nightmayer

There is no more joyous party to be found in New York City right now than the one that instantly engulfs you at the Atlantic Theater’s Buena Vista Social Club. 

The show is based, with dramatic license, on the story behind the Ry Cooder-produced album of  the same name that was recorded with a band of Cuban musicians in Havana in 1996, and released on Nonesuch the following year. (Exactly how it is that neither Cooder nor the album are referenced in the credits for the show is a mystery I haven’t pursued.) The personal histories of the musicians are the core of the dramatic arc, running from roughly the 1940s through the 1956 Cuban revolution and the mid-’90s.

The band and dancers will blow you out of your seats. And while the songs are in Spanish, the book sets context throughout, leaving the actor/singers to convey the underlying emotions, which they do for each of the powerhouse 15 songs. 

The Atlantic Theater Company has sent a number of shows to Broadway — most recently Kimberly Akimbo and The Band’s Visit. Those were really intimate musicals just perfect for the 199-seat Linda Gross Theater where they, like Buena Vista, debuted. From the first number, this show just about bounds out the doors of this small room on W. 20th Street and right up Eighth Ave. If only Roseland were still around…what an ideal venue that would have been for the show, followed by dancing for all!