Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club is a musical staged at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York, built around the Cuban son, bolero and guajira repertoire associated with the Buena Vista Social Club recordings.

The Buena Vista Social Club name refers to the Cuban musicians gathered in Havana in the late 1990s, when guitarist Ry Cooder and producer Nick Gold brought veteran performers such as Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and Rubén González back into the studio. Their album, recorded in Havana and released in 1997, drew on the son, bolero and danzón traditions of pre-revolutionary Cuba and became a major international success. The stage show carries that songbook into the theater, placing the music in a dramatic and narrative frame rather than a standard concert format.

As a musical, the production is built around the performers and songs of that Cuban tradition, presented as a theatrical staging for a seated audience. The show is a good fit for those who enjoy Latin American popular music and for theatergoers interested in a musical rooted in a specific cultural history.

The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre is a Broadway house in the Theater District, where the production is presented.