By Ryan Leeds
Physically, I was at a Broadway theater watching Buena Vista Social Club, a new musical about a group of once-famous, retired Cuban musicians who reunite for a recording session. Mentally, I went to what I imagined a prime night at a Havana nightclub would be—but even more thrilling than what my imagination could concoct.
After the opening number, music producer Juan de Marcos (Justin Cunningham) warmly welcomes us. “Right now, you and I are a thousand miles away, speaking very different tongues, on a very different island, but a sound like this? It tends to travel.”
De Marcos intends to revive the gifts of song these artists gave their native island, amid and beyond the Fidel Castro-led 1959 revolution. He’s also certain that his new project can reach a global audience. He’s right.
Although book writer Marco Ramirez takes much poetic license with plot, the musical is based on actual people (including de Marcos) who, in 1996 recorded the titular album, which swept the Grammy awards, relaunched careers, prompted a tour, and introduced the world to the breadth of emotions that embody Afro-Cuban music. Those heartfelt moments are beautifully woven into this stage treatment and made even more dynamic with Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck’s choreography.
Buena Vista Social Club toggles between the 1990s and the 1950s, with two sets of actors playing the same characters: young and “less young.” Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, my young self couldn’t find Cuba on a map. Now less young and slightly more geographically skilled, I’m immensely grateful for the privilege of exploring various cultures through live theater. How lucky that this first-rate musical traveled to us. Someday, I hope to visit the beautiful island. Until then, I’ll savor it via Broadway.
1MC Takeaway
Miami Sound Machine’s 1985 “Conga” was my entrée to Cuban music. “Don’t you worry if you can’t dance. Let the music move your feet,” they sang. I couldn’t dance then or now, but Buena Vista Social Club left this klutz gliding from the theater with the grace of famed dancer Carlos Acosta.
