← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
'Buena Vista Social Club' Heads to Broadway
00:26:56
“Buena Vista Social Club” librettist Marco Ramirez and actor Natalie Venetia Belcon discuss the production, which is running now at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.
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Listener
Listener supported WNYC Studios.
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David Fuerst
This is all of it. I'm David Fuerst and for Alison Stewart, who's on vacation, you're listening to the song El Cuarto del tula from the 1997 album Buena Vista Social Club. For many fans, it was the album that brought Cuban music to the world. It became an international success, it won a Grammy, it spawned an Academy Award nominated documentary, and now it serves as the inspiration for a Broadway show. Buena Vista Social Club uses music from the album to tell the story of the musicians who worked on the project. At the center of the story is Cuban vocalist Amara Portuando. Buena Vista Social Club is now on Broadway following a successful run at the Atlantic Theater last year. And we are joined now by Marco Ramirez, who wrote the book for Buena Vista Social Club, and by Natalie Venecia Belcon, who plays Omaro Portuando. Thank you both for joining us.
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Listener
Thank you for having us.
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David Fuerst
Hi. And let me just say, I saw the show yesterday and it's fantastic. So congratulations.
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Listener
Thank you for coming.
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David Fuerst
And Marco, what was your relationship with the Buena Vista Social Club before working on this project, before working on this show?
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Listener
This was one of those records that I picked up in my adolescence and I really loved. And it was one of the first times I was able to bring music to my grandparents who had been bringing music to me their whole lives. A lot of these songs were songs I had heard around the house but never recorded like this. So it was the first time I got to say, hey, thanks for years of playing these songs for me. But how about this one? Recorded brand new and this was a.
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David Fuerst
Project that by no means was this a guarantee to become a success on the level that it achieved.
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Listener
No, absolutely not. I mean, from everything I can tell and conversations with the musicians and with the producers who made the original album, they were just getting together to make a record they would listen to. I don't think they knew the world would also listen to it to the extent that they listened to it.
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David Fuerst
Natalie, what about you? How familiar were you with this music before signing on to the project?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Fairly familiar. I have musicians for parents, so they are the ones that introduced me to the album. First heard it from them. Yeah.
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David Fuerst
When we meet Omara in the musical. It's 1996. She's been out of the public eye for many years. A young record producer approaches her about recording a few tracks for this new collaborative album that he's working on. At first, O'Mara is too, to say the very least, skeptical. But soon the music takes over and reminds her of so many things, including the first time she fell in love with Cuban music in the days just before the revolution. Margot so much of this show is about this incredible music. Let's quickly, let's hear a little bit. This is one of the songs featured in the show. This is Candela from the original 1997. Marco, how did you want to make sure that the music took center stage here?
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Listener
Yeah, I mean, from day one, I felt like the music had to be kind of preserved. And so in most musical theater projects, you use these songs to push the story forward. And in this one, it felt very important to me that we used the story to push the songs forward.
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David Fuerst
How did you choose which songs to include?
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Listener
It was basically like the dream playlist of my life. I got to look through the Buena Vista record, then they made live record, Then they made Ruben Gonzalez record, an Ibrahim Ferrer solo record.
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David Fuerst
So all of that was fair game.
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Listener
All of it was basically fair game. My rule with myself was as long as somebody from this band recorded it, at one point, it's kind of fair game. So then we would go get the rights and everything, but I was essentially compiling my favorites, and then I kind of. Then the experiment became putting them in an order that felt like it could tell a story. So using the songs to kind of build toward, you know, for example, a big end of Act 1 or an opening of Act 2, kind of the traditional moments that you would find in a musical theater. The job that, okay, these are the songs as they exist. I don't want to touch them. We don't want to rearrange them. We don't want to do anything to them. The music team, the performers, the producers, everyone involved. We treated this like these were diamonds, these were gemstones, and we were, you know, setting them into jewelry. We didn't want to mess with them.
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David Fuerst
And, of course, all of this music is sung in Spanish. And that hasn't been changed either. There haven't been many shows on Broadway featuring music that's entirely not in English.
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Listener
Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, maybe somebody will someday find the one, but entirely sung in span and without any subtitles. So the job of the book then became to put them to put these songs in context so that even if you don't speak Spanish, you kind of understand what the song is doing for the story. In some cases, it's introducing a new character. In other scenes, it's, you know, think Candela, for example. There's kind of a musical battle in it. So it's. We find ways to kind of dramatize all the songs.
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David Fuerst
Well, Natalie, why do you think audiences are able to connect and respond to this music even if we don't understand the lyrics?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
The. Well, I think because they. Although the songs don't drive the story right, I think they fit perfectly in it. Therefore, they're able to follow along. Follow along. The melodies. The melodies are. So they really just get to your soul. And in the context of the play where they are, I find, strategically placed, you are very easily able to follow along. It's where they're placed also.
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David Fuerst
I would absolutely agree with that. And, Natalie, speaking of singing in Spanish, do I have this right, that you had to learn Spanish for this show? Is that correct?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
I haven't learned Spanish yet. I need, you know, some time to do that properly. So I don't know Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. We have a dialect coach that has been working with us, and that is how I learned all the diphthongs and, you know, how to. She drills us.
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David Fuerst
The drilling must be intense because I never in a million years would have guessed. It just sounds so. So natural.
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Well, thank you. It was a concern of mine since off Broadway. I just. I told basically everyone in the room until Rosie said to stop it. But I told everyone in the room to, you know, be on me right about it, because it was a concern of mine. I hate bad accents. I really do. They get on my nerves. So, yeah.
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David Fuerst
Marco, was it that? Well, absolutely. I would never, never, never have known. Marco, what does it mean to you to have a musical with entirely Spanish language? So on Broadway, it means the world?
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Listener
I mean, my grandfather, when he first moved to the United States, he washed dishes two blocks away from this theater. And so the thought that this show was opening so close to where that was and also that we're playing his favorite songs really means the world to me.
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David Fuerst
Wow. Before we go any further, let's give a big shout out to the musicians. Okay. Yes. What an incredible team and what an incredible sound that you are generating. Shout out to the person who's engineering and mixing the sound because it's. You feel like you're in the middle of a real working band there.
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Listener
Yeah. I mean, Everyone on the music team from David Yazbeck to Marco Paguilla to Dean to Jonathan, who's doing the mix in the room. It's pretty incredible. I've not walked into many Broadway theaters where I have heard, sonically, the quality of the sound of the music be this strong. And you can hear the bass. You can hear the flute solo. And, I mean, just to shout out Natalie, you can hear a voice as glorious as Natalie's. Really beautiful in this theater.
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Thank you.
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David Fuerst
And, boy, the flute solo is pretty amazing, I gotta say, especially with the setup that you give it. Natalie, you don't want that flute. You don't want that flute on the recording. At first, but he sells it.
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Yeah, he does. He does. The musicians really are otherworldly, and I knew automatically because, you know, the better someone is, the more chill they are. And they all look like, you know, they just got off of a chair with a margarita in their hands. They're all quite amazing. Quite amazing.
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David Fuerst
Natalie, it has been. Do I have this right? You have to check on my timing here. That it's been about 10 years since you were last on Broadway. Right. In Matilda the musical. And in 2016. How does it feel to be back?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
I mean, it feels great. I feel, you know, right at home. You know, there are things that are a little bit different, but the. The basics are the same. Right. You. It's still the same thrill. I am very lucky. I always say this. It doesn't matter what's going on, personally, how tired I am. The texts are, you know, something else entirely. It's, you know, you have rehearsals during the day, get, you know, changes of pages, memorize them in your dinner break, and you go on and do that show at night. And no matter how fried my brain was at the downbeat hits, and again, those musicians that we are all extremely, extremely blessed to have. I'm alive. I'm awake. I'm ready to go. Yeah.
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David Fuerst
Well, Marco, this musical did have an off Broadway version, and you had to make some changes right before to the script for the Broadway run. And the runtime is actually shorter, is that right?
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Listener
Yes. It's just because we told the musicians they can't solo. No, that's a joke. That's a joke. No. Yeah, it's got a little streamlined. You know, we found ways, I think, to dramatize some of the music and some of the dance sequences that ultimately led to a more streamlined show. And also, as we transfer to Broadway, we can kind of grow other things, like, you know, the Tropicana Sequence is certainly a little bigger than what we could do off Broadway. And so, yeah, there've been a lot of rewrites and a lot of sharpening with a lot of love. Even notes from the music team, notes from them saying, actually, the word would be this. We would say this. This is the correct word for the instrument. And so, yeah, there's been a lot of sharpen.
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David Fuerst
In the beginning of the story, in kind of the introduction to the evening, we are told that a lot of this is true and that some of it feels true. What is an aspect of this story that you wanted to be accurate? And where did you want to take some creative license in order for this.
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Listener
Whole thing to work? I mean, just to talk about it. Once again, the music had to be accurate. If we kept the music accurate, then everything else we could kind of embellish, we could unpack, we could. It was like adding a little water to the scotch. Like you could. You could do whatever you want later. But in terms of the music was the thing, and the lyrics were the thing. That was the thing. We knew we didn't want to adjust.
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David Fuerst
And I read that you took a research trip to Cuba as part of your writing process. What were you looking for?
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Listener
Yeah, several trips to Cuba I was looking for. It was amazing. I got to spend time with the musicians. I got to break bread with them. I got to go to the studio where it happened. And what I really wanted out of that trip, I think, was just kind of inside information. What didn't make the documentary, what were the things that kind of. You don't really talk about on the press tours when you're doing. For their Buena Vista tour back in the 90s. And I got a whole lot of that. I got a whole lot of the stories about the love that was in that room. But also, you know that sometimes, like any group of creatives get together and there's. There's some disagreement, but then also just the reverence they had for the place where it was made, for the studio specifically. And they talked about it like, you know, people talk about college or high school, and they talked about it with this. Even though some of them were in their 70s or 80s. They talked about it like, oh, those were the glory days, those 10 days or whatever it was in that studio. That was really it. And so that's when I realized we have to tell as much of the story as possible in that studio.
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David Fuerst
And a lot of it takes place in that recording studio. Although we do flash back and forth from the 1950s to 1996.
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Listener
Yes.
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David Fuerst
Natalie, what about you? What kind of research did you do into the real Amara Portuando? Was it important to research her? How did you approach it?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Yeah, well, absolutely. There you have to put respect on the person that you are portraying, especially when they are still alive and can possibly see it.
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Listener
Right.
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David Fuerst
Has she seen it?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
I don't know, Marco.
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Listener
Did she actually, I believe she came. Yeah, well, she came to the theater. She kind of blessed the theater. There's a great picture of the three Omaras.
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David Fuerst
Wow.
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Listener
If you will. And I believe she saw some of it as well. Yes. She's something like 95, 96 now.
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Wow.
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David Fuerst
Incredible.
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Okay, great. Yeah. But the documentaries, listening to every song she's ever recorded, and I watched the documentaries quite a bit. Adios. That she's actually in. And she's not in it that much, but it does help. Just the way she carries herself, the way she speaks, you know? So, yes, I did. I tried to put as much respect on her name as the kids say as I possibly could.
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David Fuerst
We are speaking with playwright Marco Ramirez and Natalie Venecia Belcon about their new Broadway musical, Buena Vista Social Club. Marco, why did you decide that it was important within the context of the musical, to travel back and forth between the 50s and the recording sessions in the late 90s?
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Listener
Yeah, well, I mean, even just the recording itself, the record was a look back. It was a look back at what is considered the golden age of Cuban music. So that felt important, this idea of things existing in two times, one when they're kind of fresh and young, and another when they're less young. But I do think it is also ultimately about putting having the 50s so that the 90s can exist in this context where you kind of understand, oh, wow, I honor the things much more now than I did then. Then they were new, they were fresh, they were young. But now when you look back, I mean, music is one of the only places where what came before us is actually honored. It's one of the only art form. Or you're just like, oh, wow, this instrument is not new. Right. This instrument is 200 years old, or, oh, this song has been played this way for centuries. And so it just felt right to be able to not only show them in the 90s, but also when the world was a little more. When they were younger and the world felt younger to them.
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David Fuerst
Well, the real life band leader of Buena Vista Social Club, Juan demarcos Gonzalez, was a consultant on this project. What impact or feedback did he have for you? That was valuable.
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Listener
He Was my way into the story. When I watched that documentary, I saw Juan kind of in the corners organizing things, setting tables, and I thought, who is that guy? And sometimes he picks up an instrument, he's playing along, Sometimes he's singing harmonies. And he was kind of the fixer when this whole thing really happened. When the opportunity came to make a record with Eliades ochoa and raikuter, and Nick gold brought all this stuff to Cuba to make this record. He was the man on the ground who was like, I got this. And in the 90s in Cuba, that was a very difficult thing to do, to get this. And so he went and found the musicians, he put them all together, and the. It just felt like in theater, you want your lead characters to be very active. You want them to kind of want something. And nobody wanted anything more than Juan demarcos. So it was very easy to make him. Kind of our way into the story is to see this young man who just wants to honor the music that his parents loved.
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David Fuerst
Natalie, you play Omara, the singer in 1996. There's also another Omara in the musical. As you were alluding to earlier, what was your collaboration like with the. With the actor who plays the younger version of Omara? What conversations did you two have about how to approach this character at different points in her life?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Well, there weren't too many conversations, but there was a lot of watching the other. And what, you know, we were doing, we were, you know, just because of the rehearsal process. And it happens fast. Right. You have six weeks to do it. So I think, like, the first week to 10 days, we're in separate rooms trying to learn our own things, and then we finally get together in the room. So there's a lot of watching the other person. Let's listen.
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David Fuerst
Let's listen to another song. This is a song featured in the show. This is the real life Omara portoando on the song vente anos from the 1997 album Buena Vista social club.
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Listener
Will I lose yonder week?
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David Fuerst
Natalie, I want to ask you about her as a vocalist, but, Marco, I'm just watching you listening to this, and you're doing a lot of smiling.
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Listener
I am, yeah. It's just delicious music. It really feels. It feels like standing in front of the sun, listening to some of this music.
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David Fuerst
It is delicious music. That is a great way to describe it.
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Listener
It is, yeah.
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David Fuerst
Natalie, what makes Amara such a special vocalist?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
I mean, that tone. She doesn't really need to try, right? So she takes a breath, opens her mouth, takes a Breath and just that the. Her vocal quality is everything. And, you know, I have a few favorites. Right. So she's on the list. But the thing that they share is just one note, a. You know who the voice is. But there's something about their tone and that quality that is there no one else like them and just gives you absolute chicken skin. It's just goosebumps. Yes. Oh, my God. It's just. It's really something. I mean, it's just something.
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David Fuerst
That's the best description right there. Really wordless reaction to that. Marco. You really base a lot of the show on the producer really chasing after her and trying to get her involvement in this project. And you can hear why the band and the producer would be so eager to have her on board.
- [20:18]
Listener
Yeah. And when you hear Natalie's voice, you understand exactly why. But. Yeah, just listening to that specific recording. One of my favorite moments in the behind the scenes of it all, in these interviews I was lucky enough to be able to conduct with some of the band members, was that, if I'm remembering correctly, that was either the first or second take. They just got together and Kompai sang harmonies, and they were like, oh, we know how to do this one. And they just played. And so to think that this glorious recording. I mean, imagine being a fly on the wall there and just watching this thing. It felt like unearthing some kind of beautiful treasure.
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David Fuerst
Well, the show, as we've been saying, jumps between the 50s and 1996. In the second half of the show, the Cuban Revolution has come to Havana, and all of the characters are grappling with what that means for them and their country. How did you decide how much to focus on the revolution within the show?
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Listener
Yeah, I mean, we couldn't deny that this massive historical event happened, but I think the focus we all wanted from the very beginning was how it affected these artists. What did these artists do to deal with a changing political landscape and how were their lives affected? As opposed to the docu version of the story, which would tell the history. We really wanted to tell a very personal history. And they kept making their art.
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David Fuerst
And racism is present in this musical. Amaro begins singing at the club, which was a black club at the time. Her sister does not want her to go there and keeps saying it's dangerous.
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Listener
Yeah, there's a. I mean, in the first documentary, and then in the second one, Buena Vista, Adios, that came out, which Natalie referenced, there's a lot of talk of how Ibrahim was kind of relegated to being a background singer, likely because of the color of his skin, that on some stages they considered him not, quote, unquote, fit for.
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David Fuerst
Relegated to that role in the 1950s.
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Listener
Yes. Earlier. And so thank you for clarifying. And so, you know, this whole focus on bringing this Afro Cuban sound in the 90s up, it felt like an opportunity for some musicians to kind of correct some of the mistakes that had.
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David Fuerst
Happened in the past and bring everyone on board.
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Listener
Exactly.
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David Fuerst
For this new project.
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Listener
Yeah. Where everyone could shine, which is what happens on this beautiful record.
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David Fuerst
Natalie and Marco, I have to ask, is there a cast album in the works? Maybe. It's early to ask this.
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
No. Yes. On the 31st. We're in the studio.
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David Fuerst
Oh, really?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
Yes.
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David Fuerst
That's really exciting. I mean, you're on stage night after night with this amazing band. They sound incredible. As I mentioned earlier, how does being in that live band with you on stage influence your performance from night to night?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
I mean, it's everything. And it makes it easy. I don't have to think. I don't think they are there as my support, as my wings. It's really easy with them. I listen to them and that's it. I take flight, that's all.
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David Fuerst
How much are you interacting with what the audience is doing? They're very excited to be there. The day I went, there was a large group holding Cuban flags. How much of that energy do you feel on stage?
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Natalie Venecia Belcon
I feel all of it. I don't necessarily hear a lot when people ask me offstage, did you hear xyz? And I'm like, no, I can't hear, but I can feel it. And the little bit that I can see because I'm quite blinded by lights a lot. So the first few rows I can see, I can see people moving. I can see smiles, I can see people crying. All of that. I can feel it.
- [24:04]
David Fuerst
The album Buena Vista Social Club was this surprising international success in 1997. And now here are all of those songs getting this incredible treatment on Broadway. In the musical, the characters make a big deal about wanting to play meaningful music, their music, their way for themselves, about not needing validation from tourists at the Tropicana. And here we are on Broadway, right, surrounded by more tourists than probably anywhere in the world. How do you hope audiences react to that moment? You know, that moment where they're saying, we don't need validation from tourists.
- [24:41]
Listener
Yeah. I mean, look, if there are tourists in the audience, they're more than welcome. But I'm really glad that they came to see our show. I think the whole thing is about these Artists just wanting to make music that to them, has substance and not necessarily perform the happy kind of poppy Tropicana music that is essentially just light entertainment. These people want to sing about heartbreak. They want to sing about longing. And so I think that's at the core of why they make this record.
- [25:05]
David Fuerst
Yeah. For me, the feeling in that moment was that audiences from around the world came to this music, as opposed to a team of musicians trying to water something down, perhaps to appeal to a general audience. That was not the case here.
- [25:22]
Listener
Yeah. If you build it, they will come. Right. And so this record, they made it for each other, and then the world happened to have fallen in love with it, as they should have. But I think even if that hadn't happened, they would have all been very happy with having made this record.
- [25:34]
David Fuerst
How do you both hope this show helps to contribute to the legacy of Buena Vista Social Club? Natalie, what do you think?
- [25:42]
Natalie Venecia Belcon
Well, there are a lot of people that are newly introduced and hooked. I see people on the street or the other day, a few people on the bus back to Jersey. Right. Different days that didn't know them. And, you know, literally, oh, my God, I'm putting them on my playlist or on my way into the theater the other day. I can't stop listening to these people now. They're absolutely hooked. I hope that is what happens. That is what continues to happen. And I don't see how it couldn't. Right. Because they're absolutely. The sound is addictive. It's absolutely addictive.
- [26:27]
David Fuerst
The sound is addictive.
- [26:28]
Natalie Venecia Belcon
It seems to be what is happening. Yeah.
- [26:30]
David Fuerst
I confess. I broke out my Buena Vista Social Club recording last night to listen more as soon as I got home. Marco, how do you hope the show contributes to the legacy?
- [26:41]
Listener
Exactly that. I mean, I think Juan DeMarcos, when he worked on this record, and he was trying to, you know, shine a light on this music for fear that maybe people would forget it. And so I think we're just kind of spinning that plate a little longer and helping people remember a little bit longer.
- [26:54]
David Fuerst
Spinning that plate a little longer. Talking about show business there. And I gotta say, at the end of the performance, when we build up to this moment, I just wanted to. I wanted it to just keep going. So do we keep that plate spinning? Yeah. Thank you both for joining us here today. The new Broadway musical Buena Vista Social Club is running now at the Schoenfeld Theater. Marco Ramirez and Natalie Venecia Belcone. Thank you for joining us.
- [27:22]
Natalie Venecia Belcon
Thank you.
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Listener
Thank you.
- [27:25]
Ira Flatow
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