EXCLUSIVE : Tony Award-winning musical «Buena Vista Social Club» , which made a splash on Broadway, will head to London's West End in 2027, lead producer Orin Wolff told Deadline.
Last year, the show won five Tony Awards, including a special award and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Natalie Venetia Belcon.
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The film tells the origin story of old-school Cuban musicians who gathered in Havana in 1996 to record what is now considered a historic recording session. their enchanting music.
The result was a stunning 1997 album. Produced by Ry Cooder, who collaborated with London-based music entrepreneur and producer Nick Gold, he once again taught the world to dance. rumba и mambo - It's an infectious combination of Afro-Cuban rhythms and Spanish melody that makes us all shake bomb , Hey!
Wolf says his show, directed by Saheem Ali from a libretto by Marco Ramirez, with Tony Award-winning orchestration by Marco Pagui and choreography by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck (who won Tonys for their dance numbers), has the same electrifying effect on Broadway audiences at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
The Broadway musical Wolf is being developed by several producers, including Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda and Barbara Broccoli, who once shone in the James Bond world and is now focusing on theatre projects in the UK and US, as well as several films.
Wolf says he's eyeing a specific London venue, which he hopes will become available next year. "It's important to find the right place with the right atmosphere," he says, fully aware that music venues in London are very expensive.
The producer who spent ten years developing David Yazbek's award-winning musical «The Orchestra's Visit» , says he's often thought about the group of elderly Cuban musicians who made their landmark musical breakthrough three decades ago.
Besides the album, Wolf was a fan of Wim Wenders' 1999 documentary of the same name. His band, Buena Vista Social Club, debuted at the Berlin Film Festival, and these elegant gentlemen from Havana played their fiery rhythms. Their sounds could be heard throughout the German city. It was a wonderful evening, and I managed to spend time with them from time to time throughout late 1999 and early 2000, right up until that season's Oscar ceremony, where their song lost to Kevin Macdonald's captivating film. «One Day in September» .
A friend of Wolf's had just filmed a sequel to Wim Wenders' documentary. "I kept wondering why it had never been shown in theaters," he said, and then he went looking for Gold, because he controlled the rights to stage the play. «Buena Vista Social Club» .
«And he said no, which, of course, was quite normal for me,„ Wolf says with an ironic smile.
According to Wolf, Gold was apparently wary of handing over the rights to "Western producers" because he "didn't want it to become political bait.".
Wolf shared this opinion. "The good news is that such political stories would be very boring. So I'm not interested in telling them.".
So he invited Gold to visit the play "The Group's Visit"« , which by then had moved from the Atlantic Theater Company (where I remember sitting behind Sarah Jessica Parker in previews and she jumped out of her seat on the bow and gave an ovation that eclipsed the ovation at Cannes) to Broadway, and explained that the play was about «a bunch of Egyptians and Israelis,» reasoning that this would explain «what I mean when I say I don’t really make theater about politics, even though these are politically unstable parts of the world.».
Gold and his daughter saw the play, "and then had dinner, and he immediately signed over the rights to me," Wolf recalls.
Over the course of more than two years, Wolff made half a dozen trips to Cuba, some of them accompanied by Yazbek, who was to serve as the musical dramatist for the production. But most of these visits were aimed at reassuring the surviving musicians and their families that they would share in any financial success.
«"When I made the deal with Nick, I said, 'I really want to tell the story of these real artists. And if we can give them a place in the royalties...' There were a lot of bridges burned between the album and the documentary, and a lot of people in Cuba felt left out or unloved," Wolf explains.
I'm glad Wolf raised this issue because I've long been concerned about whether compensation is due to Cuban artists, who some felt were perhaps previously taken for granted.
Gold told Wolf that they faced many difficulties while creating the album.
«"Obviously, a lot of this has to do with Cuban-American relations, economics, and law, but there are also concerns about trust. So I flew there and started meeting all the musicians who were alive on the album, and for those who were deceased, I started meeting their families. And over the course of two and a half, or rather three years, I managed to hire a Cuban lawyer and drafted a moral rights act, a contract that essentially gave every character in our series a direct agreement with me, allowing them to participate in the royalties," Wolff states.
According to Wolf, among them is the legendary Cuban singer and actress Omara Portuondo. "I have a photo of her and her son," he adds. Ibrahim Ferrer died, so Wolf reached out to his son.
«"Everyone who participates in our show is Ruben Gonzalez's family. I met his son in Miami. I had to travel to Mexico City to meet Ibrahim's son. We've maintained a relationship with Eliades Ochoa and his family for many years," he says.
«"In America, it was unique because in London, in Europe, and everywhere else in the world, you have moral rights. But here in the US, we don't have that," he says.
Wolf emphasizes that he wasn't forced to take such extreme measures, but insists, "I felt like it was the right decision. I felt like we could develop a financial model that would allow it. I also knew that I ultimately wanted this album to reach Europe and the UK and gain international recognition, because this album doesn't belong in America at all. In fact, America is more of a secondary issue. This album truly belongs to the world. And so, to serve the music that I know is so important to so many people, I felt like I needed to develop a system that would allow me to do that.".
Following the Atlantic Theater Company's initial run, many of the musicians' families attended the Broadway premiere last March.
«"It's obviously very, very difficult for those in Cuba right now," Wolf said, referring to the U.S. naval blockade that is disrupting the supply of fuel and other goods to Cuba.
«"It's terrible. It's a real nightmare for them. And of course, we're trying to support them and do everything we can. But even since I was last there, the situation has only gotten worse. It's a truly sad situation, as it is in many other places around the world, but it was an extraordinary moment in this process, and I will always consider myself very lucky to have lived through it," Wolf says gratefully.
Sharing royalties is a good idea. Other shows have already implemented similar arrangements, but Cuban musicians, singers, and their descendants, in a sense, deserve it.
Wolf says contract negotiations with many of the original Buena Vista Social Club members were the first building blocks in creating the production's architecture.
«"Here I am, an American, a kind of white Jew, coming here. But it's strange because this album somehow came into my life. When I was finishing college, I listened to this album constantly, and even though I don't speak Spanish fluently, this music just touches me. And then the documentary was able to give you a visual language for this music and introduce you to the world of Havana," says Wolf.
Wolf faced a crucial question: "Can I stage an American Broadway musical with foreign-language music and no subtitles?"«
He believes there's a world where people can truly communicate emotion successfully, even if they don't understand the language. People have been doing this since time immemorial. One of the greatest joys of my life was watching my beloved uncle, a great, powerful chieftain from my family's small kingdom in Nigeria, watch The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre with utter rapture. He didn't really understand a thing, probably thinking it was about him. He talked about it until his death.
I got distracted. Movies and album Buena Vista Social Club will forever remain etched in my memory. I recently saw a group of dancers on the Southbank embankment who seemed to be improvising while performing the rousing "Chan Chan" number featured in this show. It was, to me, a wonderful example of how joy can be shared.
It's just crazy, really, because I listen to the music of Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Celia Cruz, and Johnny Pacheco, and I admire Ramon "Mongo" Santamaria and Juan Formell. I could direct a great rumba in Ramsgate, echa !
And this brings me to dancing.
В Buena Vista Social Club The music is upbeat, and Wolf says that, of course, people want to get up and dance, but it's just not allowed. However, the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre has had a few special performances where they show the entire show, but this is a special event they call «"Dance Night at Buena Vista"» — Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Leguizamo hosted it.
«"But every time we perform at a club, we raise the house lights a little so the audience can get up and dance… And people dance in the aisles, people dance in their seats, people go to the back of the theater to dance. It was really funny and entertaining," Wolf says cheerfully.
He would also like to introduce periodic dance evenings in style Buena Vista . "I want to find the right theater. I want this to be a wonderful experience because I know what talented musicians we have access to in London, and, by the way, we can also bring Cubans to London in a way we can't in the US. And there are a lot of people in Cuba who want to be in shows who wouldn't be able to do it on Broadway. But the opportunities in London," Wolf suggests, "are enormous, given the talent there.".
In fact, we both admit that London has a much larger Cuban and Afro-Cuban community than New York, and they are loud and cheerful, especially on rare sunny Saturdays in London Fields or Margate, which, oddly enough, reminds me a little of Cuba, with its crumbling charm and hint of danger.
I understand why Wolf is worried about finding a suitable location for Buena Vista Social Club .
But he's in good hands because Broccoli knows London's theatres like the back of his hand, and the wonderful people at Playful Productions UK, who are also producing, are equally adept at finding theatres to stage the show.
I love all the behind-the-scenes chess moves that are currently unfolding around a dozen major shows involving two, maybe even three, theatres.
«"As soon as the opportunity arises, we're eager to get started. We really hope this will happen in 2027. Of course, that would be ideal, but we're 100 percent committed to this project," Wolf says.
Give this man a theatre already!
Listen, I could use some dance gymnastics, so there you go.
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