Miami Cuban Roots of Writer, Choreographer Help Shape ‘Buena Vista Social Club’

Isa Antonetti as Young Omara in the Broadway production of “Buena Vista Social Club.” The Broadway touring production opens at the Arsht Center on Tuesday, Sept. 29 in Miami, and at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, Oct. 13. (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

When playwright Marco Ramirez was growing up in Hialeah, music from Cuba’s great orchestras could be heard through his grandfather’s small Sony boombox on cassette tapes at family gatherings, from Nochebuena celebrations to weddings.

Now Ramirez’s grandfather, Felix, who is in his mid-90s, will be in the audience at the Adrienne Arsht Center when “Buena Vista Social Club,” the Broadway musical his grandson wrote, comes to Miami. Traveling to New York had been too difficult for Felix, so Ramirez waited and hoped the production would eventually reach him.

“I was rooting for its longevity because I was just like, ‘Broadway’s cool, but it’s got to go on tour so that my grandfather can see it,’” Ramirez said.

The production opens Tuesday, Sept. 29 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 4 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, then Tuesday, Oct. 13 through Sunday, Oct. 18 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

From left, Natalie Venetia Belcon as Omara, Mel Semé as Ibrahim and Wesley Wray as Young Ibrahim in the Broadway production of “Buena Vista Social Club.” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

Ramirez remembered when the 1997 “Buena Vista Social Club” album arrived on CD. The clarity of the recording changed the way he had taken in the music that had always sounded fuzzy on cassette.

“Now, it was like listening to it in IMAX,” he said.

As he and his grandfather looked through the liner notes, Felix recognized musicians and remembered the bands in which they had played. It was the first time Ramirez could remember introducing his grandfather to music rather than the other way around.

For choreographer Patricia Delgado, who won a Tony Award with her choreographer-husband, Justin Peck, for the Broadway production, the music had always been part of her family life.

“I didn’t know that I knew the Buena Vista Social Club music. It was always playing in my grandparents’ house, my parents, my cousins. Growing up, there was this soundtrack.”

The choreography by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck brings together ballet, contemporary movement and Afro-Cuban dance in the Broadway production of “Buena Vista Social Club.” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

It wasn’t until she met her Peck that Delgado understood the significance of the 1997 album, which reintroduced an influential generation of Cuban musicians and opened Cuban musical traditions to a global audience.

Back To School

Years earlier, Ramirez and Delgado had recognized a kinship before their professional careers intersected in New York when Delgado joined the creative team of “Buena Vista Social Club.”

Their paths first crossed at Coral Reef Senior High School. Ramirez was enrolled in the drama magnet and already knew he wanted to write plays, television and film. Delgado was in the ballet magnet and was already pursuing the career that would lead her to 17 years with the Miami City Ballet, including a decade as a principal dancer.

“I remember meeting him in our last year of high school and wondering ‘Why did it take until senior year?’ He was so interesting,” Delgado said.

Ramirez recalled that the connection was in their shared seriousness about becoming artists.

Playwright Marco Ramirez talks to music consultant Juan de Marcos at the first rehearsal for the Broadway production of “Buena Vista Social Club.” Creative consultant David Yazbek is at left. (Photo by Andy Henderson)

“We just saw it with each other. I think, like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna really make a go at this. You know, this is not a hobby. This is your life,’” Ramirez said.

When the Miami natives were reunited with the Broadway musical, it was the early influences from the Cuban music they heard growing up that shaped what they brought to “Buena Vista Social Club.”

” ‘El Carretero’ is in the show. ‘Veinte Años’ is in the show, and I remember … I must have been four years old when I heard that song. And that was a couple years before the Buena Vista record came out,” said Ramirez.

These memories helped Ramirez find the musical’s point of entry. He then concentrated the story on the musicians gathering to make the album in an unbelievably short amount of time. It was recorded in Havana in about six or seven days in March 1996 at EGREM studios.

Musicians and dancers share the stage in the Broadway production of  “Buena Vista Social Club” with Miami natives as creatives in the show. The book is by Marco Ramirez and choreography is by Patricia Delgado. (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

“The show is what happened in those few days,” he said. The musical moves between the 1990s recording sessions and the performers’ younger lives in the 1950s. “So many people know what the record is. So many people know the story of what happened after the record came out – they tour the world, it’s a global sensation. But I wanted us to be in the room. I’m always attracted to stories that tell a specific moment as opposed to trying to tell a whole life. The people that walked into that room, and came out making the record.”

For Delgado, the connection to the music took a different route. Her now-husband and co-choreographer was fascinated by her Cuban background from early in their relationship, she said.

“Justin really brought out a lot of my Cubanness,” Delgado said. “He was curious about it. He was the first relationship I had that someone was really into it and wanted to learn how to cook all the food and wanted to hear all the stories.”

Wesley Wray, center at microphone, with the Broadway company of “Buena Vista Social Club.” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

Peck was also the one who made Delgado realize how much of the “Buena Vista Social Club” repertoire she already knew. When he asked whether she knew the album, her initial answer was no.

“And then I was like, ‘Well, yes, I know every song,’” she said. “I just didn’t know it.”

First Dance

Years before they would work on “Buena Vista Social Club,” a song from the landmark album, that is not included in the musical, “Pueblo Nuevo,” became an important moment for the couple at their wedding in 2019.

“I think he’s just always been really fascinated and in love with all the traditions,” Delgado said of Peck.

” ‘He’s like, ‘For our first dance, let’s not do the traditional dance, just us. Why don’t we choreograph a song to the Buena Vista Social Club?’ ”

Years later, when they began choreographing the musical together, that shared connection gave them a way into its movement. Delgado also said there was definitely influence from her days training with Cuban dance teachers when she began at age 5 at the now closed Liana Navarro and Vivian Tobio Ballet School on Bird Road.

Tony Award-winning co-choreographers, Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck brought Delgado’s Cuban roots and the couple’s shared background in ballet to “Buena Vista Social Club.” (Photo by Michael Avedon)

For the pair, Delgado and Peck did not want the dancing simply to illustrate Cuban music or fall into a recognizable category of “Latin dance.” They began looking for a movement language that grew out of the rhythms themselves and could carry character and story.

The best-known song in the musical, “Chan Chan,” became the team’s greatest choreographic and narrative challenge. Early versions included spoken dialogue between the sisters at the center of the story. Ramirez ultimately removed the scene and allowed gesture and movement to carry when they say goodbye to one another.

“It takes a lot for a musical to trust in dance,” she said.

Ramirez said there’s dialogue in the show that he has considered changing slightly when the production reaches South Florida.

“It’s funny, there’s a line that says, ‘Right now, you and I are a thousand miles away … But a sound like this? It tends to travel.’ And I’ve been thinking about where we’ll be and maybe it should be, ‘We’re just about a couple of hundred miles away.’ Doing the show in Miami is going to be the closest thing right now to doing the show in Cuba.”

WHAT: “Buena Vista Social Club”

WHEN: Opens Tuesday, Sept. 29. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday, Oct. 4.

WHERE:  Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

COST:  $52.65 to $228.15 (includes fees)

INFORMATION:  (305) 949-6722 and arshtcenter.org

Free, weeklong celebration, “Rhythm and Roots,” inspired by the South Florida premiere of “Buena Vista Social Club” during the show’s run on Thompson Plaza with live music, domino games, local artisans and pop-up vendors. Free but RSVP required.

Also in Fort Lauderdale: Opens Tuesday, Oct. 13. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. $59 to $184.38; (954) 462-0222 or browardcenter.org. 

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