Video: Inside Opening Night of BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

It feels bigger than we are, bigger than this building

bigger than many things. It's an entire dream, no? And an entire history that we bring it to this stage

And every night we're able to perform songs and tell stories that many people know, many people identify with

And we definitely do as well. So we feel also at home

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World, following a critically acclaimed sold-out run at the Atlantic Theater

The new musical Buena Vista Social Club has come to Broadway, and we're here on Nobody Night to celebrate with the company

It's a musical where the music comes first, and we both absolutely love and respect this music

and the music has so much heart and so much soul, and so does a creative team

Working with this guy has been a true treat. Making this over the last couple of years has been a dream come true

We feel like we created a new genre. We created something kind of new and fresh

and it is a musical, but it's also a great. kind of a new kind of musical, and we're very excited about that

Yeah, and we let the music lead the way. Marco had always been very strategic about the songs and functioning in a way that make

them elevated and centered, and so it just made it a tree to figure out how to make songs

in Spanish feel like completely whole on stage. It's thrilling. I've been working on this project for about five years

Three of those were spent casting and finding the right people to play these roles

to find singers who could sing this music and musicians who could play in the

way that it needs to be played and sung. It's extremely excited to have people start to come and see it

I so excited I grateful I can believe we here I just have we meeting Omaro Portuono really soon in the back of my head I dying I dying y Your girl going to die

The one thing that keeps everybody together, right? Always, no matter what, all through history is the music

And the words that they choose to use in these songs, that's easily

Just do Google, translated to English. but their lyrics, their words are just their heartbreakers, complete heartbreakers

The music is very joyous and gorgeous. It's very fulfilling. What makes it so special

Well, I think the very hard work and enthusiasm that every member

and not just the cast, but people, technicians, all of the magicians that we have here

Do you know? Oh, this is really wonderful. It's a great feeling

We're having fun. It's a great group of people in there. And we can't wait to celebrate

It was a lot of work. So we're happy to get here now and to have arrived finally to opening

I'm feeling very excited. It's a little strange in a way. I've always been a touring musician

But I grew up in Cuba. So this has a lot to do with me, all to do with me

And also my character, which is Ibrain Ferrer, it's like a parallel lifestyle to what I had, you know, achieving success late in life

So I feel very responsible and very happy to be doing this own broadway

So much gratitude and thanks. You know this is my Broadway debut So I just so excited to be here and just starting my career right here in this beautiful show This is amazing It feels tremendous It feels big bigger than we are bigger than this building bigger than many things

It's an entire dream, no? And an entire history that we bring into this stage

And every night we're able to perform songs and tell stories that many people know, many people identify with

And we definitely do as well. So we feel also home in a place that sometimes we have hard times to call it home

but we feel home through this kind of project, this kind of show

So it's exciting. It's a celebration. What's made this so special for you with working on this

The fact that I don't have to choose a part of my identity, I'm half Ecuadorian, half black, and I get to be, you know, doing shows

Sometimes you're playing a black character, playing Latino character, like, an ambiguous

character. This is embracing what it means to be both of those. I'm Latino, I'm black, and I'm a

black Latino as well. And that's indescribable, you know. It's from my Broadway debut to come and like

like, hey, everybody, this is who I am and this is wholly who I am. It's indescribable

This show is part of my bloodline. It's part of my history. It's in my bones, like, especially

growing up with my Latin community and my Latin band and, you know, and singing with them as much as I can

I spoke the language before I spoke English. Like I was just singing in Spanish, just singing random words

So it's just so important to me. The most special thing about being a part of Juana Vista is that as a Latina myself like I feel like I mean and I done other like Latin shows but this show in particular especially with I keep looking to my left and my right

because I'm like, oh, Mel is from Cuba, Leo is from Cuba, like to get to learn from these musicians who are making their Broadway debuts

who maybe have never acted before, like, I have learned so much as an actor

and as a performer from these authentic musicians. This is very personal

I'm from Venezuela, so this is my music too, my story, and the dancing is what an honor, you know

to be able to dance Patricias Delgado and Justin Peck's choreography, which elevated our roots, our culture, you know

Yeah, it was a beautiful process in which it was all the time a conversation of how we can make

all of these amazing stuff more cultural and authentic to ourselves, because this is a beautiful process

something that we grew up. So it feels very good that we incorporate ourselves fully every night

and that just take an immense brow just to be part of this with amazing people like her

Well, there's a lot happening in the world, especially in this country right now, that diminishes

our cultural significance, whatever culture you might be from. But it's important right now

to hear music that stands for people, that stands for culture, that stands behind them. And this

This music from Buena Vista is so rich, it's such a rich, long history of colonialism

slave trade, all types of things that are relegated to Cuba. So it's very important for right now