Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Never before in my lifetime of going to the theatre do I think I've ever gone to a show, been completely unable to understand the meaning of any of the lyrics, and enjoyed it quite this much. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you. If you're listening on podcast platforms. You're missing my very exciting hat that I have on today because we are going to be talking about the Broadway musical Buena Vista Social Club, first seen Off Broadway, subsequently having transferred to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre where it is currently playing as the recipient of several Tony Award nominations, including a nomination for Best New Musical. Now, the show is a jukebox musical, adapting the award winning 1990s documentary of the same name about the album of the same name, telling a semi fictionalized story about the musicians featured on that iconic recording. But essentially what's happening in the show is we're performing a story of music and humanity throughout history, particularly the history of Cuba in the 1950s. Now, if you don't know about the show, I will tell you a little bit more about it, how it works and why it's quite so special, why people are responding to it so much, and why it has so many Tony Award nominations. I'll tell you all of that in today's full review. If you have seen this already, either on or off Broadway, I would love to know what you thought of it. Let me know your thoughts on Buena Vista Social Club in the comments section down below. And if you enjoy listening to mine, make sure you're subscribed here on YouTube. Turn on those notifications so you don't miss any of my upcoming reviews. There are more Broadway shows this season for me to head over and check out. I'm going to be back in New York very soon seeing the rest of them. If you don't want to miss those, make sure you're subscribed here on YouTube or following me on podcast platforms. And to stay completely up to date, go follow me on Instagram. While you're at it, push the boat out. In the meantime, my needlessly wide brimmed hat and I are going to tell you all about Buena Vista Social Club. So let me expand a little bit on what exactly this show is and its source material. Buena Vista Social Club is a jukebox musical with a book by Marco Ramirez and adapting, as I mentioned, the 1997 documentary of the same name, that which centers on the recording of this landmark album of Cuban music, with many of the musicians featured on the album having been legendary performers from decades before. And it's from that idea that Buena Vista Social Club finds its historic story. But the first thing that we encounter is the musical director for the album, as depicted in the documentary. His name is Juan de Marcos Gonzalez. He also serves as a creative consultant on the musical, and he is trying to coax a particular singer out of retirement. She is the legendary singer Omara Potuando, and Juan is trying to convince her to contribute her vocals to the album. Even though, as we learn in the musical, she has not performed live or sung publicly for some years. She has become something of a recluse, which we are empowered to understand through the course of the show. The show unfolds over two timelines. We exist in the more contemporary version in the 1990s, when Juan is trying to make sure that everything goes properly, reacquainting Amara with her former friends, her former collaborators and bandmates as they are brought together to become this iconic ensemble, to perform this music authentically and brilliantly and meaningfully, and also to kind of unearth these forgotten styles and give them new life and popularity throughout the world, which the success of the album went on to do. The musical genres that we are talking about here, and I apologize if I am butchering the pronunciation of these, are Cubanzon, danzon and Bolero. But as they're simply trying to record this music from their share dead past, the music itself becomes a gateway to their memories. And so, at the same time, in parallel with this plot about them trying to put the album together like a slightly less unhinged stereophonic, if you like, we also see memories from the past. We see a young Amara, we see young versions of the other musicians that she's recording alongside, and we find out about this story of love and loss and friendship and difficult choices and family, all happening in the shadow of the Cuban Revolution. The crux of the story becoming a decision that Amara must make. Whether or not to flee to America alongside her sister, who she had been performing with in this double act, to go and seek fame and prosperity and safety, or whether to stay in Cuba for reasons including the opportunity to perform and bask in the more authentic musical sound that she had recently discovered at the Buena Vista Social Club. Well, this is a particular club that existed at the time. This was a social club where music was performed and one that accepted black members. So it's not not just about the music. It's also about this sense of community and love, transcending race in a bigger story that also, at a very topical time, talks about immigration and talks about cultural identity and valuing that and, you know, choosing to honor that and to keep that. But also the enduring power of music, as is said in the show, these old songs, they kick up old feelings. And that is more or less the conceit of Buena Vista Social Club. Now, I mentioned that this is a jukebox musical. These are all long since written, long since recorded songs, and they are all performed entirely in Spanish, which is a little interesting because obviously if you go to this show as a native Spanish speaker or someone familiar with this music, then you will have some sense of what the lyrics are conveying here. But they are also, for the most part, diegetic, which is to say that when characters sing in this musical, it's because in the world that they exist in, they are actually singing, they are actually performing, they're in a recording studio or they're in a club, rather than in musicals like Les Miserables, where people are singing their feelings, but they're not really singing within the context of that. And so because these songs are diegetic, we don't necessarily take it as read those of us who don't speak Spanish in the audience, that the lyrics they're saying are acutely personal. Though there are times when they become so, when there is overlap between the words of the song or even just the musical mood of the song. And it's sort of forlorn, solemn, longing quality and the way that the characters are feeling. But what's kind of brilliant about the way that this piece has been put together and directed by Sahih Mali is we get a sense of that with needing to know the words which are sung. If any part of you is reluctant about going to see this because you don't speak Spanish, I don't speak a word of Spanish. And yet the power of the music and the passion of the performances enable those songs to transcend language barriers. And if that's still a little bit frustrating for you, then there is also an insert in your playbill, which for those of you watching on video, I am showing right now with a foreword written by the aforementioned Juan de Marcos, which goes to the trouble of explaining very meaningfully the thematic implications of each of these songs. So you can read about this before the show, in the interval or afterwards, if you want to gain a little more insight into what these songs are saying. But of course, for those who are bilingual English and Spanish speakers, the show is going to take on even more power. And there is also a tremendous authenticity to that. And this is a Topic. I want to have a little bit of a conversation here with Buena Vista Social Club, particularly because I. I really value the idea of authenticity in storytelling. And this has that in some ways and doesn't in others, and quite deliberately so. And not that I don't absolutely love when characters burst into song and musical theatre, of course I do. What are we even talking about? But there's something about the way that the songs are performed in Buena Vista where some of them are just incidental, that those songs that do then have an emotional weight to them, they feel even more powerful than if every single song were to mean something which, which can have a quality that can start to feel a little generic. It becomes a much more almost show stopping moment when one particular song is performed and there is a real heaviness to it. You can tell that it takes on a far greater meaning than it ought to. At the same time, while I love that the songs are performed in Spanish, I do also understand, and I've heard this from a couple of people, the notion that the whole really ought to be performed in Spanish and the idea of translating these characters who wouldn't have been speaking English to each other, I mean, Les Mis as an example. They also wouldn't be singing in English, they'd be singing in French. But does it feel a little bit culturally inauthentic, particularly on Broadway, particularly in a city like New York where you have plenty of Spanish speaking audiences. Would they feel, and perhaps this is a demographic who doesn't necessarily as readily go to Broadway shows because they don't nearly as often see themselves represented in the stories that we're telling on stage? Would they feel more empowered to do so, more welcome to do so, more catered to if this were an entirely Spanish language musical? I've had a few interesting experiences recently of seeing foreign language shows. Foreign to me, of course, like when the Japanese production of Spirited Away played in London and was performed entirely in Japanese, but with English surtitles. I've also seen French language productions and German language productions and it seems as though we are finding steadily more and more success in like the prestigious legitimate screen world, both in terms of series like Squid Game comes to mind and also, you know, award winning films, foreign language films with English subtitles. And it feels perhaps like theater is a little behind on that. And I would really love a version of Buena Vista Social Club performed entirely in Spanish, with all of the dialogue in Spanish as well, incorporating subtitles for audience members. And it would also be a big win for Accessibility, which is an area where the theater industry in general has been for too long sort of dragging their feet. At the same time, I'm also aware that this is Broadway, and for a lot of audience members, sadly, I think that would make it feel even more restrictive. I think it would be really interesting, and I think, you know, there would be substantial artistic gains from doing it that way. I also understand the reason not to. And inevitably, I don't feel as though Broadway is the particular subsection of the theatre industry. You know, it's like, in terms of so much, it's the very height of the thing, but I don't think it's where you will always find the greatest sense of cultural authenticity. While we're talking about that word as well, I also feel as though I have to acknowledge that much of the story depicted here is fabricated. And it's a great story. It's a really fantastic story. But as they say at the beginning of the show, much of this is true. Much of it is real, and parts of it just feel real. And without having yet watched the documentary, though, I would like to, because this has made me very interested in it. I dare say a lot of the more emotional sections of backstory and the romance of it all and some of the particular choices and a lot of the timeline of it all as well, which seems to unfold a sort of surprisingly quick, or at least in a vague sort of a way where it's hard to tell. You know, there are some nights and evenings that just seem to go on forever and ever and ever, as Amara sneaks out to go perform at this club and then makes it back home in the dead of night. And her sister's like, it's far too late for you to have come back by yourself. Where were you? And then she goes back to the club again, and her sister goes back to find her again. Unless I missed a line there, it seems like, you know, it's an evening that's never going to end as long as they keep playing music in this club. Where was I before I started making this point? Ah, yes. Manufactured storylines and, you know, in aid of telling a really great story. I understand it. It doesn't really matter to me that all of this absolutely took place, but it is a little bit unusual to, you know, adapt a documentary and then craft a lot of fake history around that at the same time. It's a really great story, and Broadway needs really great stories, because I can think immediately of three or four other new musicals this same season that arrived on Broadway without having great stories and I feel as though we've forgotten in a pursuit of, you know, great staging and visuals and songwriting and performances that are great. Story is sometimes the most fundamentally important thing. And that is what is driving audiences out of this theater after the show, saying great things about it. That is what is creating great word of mouth. If you can tell people a great story with great ingredients around it and great creative choices, which we'll move on to talk about in just a moment, you will leave people happy. And it's not even a story, I think is necessarily for me specifically. And I'm not talking about the Spanish of it all. I'm talking about the fact that, like, my parents would love this, like, as a. A film. They don't go to the theater quite as much, but they would really enjoy this kind of a story. It reminds me of a lot of the types of films that they like to watch. It reminds me of a musical that toured around the UK a few years ago that I loved called Fisherman's Friends. Telling the story of that real life group and the success that they found as recording artists, coming from a very particular part of the world, having a very particular sound, and contributing via their success to the popularity resurgence of that sound. And, you know, that was sea shanties in Cornwall, and this is Cuban music, and they couldn't be more different. But there is, I think, a kinship in the charm of each of these stories and why these shows work. To talk a little bit more about why this show works, let's talk about the people involved. So I do think the most enormous quantity of praise has to go to Sahih Mali, who explicitly developed and directed the show. And in terms of crafting this narrative, narrative that moves between these different timelines, that utilizes this music as a storytelling technique, one that, you know, they know not everyone in the audience is going to be able to understand the clarity with which the story is told through that. But also, you know, even in that sort of put to the side, the music is the main character here. That's the really interesting thing. And Amara is the closest thing that we have to a protagonist. But in terms of the story of the present day of the album, we feel very close to her because it's all hinging on her involvement. And that's the thing that, you know, they're going back and forth about. She is a little reluctant to participate in the album. And then they get her in the studio and she hears the music and she is indifferent even then to some of the orchestration choices and the way that the Music has been adapted for the album, and she says, why on earth would you have a flute in that? And then there's a beautiful, really cool moment when she hears the flute solo for the first time. And her reaction to it is so spectacular and it's so, so energizing. It's just wonderful. It's this moment of creative genius coming together. And you can see her being newly inspired by the music all over again, just as she was in the flashback scenes. However, more and more memories of the time returning to her, then see her, you know, battling with the decision of whether or not to actually contribute to this album and to continue being involved in the recording process. But we also follow a host of other characters as well. And so she's the closest thing that we have to a central character because she is key to the story throughout. But it's also an ensemble piece. And that, in conjunction with stage time, I think, is why the actress portraying older o' Mara, whose exceptional performance we will talk about momentarily, has been nominated as best featured actress in a musical. There is no one leading performer in this show, and it's Amara's story, but it's also a story of the music, and the music is empowered to be the central character. I'll give you another example of this. At the top of the second act, we find the most show stopping sequence in the entire, entire show, by far. This gets the biggest response out of anything that happens. We see the band members rolling forwards on this piece of staging on this gorgeous set down to the front, and playing this music passionately and brilliantly and with undeniable enjoyment and thrill and artistry all at the same time. And to see them on stage, not hidden down below the stage, not back up in a box somewhere, which admittedly, is a trend we're seeing in more and more Broadway shows this season. They love to show you the band. I'm looking at you. Maybe happy ending. I'm looking at you. Boop. I'm looking at you, Smash. There are plenty of them that have been doing it. They love a band reveal moment, but none of them are doing it better than Buena Vista Social Club. And it is so exciting. I studied fun fact about me that I never often talk about. I studied the classical guitar, which is sort of like Spanish guitar vibes for more than a decade of my life. And so to get to see and hear that performed and performed really, really well. It was. It was just so thrilling. I'm going to tell you about everyone involved in the music of this show. They've Also been nominated for a special Tony Award. In fact, no, they've been given a special Tony Award. It's not a nomination. They are going to receive one for the extraordinary musical contribution that is, you know, their efforts in Buena Vista Social Club. Now, Marco Paguia is the music director, also responsible for orchestrations and arrangements. The composer, David Yazbeck, interestingly enough, also is listed here as a creative consultant, as I already mentioned, is Juan demarcos. We also have additional arrangements by Javier Diaz and David Okendo. And sound design, of course, integral to all of this by Jonathan Deans. And it would feel completely inappropriate not to tell you about all of the brilliant musicians who perform this standout moment of the show. So we have music supervisor Dean Chernow. We have music director on conductor, piano, Marco Pagia, who I already mentioned, the associate music director on guitar, David Okendo, who I also mentioned. We also have Renaicito Avic, Gustavo Schatz, Javier Diaz, Roman Diaz, Mauricio Herrera, Jesus Ricardo, Eddie Venegues, Harry Pass, and Leonardo Reyna. I'm so sorry if I butchered the pronunciation creation of any of those names, but they are fantastic musicians. And, you know, it's not only a very honest moment because there's no story happening over the top of this. We are just spectating extraordinary musicianship, but it's also thrilling. There is such an exciting quality to it. We are all wrapped in attention at the start of this second act, and then everyone just explodes in joy afterwards. It's amazing. And, you know, it does also make you ask questions about your theatrical experience. You have to question with the whole thing that you're able to engage emotionally to such an extent with this show, even though you can't understand the lyrics, which we always talk about being incredibly important. You know, bad lyrics are always a big problem for me. Why then is it not an issue if, you know, I can hear the sound of the poetry of these words linguistically, but I don't understand any of the meaning? And why am I not dramaturgically questioning an Act 2 opening that does nothing whatsoever to not only advance the plot, but even engage with the plot? We're not even addressing the plot. We're just portraying this music. And that is because, like I mentioned, music is the main character here. Music is our focus. That is what this story is about. And also, I will move on, I promise. But we have spent so much time in audiences, in theaters, celebrating amazing acting and fantastic singing and gorgeous, athletic dancing, and we have given all of these moments standing Ovations and thunderous applause. And, you know, people appreciate, applaud for the efforts of the band as well. But rarely so spotlighted, rarely center stage, and rarely the full audience, because, honestly, people start leaving the theater and not everyone stays to even clap the band at the end. I'm getting on my soapbox at this point because it does annoy and upset me, but I love that they have this moment. It feels so special and so right. Carrying on with more of the brilliant creative team. I want to talk about the choreography, because it's really stunning, and that has been done by Patricia Delgado, I believe. Oh, I tell a lie. Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck. I love choreography. It is lively. It is spirited. There is a contrast in the different worlds that we see. This also captured in the design aesthetic, of course, as we move between the more sophisticated establishments that young Amara and her sister have been performing at and the Buena Vista Social Club when she discovers it for the first time. There's also a very soulful and romantic quality to a lot of the dance and a lot of the movement. It inevitably is a sort of a haunting memory for her. So we see some of that captured in it. It as well. I really enjoy everything about how this show looks is really, really stunning and the way it's been directed and just all of these creative choices. The costume design by Didi Ayite is absolutely stunning. The color palette of the whole thing. I just love Cuban fashion anyway, but it looks so great. Again, we see the contrast between these different worlds. We see the different time periods reflected, obviously. The scenic design. Arnulfo Maldonado. It is so good. It's one of my favorite sets of the season. It might be my favorite set of season, actually, because it just looks absolutely stunning. I love a full, intricate, detailed set created on stage. The level of attention to detail in the passageways taking the actors off stage left and stage right, and the way that this set continues off into the wings that if you're sat in the center of the orchestra, you're not going to see. But people sat on the far right will see the one extending that way, and people sat on the far left will see the one extending, ending in the other direction. That in conjunction with the way that they are lit, there's also. They're not symmetrical. It's. It just feels exactly as it needs to. It allows us to become these different locations, but it feels like Cuba. It feels like a real town. And it just feels, as the best sets do, like a real world on stage in which characters can be brought to life. The lighting design I briefly mentioned there is by Tyler Michelo and really stunning, really, really gorgeous moments achieved lighting. This particular. Finally, then, let's talk about these performances in this brilliant company, this terrific ensemble cast, multi talented actors, musicians, singers. Natalie Venetia Belcon plays amara in the 1990s time period of the show. So Alder Amara. And it's an extraordinarily thoughtful performance with subtleties to die for. And there is so much that she doesn't say and that she doesn't bring to the surface. When we first encounter her, she is sat in this chair that may as well be a throne. She has this regal presence to her and what she does, what she conveys to us in very little dialogue, is this sense of presence and this slight magic about her. The reverence that the other musician characters have for her is very clear. But there's also, like I mentioned, a haunted quality, one which effervesces over the course of the show more and more to the surface as we learn more and more about her history and the circumstances, circumstances which brought her here and the things that she chose to keep and the reasons why she chose the path that she did and the things that she inevitably had to give up. I would go as far as to call it a career defining performance for her. I think she's absolutely exceptional. But brilliant work done of course as well by the actress who plays younger Amara. Her name is Isa Antonetti. The two of them both sing absolutely beautifully, but she has that other essential quality here in telling this story, the story of. Of an individual whose artistry endured, but who had to contend with all of the difficult realities of the time that she lived in, the circumstances that she lived through. So Issa, as younger Amara gets to play the thrill of discovering this music for the first time and the challenge of having to navigate the decisions that came afterwards in real time also. But she again just has that special star quality that an audience can really tell on stage. Ashley de la Rosa and Justin Cunningham, both giving very impassioned performances as Amara's sister Heidi, and as the the music director Juan de Marcos, respectively. With the rest of our cast of characters essentially being completed by three other musicians. And we meet the younger and older counterparts of each of them. They are the real life musicians, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez and Kompai Segundo. Ibrahim is portrayed when he is older, very movingly by Mel Semme, when he is younger by Wrestley Ray, who gives a very charming performance of the young man who gets closer to Amara than Perhaps anybody, everybody else, and also sings very beautifully. The equally charming Kompai is portrayed when he is younger by Devonte Moody and when he is older by Julio Monga, who does a lot of the narrative work in terms of getting Amara to where she needs to be and reminding her of the past and kind of subtitling some of her moments of recalled grief and regret. And he also, in that later timeline, as we learn about the other characters and the way that their lives have gone, reacquaints Amar Mara with another of their friends, Ruben. Ruben, who, when we meet him in the recording studio, is not infused with the same brilliant, lively quality that he had as a younger man, who, it seems, is sadly experiencing the symptoms of some sort of a dementia. And there's a really lovely moment in which hearing the music again and having the opportunity to carve out something of a melody on the piano again kind of reawakens this familiarity in him, as music has been proven to do for so many people. People. That's just another way, just like with that flute solo moment that Buena Vista really cherishes and uplifts the power of music in its storytelling. Ruben is portrayed as a younger character by Leonardo Reina and as an older character by Heinardo Batista Sterling. And there's a really profound sensitivity to Heinardo's performance and Leonardo, the virtuosic piano playing and the wit and, I mean, of all of these characters, the sense of joy that they create and command as they are making music together for the first time, time in the original Buena Vista Social Club, that would go on to inspire the album, to inspire the documentary, to inspire the Broadway musical that it has now become. This is a really lovely show. I think it is guaranteed to delight a very particular demographic of audience, and even though I'm not part of that audience, I really enjoyed it as well. I would encourage everyone to go and see it at the Schoenfeld Theatre. It's a brilliant piece of musical storytelling with some extraordinary artistry, with a wonderful ensemble cast. And, like I said, more important than anything else, it's just telling a really great story and how we have missed those. And that's ultimately what I go to the theatre for every single time. If this sounds like something you would enjoy, make sure to go and check out Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway. Stay tuned to find out how many Tony Awards it's going to win alongside the one that they've already received for their brilliant musical work. If you want all of the updates on that, make sure you're subscribed here on YouTube or following me because you know I'm going to be talking about the Tonys as they approach. In the meantime, I hope that you enjoyed this review. I would love to hear what you thought of Buena Vista Social Club in the comments section down below. Please feel free to share your thoughts and if you want to more of mine about other Broadway shows. Make sure you click the button that looks like a bell and turn on notifications so that YouTube lets you know every time I share a new video. Thank you so much for listening to this review. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey Day. Subscribe.