It’s a great time for Latino representation in theatre as both Buena Vista Social Club and Real Women Have Curves make their Broadway debuts. These vibrant new musicals are putting Latino culture front and center for Broadway audiences 8 shows a week in beautiful celebrations of latinidad.
Inspired by true events, the musical Buena Vista Social Club was written by the Miami-born Cuban American Marco Ramirez and brings the groundbreaking Grammy Award-winning album to life. The musical, which is set in Havana, spans four decades, from the 1950s to the 1990s and follows the lives of four prominent musicians, the effect communism and the rise of Fidel Castro had on musicians at the time, and their eventual collaboration in 1997 on the landmark album Buena Vista Social Club. Notably, while the dialogue in the Broadway musical is performed in English, all of the songs in the show are performed in Spanish, as they are on the legendary album. Read that again: every song in the production is performed in Spanish.
For 8 shows a week, audiences are singing and dancing along to the music of Buena Vista Social Club without translation, relying instead on the music’s emotions and the scenes taking place on stage to tell the story. To say that this was a radical move by the show’s creative team would be an understatement. The music was not translated and adapted to cater to Broadway’s predominantly English speaking audiences. A move which would have no doubt resulted in some of the magic of the original works being lost in translation. Instead, non-Spanish speaking audiences are expected to focus on how the music makes them feel.
For those in need of a refresher course on the origins of Buena Vista Social Club, they were an ensemble of 20 veteran Cuban musicians from the ’50s who came together in the late ‘90s to form the group. Named after the Havana social club, a members-only gathering hall in Havana, Cuba that opened in the 1930s and was a hotspot for live Afro-Cuban music and dancing by the 1950s. The group featured legends such as guitarist and singer Compay Segundo, vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, pianist Rubén González and of course featured vocalist Omara Portuondo.
In March of 1996, over the course of 6 days, the group recorded their album. It would be released to the world in 1997 and became a global phenomenon, winning the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.That album sold a record 8 million copies, shining a spotlight once again on Cuba’s legendary musicians and bringing fourth Cuban music onto an international stage, with the ensemble even performing at Carnegie Hall in 1998. A feat of cultural diplomacy that was once unimaginable. And now their story is once again being shared with the world, this time on a Broadway stage in a celebration of Cuban culture. It is one of two new Broadway musicals this season to shine a bright, joyous spotlight on Latinidad at a time when it could not be needed more.
Currently in previews with an official opening set for April 27th, Real Women Have Curves is based upon the play by Josefina López, which inspired the 2002 America Ferrera led film of the same name. The musical centers around a young woman chasing her dreams while trying to stay united with her family. The coming of age story is set in Los Angeles in the 1980s and follows Ana, a young woman working in a garment factory whose dreams of going away to college clash with her traditional mother’s expectations. The new musical stars Tatianna Córdoba as Ana, Justina Machado as her mother, Carmen and Florencia Cuenca in her Broadway debut.
While the story at the heart of Real Women Have Curves has existed in its previous iterations for decades, seeing the immigrant experience front and center on a Broadway stage, with a predominantly Latino cast, featuring immigrants at this moment in time feels downright revolutionary. At a time when Latinidad is being villainized and our very existence in this country has been politicized, the exploration of Latino culture in America on the great white way could not have come at a better time.
There have been very few shows on Broadway with predominantly Latino casts. The most recent of which being 2015’s On Your Feet, which told the story of Gloria Estefan and her rise to fame with Miami Sound Machine and Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, which made its Broadway debut in 2008. Celebrations of Latino culture on main stages are still few and far between. Having our stories told by us for the consumption of the masses is still rare and incredibly poignant.
Which is why a show like Real Women Have Curves is so much more than just a Broadway musical, but rather speaks to a pivotal moment we are currently having in this country. Real Women Have Curves encapsulates the familiar struggle and sacrifice of many Latino mothers who worked hard to make their children’s dreams come true. It is the story of the immigrant experience coming at a time where immigration is at the forefront of national news and immigrants are being caught in political crosshairs and used as pawns. Humanizing the immigrant experience in such a universal story goes beyond being a work of art. It’s watching our stories and our culture be celebrated while our talent occupies space in a medium where the opportunity for majority Latino-lead productions seem to come once in a decade at best.
Having not just one, but two Latino centered Broadway productions running at the same time is groundbreaking. It’s not just a reminder of the rich tapestry of latino culture, of the lived experience of immigrants in this country and the experience of emigration for those who stayed and worked in Cuba, but that our stories as a whole deserve to be told. That Latinos deserve to be centered and celebrated in the media that is consumed by the masses. These stories aren’t just being told by us, for us. They are loud and proud celebrations of Latino culture and Latindad being unapologetically presented to audiences that are not predominantly Latino.
In fact, only 8% of Broadway audiences are Latino according to a 2023 study by Broadway League. At a time when our contributions to this country are actively being attacked and erased, our stories are being told on Broadway stages to a global audience. Our creative talents are actively taking up space in a medium that is not traditionally dominated by Latino talent. Even as some seek to villainize us and politicize our very existence, we are here. We exist. Our stories matter. Our talents matter. We matter. And these joyous and proud celebrations of Latino culture are allowing us to not just be seen by ourselves, but by the world.
