM (107.5). “We have been receiving calls and faxes from women 25 to 35 years old, even older, who were growing up when Menudo was such a hit. There’s a lot of interest for these shows.”

No one is more excited about the response than the six members of El Reencuentro themselves: Rene Farrait, Ray Reyes, Johnny Lozada, Charlie Masso, Ricky Melendez and Miguel Cancel, whose ages range from 28 to 30. All were in Menudo during the group’s peak period, which was from 1982 to 1984--and it was their idea to reunite.

“When we were big commercially, we were extremely young,” says Farrait, in Los Angeles with his colleagues to promote the album and tour.

“And I particularly made a lot of mistakes. Now, God is giving us the opportunity to repeat the past, but with the maturity that the years gave us. I don’t think I ever took advantage of that time in my life. I didn’t know how to appreciate things back then.”

The opportunity is especially gratifying, for Menudo was always regarded as something of a joke, largely because of its unique structure. The Puerto Rican sextet was made up exclusively of teenage boys, each of whom had to resign when he turned 16, to be replaced by a sunny new face (the age limit was later extended to 18).

Menudo’s songs were mainly pop ditties with disco inflections, with the occasional syrupy ballad thrown in for variety. (The hits have been collected in “Menudo: 15 Anos de Historia,” a two-CD compilation that BMG Latin has just released, taking advantage of the reunion.)

The music didn’t matter as much as the group’s frolicking attitude and the slyly choreographed moves they performed at their live shows, which were mimicked to no end by the fans.

Eventually, however, the fans outgrew the music and Menudo faded as a force in Latin pop. Of the current sextet, Lozada recorded a solo album in Brazil and was recently working as a TV host. Masso switched genres and released two merengue records with the group Kaos. The more rock-ish Farrait did two solo albums, acted in a Mexican soap opera and participated in Proyecto M, a Menudo spinoff that also included Lozada and Reyes. Melendez became a lawyer, while Cancel moved to Los Angeles and recorded demos with musicians from such bands as the Knack and Earth, Wind & Fire.

(Only one ex-Menudo has been savvy enough to parlay his success with the group into a widely successful musical career. Ricky Martin--whose latest album, “Volver,” was a commercial and critical hit--is not part of the reunion.)

El Reencuentro has overhauled the old Menudo hits, with arrangements tailored to adult voices and hardened with the addition of more guitars, five backup vocalists and a brass section.

“When you listen to the [live] record, you’ll notice that our music sounds more funky now, more aggressive than before,” Reyes says.

But mostly, one senses, the fans want a chance to revisit their teen dreams.

“I love the fact that these guys came back together,” says Jennifer Naranjo, 23, president of Menudo alum Ricky Martin’s fan club. “I was 5 years old when I became a Menudo fan and I never got to see them live. Fifteen years later, I’ll get to see the same guys performing the songs I tormented my parents with, singing and dancing them in the living room.”

Not everybody is dying to embrace this reincarnation of Menudomania. “I was never into their music, even when I was a child,” says Azucena Gomez, a television news reporter with Telemundo’s Channel 52 in Los Angeles. “I thought it was wimpy. It had no soul to it, no taste.”

Menudo’s members didn’t exactly become millionaires, even at the group’s peak. “We made good money,” Farrait explains. “Some invested it wisely, and the rest of us spent it all.”

But they vehemently reject the suggestion that the El Reencuentro project is an attempt to cash in on a commercially illustrious past.

“Money is always important,” Reyes says. “But we started this thinking we would lose money. Don’t forget that in the beginning, the El Reencuentro was going to be a local thing, just three or four shows in Puerto Rico and a CD to keep as a memento. If we knew that we would have to leave our wives and kids for a whole year on the road, we would have never accepted to do it.

“We have a commitment to our fans, and this tour is a way of saying thanks to all the people who supported us, who grew up with us and made Menudo the successful group that it was.”

He looks at his old pals for a moment and adds, “We never had the chance to really thank them. Now we do.”

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* El Reencuentro appears Friday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, 2965 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $30-$45. (714) 704-2400. Also Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City. 8:15 p.m. $23-$53. (818) 622-4440.