Offering a Substantial Infusion of Sheer Joy, ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ Moves to Broadway

It would seem a daunting challenge to craft a feel-good musical set in Cuba in 1956, the year that Fidel Castro returned with his comrades to begin their insurgency in earnest, and 1996, as the country was reeling after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet both the resilience of the Cuban people and their artistic contributions are being celebrated in a new Broadway show with irresistible exuberance, not to mention staggering talent.“Buena Vista Social Club” actually began its life as a Grammy Award-winning album produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder; it was followed by a film documentary directed by Wim Wenders. Mr. Wenders used interviews and performance footage showcasing the titular collective, named after a Havana club that had flourished before the revolution and featuring mostly Cuban musicians, some of whom had essentially been retired when Mr. Cooder recruited them.The musical, which includes a book by Marco Ramirez, had its premiere downtown at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2023, to generally positive notices. The Broadway production, once again helmed by Saheem Ali, with choreography by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck — the latter a two-time Tony Award winner, most recently for last season’s transcendent “Illinoise” — introduces a few new cast members, and offers an even more substantial infusion of sheer joy.The bigger rush may be due in part to the new venue: Where the Atlantic’s smaller space provided a lovely intimacy, the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre allows the lavishly gifted performers in Mr. Ali’s company room to spread their wings and soar. At a recent preview, a packed house arrived clearly ready for a party, greeting the musicians — who take center stage at certain points and remain prominent throughout the production — with boisterous cheering.From left, Justin Cunningham, Marco Paguia (seated at piano), Renecito Avich, Natalie Venetia Belcon, and Román Diaz. Matthew MurphyMr. Ramirez’s book has also, like other elements of the staging, been tweaked, so it seems a bit tighter and less obvious. The story still follows singers Omara Portuondo and Ibrahim Ferrer, guitarist Compay Segundo, and pianist Rubén González — all named after key participants in the real-life Buena Vista Social Club — as young artists and then later in life, as they deal with the consequences of both personal decisions and political upheaval.The action is propelled and enhanced by buoyant, soulful musical numbers, ranging from Latin classics to tunes by Messrs. Ferrer and Segundo. Players include Leonardo Reyna, an award-winning recording artist who’s also charming as a young Rubén, and Renisito Avich, whose sometimes showy noodling on the tres, a Cuban stringed instrument, was a big crowd-pleaser when I attended.Mr. Peck and Ms. Delgado, a Cuban-American ballerina, also remain valuable contributors. The married couple, who worked together on Steven Spielberg’s screen adaptation of “West Side Story” — she was his associate choreographer — once again draw on classical dance to bring a fluid, charging theatricality to their routines. The dancers are clearly as energized by the material as the band members are, and likewise add both individual character and an infectiously playful camaraderie. For me, though, it’s the singing that truly distinguishes “Buena Vista” from many other contemporary musicals, in which performers are too often encouraged to ape the ostentatious antics rampant in modern pop music. When Natalie Venetia Belcon and Isa Antonetti, who respectively play Omara as a mature woman and an ingénue, lift their richly textured voices in song, you feel the emotion in every lyric, unfettered by unnecessary pyrotechnics — even if you don’t speak a word of Spanish.The same can be said for the actors playing Ibrahim, Mel Semé, and young Wesley Wray, whose dance moves are as graceful as his achingly pure tenor. Julio Monge, as the older Compay, is another standout, providing jocular comic relief and occasionally playing it straight, as when his character warns Omara, “Sometimes these old songs … they kick up old feelings.”If “Buena Vista Social Club” can wax sentimental at times, the feelings it captures all ring true, and the entertainment it provides is as uplifting as anything you’ll see on Broadway this season.

Offering a Substantial Infusion of Sheer Joy, ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ Moves to Broadway

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