LA HAVANA MADRID Comes to Millennium Park This Summer

Collaboraction and Teatro Vista Productions will team to present a free, outdoor, staged concert version of Sandra Delgado’s smash hit La Havana Madrid, Friday, August 23, 2024 at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion as part of Millennium Park’s 20th Anniversary Season, presented in partnership with the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). 

Step back to the 1960s as the Jay Pritzker Pavilion is transformed to honor  La Havana Madrid, a real nightclub at the corner of Belmont and Sheffield where newly arrived Latino immigrants gathered to dine, dance and find community. As the glorious rhythms of mambo and salsa form the heartbeat of an ever-changing city, audiences learn the stories of Latine newcomers seeking a home in Chicago, discovering their destinies and falling madly in love. 

La Havana Madrid is inspired by real stories of Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Colombian immigrants who found refuge in that vibrant second-floor supper club, including Chicagoans Myrna Salazar, Maria Bechily, Carlos and Maria Delgado, photographer Carlos Flores, club owner Tony Quintana, and band leader Roberto “Carpacho” Marin.

Throughout, this evening of musical celebration reveals how and why these new Chicagoans migrated to the shores of Lake Michigan, only to be pushed further west – away from the lake – by the forces of gentrification and racism. 

Alongside their true stories, the live band Carpacho y Su Súper Combo chronicles the history of Caribbean Latine music, from boleros, to mambo, to the birth of salsa. By the end of the night, audiences need little encouragement to get on their feet and dance along. 

This staged concert version of the smash hit play will take full advantage of the Pritzker Pavilion’s oversized canvas to recall an actual time and place in Chicago history, scored by a soul-stirring Latine beat. 

Starting at 6 p.m., DJ Julio Bishop will spin classic salsa music to get the party started. The performance begins at 6:45 p.m. Bring your dancing shoes. Admission is free. The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is located at 201 E. Randolph in downtown Chicago. Visit MillenniumPark.org for more information. 

La Havana Madrid is one of five local productions to be presented this summer by Chicago-based cultural producers as part of the Millennium Park Residency program for Millennium Park’s 20th Anniversary Season in 2024, produced in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). It’s one of dozens more special events this summer celebrating what’s now the #1 tourism destination in the Midwest. For more, visit MillenniumPark.org. 

“We are so grateful to embrace the opportunity to tell our story on the boards of this iconic Chicago platform. La Havana Madrid will come back to life to illuminate the untold chapters of our city's rich history,” said Teatro Vista Producing Artistic Director Wendy Mateo. “The Latine contribution to our cultural fabric is undeniable, and though the physical building may be gone, the resilience of our stories endures. 'No dejen que te quiten tu historia'—don't let them rewrite our narratives. In reliving these experiences, those who lived them are transported back, while younger generations gain a profound understanding that their stories and history are equally vital.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to reunite our legendary Chicago production and artistic team to share this love letter to Chicago on such a massive canvas in a milestone year for Millennium Park,” said Anthony Moseley, Artistic Director, Collaboraction Theatre Company. “In addition to an amazing night of live entertainment, the current influx of migrants has made the true stories of La Havana Madrid, of new Chicagoans coming to the city to build a new life, even more present and important.”

Teatro Vista’s 2017 world premiere of La Havana Madrid at Steppenwolf Theatre was an instant hit, attracting attention from the New York Times and championed by the Chicago Tribune as “heartfelt and fascinating…bursting with music and warmth.” The production went on to sold-out productions at The Miracle Center, The Goodman’s Owen Theatre and, in co- production with Teatro Vista and Collaboraction, at the Den Theatre in May 2019. 

The La Havana Madrid design team will make full use of the state of the art sound system at Pritzker Pavilion by having Tony Award-winning sound designer Mikhail Fiksel design an immersive soundscape. Chicago projectionist Liviu Pasare will create a multimedia video design that mixes live video of the performance with interlacing images of Lake Michigan and 1960s Chicago. Also back is the La Havana Madrid house band, Carpacho y Su Super Combo. 

This isn’t the first time La Havana Madrid has been performed outdoors, however. Last summer, Delgado took La Havana Madrid to South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa for a successful three-week run under the night sky at Mission San Juan Capistrano.

For its Chicago return, this one-night-only production reunites the show’s creator, Sandra Delgado, and original director, Cheryl Lynn Bruce. Stop by the west side of the Chicago Cultural Center on your way to Millennium Park on August 23rd, and you’ll see both immortalized as two of the 20 trailblazing Chicago women honored in Kerry James Marshall’s largest outdoor public mural, “Rushmore.”

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