Review: Buena Vista Social Club
8 / 10
The script hits its marks effectively, if not surprisingly, and director Saheem Ali keeps the toggling structure evocative and clear, with valuable help from Arnulfo Maldonado’s set, Dede Ayite’s costumes. But the plot is just a hanger for the musical numbers, which is where Buena Vista Social Club comes to thrilling life. The show makes no attempt to force its score into doing character work; all 15 songs, of which nine were part of the original 1996 recording sessions, are presented as performances in nightclubs or recording studios, sometimes heightened by the six excellent dancers who execute Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck’s gorgeously fluid and individuated choreography. The lyrics are untranslated, but that hardly matters. The music itself is the story.
