Buena Vista Social Club – 03 May 2025 

The strongest element of Buena Vista Social Club was also the uniting force within the world of the show – the music. Though it didn’t used to be, an entirely live band with many musicians, all of whom are visible on stage, is now a rare and powerful thing. It is set in Cuba in 1996 with memories of 1958 Havana. Thematically, it touches on racism, classism, and xenophobia, but only in vague, cursory terms. Rather than launch a full-blown critique of the Cuban status quo, Buena Vista Social Club chooses to celebrate the music of Cuba from this time, which sometimes gets buried by the political turmoil that began shortly after.

In general, Buena Vista Social Club is low on plot. The story is told through music, choreography, and visual aesthetic excellence. Performers were selected for their musical, vocal, and dance, practice, and acting took a backseat for many. Despite aesthetic clues, particularly from lighting (Tyler Micoleau) indicating that a moment is significant, the actors were not effusive in terms of creating relationships between the characters. There wasn’t much love shown between the sisters except in their final imagined moment together after Young Haydee (Ashley de la Rosa) had died. But because when she was alive there were no strong bonds or resentments between them, even that moment, which should have been touching, failed to make me feel. I was also indifferent to the love story of Omara (Natalie Venetia Belcon, Young: Isa Antonetti) and Ibrahim (Mel Seme, Young: Wesley Wray) because at no point did their faces or actions indicate affection. They kissed. They lost touch. They sang a song together. The weakness of the plot hindered my enjoyment, especially as a non-Spanish speaker who got the sentiment but missed the lyrics. I will also acknowledge the concerts disguised as musicals have always annoyed me.

What saved Buena Vista Social Club for me was the storytelling elements embedded in the staging (Saheem Ali) and choreography (Patricia Delgado, Justin Peck). In particular, the dancing with chairs to indicate the destruction of the social club and Cuba at large was quite stirring. Using physical distance on stage to show differences in understanding also helped add dynamics not explicitly stated in the book (Marco Ramirez). Buena Vista Social Club is an exciting, unique musical that asks the audience to center the feel of the music and not rely on a detailed plot to see the full picture of the world it creates. Instead, the plot is understood through the distressed scenic features (Arnulfo Maldonado), lighting that isolates, expands, and colors the experience, and the many shifting, moving bodies on stage, carving out the texture of Havana and arguing that it could be uninhibited and free. Buena Vista Social Club defies current musical theater conventions in a season where a lot of productions played it safe. It is worth seeing and supporting for its defiance of conventions and the bold, unique contribution it makes to the musical the world.

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.