Dean Sharenow Explains BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB's 'Navigation Towards Truth'

Buena Vista Social Club is inviting audiences to step into the heart of Havana. Inspired by true events, the musical reimagines the journey behind the Grammy-winning album that captured the soul of Cuban music and hearts of people around the world. 

At the center of this stage adaptation is Grammy-winning record producer and music supervisor Dean Sharenow. BroadwayWorld spoke with Sharenow about translating a legendary sound into a theatrical experience, his approach to honoring Buena Vista Social Club’s history, and how this production brings new life to a record that has stood the test of time.

Buena Vista Social Club is an album with a rich history and cultural significance. How did you approach honoring its legacy while also bringing a fresh theatrical interpretation to theater audiences?

At some point during the run of The Band’s Visit, which is the first show that I supervised for Orin Wolf, our lead producer, he was like, “I have a notion to make a musical of this music, and these characters.” And I said, “If you thought The Band’s Visit was a challenge [laughs], this is miles beyond that.” I did not think it was a good idea, not because I don’t love the music, but because I didn’t know how we could represent the characters and the music in a musical theatre context.

Often what happens with musical theatre is the medium itself imposes things on the art, especially on the music. So, if you have a show that has jazz music in it for example, it ends up being a sort of Broadway style of jazz, or a Broadway style of rock, or a Broadway style of whatever the thing is. And I said to Orin, “This is not worth doing if the same thing happens.” And he said, “I know, that’s why I want you to figure out how to do it.”

So, we had a lot of conversations, he and I, and also David Yazbek, who I work with a ton, who is a producer/creative consultant on the show, about how do we make this work? How do we present the music in a way that would feel real to a Cuban audience, for example. It shouldn’t just feel great to an American, Caucasian audience, I want Cubans to go see the show and be like, “Wow! This music feels right. These people feel like our people.” 

The first thing had to do with the music itself. Do we do it in Spanish or English? And we all agreed that it had to be in Spanish. Everyone knows this music in Spanish, and to present it translated somehow wouldn’t be true to its core. I don’t know that there’s been a show on Broadway that has songs exclusively in another language.

The next thing was casting. It’s very difficult to find people who live and breathe this music. You need as many people as possible in your cast and in your band that are from this culture. It’s one thing for excellent North American/European musicians to copy the style, there’s plenty of players who can play it, but it’s very different when a Cuban person sings it or plays it. That culture is like many cultures that are steeped in music, Balkan countries, Ireland... all over the world there are countries that are very musically-oriented, and Cuba is one of those. We didn’t want it to feel like an imitation of the music, we wanted it to be the music. 

What was your process in working with the actors and musicians to bring this music to life on stage?

Some of the people we have are mostly singers and musicians, they didn’t have acting backgrounds, but what they brought was so important we had to bring them along on the acting side. Mel Semé, who plays Ibrahim, no acting experience, just a fantastic signer, Cuban, and this was an opportunity he found to reconnect with his people’s history. He hadn’t really sung that music since he was a kid, so he was an integral part of that crossover casting. Leonardo Reyna, who plays Young Rubén, he’s a concert pianist, was touring in Europe, living in Amsterdam. He’s one of those people I found at 3 o’clock in the morning on the internet, I was like, ‘This guy plays his ass off and he’s Cuban, who knows if he can do what we need, but let’s see!’

And we brought together this mix of, in the case of some of our actors, very experienced theater professionals, and in the case of others, people who had not been on a Broadway stage ever. 

What was it like working with the creative team and how did you all align your vision for the show’s look and sound?

Fortunately, everyone was on- is on- the exact same mission, which is, ‘This has to be real, this has to be truthful, and it has to exist in a way that musical theatre normally doesn’t.’ Saheem Ali, our director, him and I had many conversations about selecting music, and how do we integrate it with the story? Marco Ramirez, our book writer, also Cuban, there was a lot of back and forth, 'What is the story of this song?' 'How is that telling our story?' 'These lyrics aren’t specifically about this moment that we’re writing about, is that ok?' It was constant navigation towards truth. It really represented the music and the culture in a way that felt honest, and also gave a compelling story.

Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado, our co-choreographers, no more genius dance can be found in the world than stuff that they put together. Patricia is also Cuban. They have the same spirit as everyone else, which is that it’s not just about doing the thing that they do, it’s about doing it in this context that creates an honest portrayal of this music and these people, because these are real people that we’re representing. Marco Paguia, our Music Director and Orchestrator, also very involved, he and I collaborated a ton on, 'How do we maintain the truth of this? How do we tell the story and weave things in and out in a way that it’s about honesty and truthfulness to this music and the culture?' That was everyone’s North Star.

Buena Vista Social Club, the band, the album, the documentary, has had a lasting impact on people around the world. What do you think makes this music so timeless, and how do you think the Broadway adaptation will introduce it to new generations?

It’s hard for me to know what it is about this music that connects with people. I know that this music has been in my life since I was a kid. And I saw the movie, and heard the album, and so did my wife in Morocco, and so did friends of mine who grew up in China, and South America. There are just certain types of music that connect with the world, and this tiny little island in the Caribbean, there is something about the way that they feel music that humans react to, and humans from every place.

I couldn’t ever say what it is. You couldn’t put it in a bottle, you couldn’t market it other than to say come and feel this music for yourself, and you will have the same experience that tens of millions of people have had listening to that record, seeing that film. This show will give you that same experience, but in a theatrical context.

So, it’s the best of everything. You have a story, you have an amazing live band, you have a concert. Songs don’t come out of nowhere for no reason, which is another thing that happens in a lot of musical theatre, and a thing that I tend to notice a lot and it bothers me. The music in this show is you’re in the Buena Vista Social Club, you’re in the recording session, you’re in a rehearsal at somebody’s house. It is much more connected to the actual story as opposed to living in some other dream space. There are a few moments like that, but in general you will experience this music in the same way that the characters on stage are experiencing it, which is very rare.  

Buena Vista Social Club will open on March 19, 2025 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. View the full 2025 Spring Preview!