{"id":408854,"date":"2026-09-24T02:02:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T02:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/408854\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T02:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T02:02:50","slug":"miami-cuban-roots-of-writer-choreographer-help-shape-buena-vista-social-club-arts-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/408854\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Cuban roots of writer, choreographer help shape \u2018Buena Vista Social Club\u2019 | Arts Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published<\/a> by Artburst Miami, South Florida’s nonprofit source for arts journalism.<\/p>\n

When playwright Marco Ramirez was growing up in Hialeah, music from Cuba\u2019s great orchestras could be heard through his grandfather\u2019s small Sony boombox on cassette tapes at family gatherings, from Nochebuena celebrations to weddings.<\/p>\n

Now Ramirez\u2019s grandfather, Felix, who is in his mid-90s, will be in the audience at the Adrienne Arsht Center when \u201cBuena Vista Social Club,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"Belcon,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From left, Natalie Venetia Belcon as Omara, Mel Sem\u00e9 as Ibrahim and Wesley Wray as Young Ibrahim in the Broadway production of \u201cBuena Vista Social Club.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Matthew Murphy)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was rooting for its longevity because I was just like, \u2018Broadway\u2019s cool, but it\u2019s got to go on tour so that my grandfather can see it,\u2019\u201d Ramirez said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ramirez remembered when the 1997 \u201cBuena Vista Social Club\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"Playwright<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Playwright Marco Ramirez talks to music consultant Juan de Marcos at the first rehearsal for the Broadway production of \u201cBuena Vista Social Club.\u201d Creative consultant David Yazbek is at left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Andy Henderson)<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, it was like listening to it in IMAX,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The choreography by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck brings together ballet, contemporary movement and Afro-Cuban dance in the Broadway production of \u201cBuena Vista Social Club.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Matthew Murphy)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know that I knew the Buena Vista Social Club music. It was always playing in my grandparents\u2019 house, my parents, my cousins. Growing up, there was this soundtrack.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Back to school<\/p>\n

\"Wray\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wesley Wray, center at microphone, with the Broadway company of \u201cBuena Vista Social Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Matthew Murphy)<\/p>\n

Years earlier, Ramirez and Delgado had recognized a kinship before their professional careers intersected in New York when Delgado joined the creative team of \u201cBuena Vista Social Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember meeting him in our last year of high school and wondering \u2018Why did it take until senior year?\u2019 He was so interesting,\u201d Delgado said.<\/p>\n

Ramirez recalled that the connection was in their shared seriousness about becoming artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just saw it with each other. I think, like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re gonna really make a go at this. You know, this is not a hobby. This is your life,\u2019\u201d Ramirez said.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cBuena Vista Social Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d\u2018El Carretero\u2019 is in the show. \u2018Veinte A\u00f1os\u2019 is in the show, and I remember \u2026 I must have been 4 years old when I heard that song. And that was a couple years before the Buena Vista record came out,\u201d said Ramirez.<\/p>\n

These memories helped Ramirez find the musical\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show is what happened in those few days,\u201d he said. The musical moves between the 1990s recording sessions and the performers\u2019 younger lives in the 1950s. \u201cSo many people know what the record is. So many people know the story of what happened after the record came out \u2013 they tour the world, it\u2019s a global sensation. But I wanted us to be in the room. I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustin really brought out a lot of my Cubanness,\u201d Delgado said. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peck was also the one who made Delgado realize how much of the \u201cBuena Vista Social Club\u201d repertoire she already knew. When he asked whether she knew the album, her initial answer was no.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I was like, \u2018Well, yes, I know every song,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

First dance<\/p>\n

Years before they would work on \u201cBuena Vista Social Club,\u201d a song from the landmark album, that is not included in the musical, \u201cPueblo Nuevo,\u201d became an important moment for the couple at their wedding in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s just always been really fascinated and in love with all the traditions,\u201d Delgado said of Peck.<\/p>\n

\u201d\u2018He\u2019s like, \u2018For our first dance, let\u2019s not do the traditional dance, just us. Why don\u2019t we choreograph a song to the Buena Vista Social Club?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

For the pair, Delgado and Peck did not want the dancing simply to illustrate Cuban music or fall into a recognizable category of \u201cLatin dance.\u201d They began looking for a movement language that grew out of the rhythms themselves and could carry character and story.<\/p>\n

The best-known song in the musical, \u201cChan Chan,\u201d became the team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot for a musical to trust in dance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ramirez said there\u2019s dialogue in the show that he has considered changing slightly when the production reaches South Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, there\u2019s a line that says, \u2018Right now, you and I are a thousand miles away \u2026 But a sound like this? It tends to travel.\u2019 And I\u2019ve been thinking about where we\u2019ll be and maybe it should be, \u2018We\u2019re just about a couple of hundred miles away.\u2019 Doing the show in Miami is going to be the closest thing right now to doing the show in Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n

IF YOU GO<\/p>\n

WHAT: \u201cBuena Vista Social Club\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

WHERE:\u00a0 Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami<\/p>\n

COST:\u00a0 $52.65 to $228.15 (includes fees)<\/p>\n

INFO:\u00a0\u00a0(305) 949-6722 and\u00a0arshtcenter.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Free, weeklong celebration, \u201cRhythm and Roots,\u201d inspired by the South Florida premiere of \u201cBuena Vista Social Club\u201d during the show\u2019s run on Thompson Plaza with live music, domino games, local artisans and pop-up vendors. Free but RSVP required.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ArtburstMiami.com<\/a> is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don\u2019t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Artburst Miami, South Florida’s nonprofit source for arts journalism. When playwright Marco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[55722,13462,141783,162383,162373,162381,162384,162386,162378,162382,162372,162380,162379,1016,162377,162371,162385,225,227,226,162376,162374,162387,123,1407,13224,162375,162388],"class_list":["post-408854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-adrienne-arsht-center","tag-broadway","tag-buena-vista-social-club","tag-buena-vista-social-club-adrienne-arsht-center","tag-buena-vista-social-club-broadway","tag-buena-vista-social-club-broadway-musical","tag-buena-vista-social-club-broward-center","tag-buena-vista-social-club-cuban-music-history","tag-buena-vista-social-club-miami","tag-buena-vista-social-club-miami-dates","tag-buena-vista-social-club-musical","tag-buena-vista-social-club-musical-miami","tag-buena-vista-social-club-tour","tag-cuba","tag-cuban-culture","tag-cuban-music","tag-cuban-roots-of-buena-vista-social-club","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-justin-peck","tag-marco-ramirez","tag-marco-ramirez-buena-vista-social-club","tag-miami","tag-music","tag-musical","tag-patricia-delgado","tag-patricia-delgado-buena-vista-social-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}