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Video: First Look at LA HAVANA MADRID at Goodman Theatre

By: Jul. 26, 2017
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BroadwayWorld has a first look at LA HAVANA MADRID! Check out the video montage from the show below!

On the heels of critically-acclaimed sold-out runs at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and The Miracle Center in Logan Square, Teatro Vista's La Havana Madrid by Sandra Delgado arrives at Goodman Theatre for an extended summer run, July 21 - August 20. Chicago's fabled 1960s nightclub, La Havana Madrid, comes bursting back to life in "an immersive, wholly enjoyable experience" (Chicago Reader) complete with live music and "enough dancing and bonhomie to tempt you away from your little table down front" (Chicago Tribune). Directed by Teatro Vista ensemble member Cheryl Lynn Bruce, the production was inspired by true stories of Cuban, Puerto Rican and Colombian immigrants who found refuge in the nightclub. Delgado leads the eight-member cast (a full list appears below) as a mystical woman who conjures stories and vibrant songs performed live onstage each night by Colombian-American musician Roberto "Carpacho" Marin and his band of 30 years, Carpacho y Su Super Combo.

La Havana Madrid appears July 21 - August 20 in the Owen Theatre (Opening Night is Wednesday, July 26 at 7:30pm). Tickets ($30-$50; subject to change) go on sale Wednesday, June 28; visit GoodmanTheatre.org/LaHavanaMadrid or call the box office at (312) 443-3800. La Havana Madrid is recommended for ages 12 and up.

"My journey with La Havana Madrid is a dream come true. It has been an absolute joy and honor to share this story with my fellow Chicagoans and I am incredibly grateful that we get to keep the love alive this summer," said playwright and co-star Sandra Delgado. "It is especially sweet to come home to Goodman Theatre, where I wrote La Havana Madrid as part of the Playwright's Unit in the 2015/2016 Season. I cannot wait to invite audiences into the Owen Theatre, which will be transformed into the La Havana Madrid nightclub, night after night."

In addition to Delgado, the eight-member cast also includes Teatro Vista ensemble members Tommy Rivera-Vega and Marvin Quijada; and newcomers Mike Oquendo, Donovan Diaz and Krystal Ortiz, who round out the cast as Cuban, Colombian and Puerto Rican patrons, staff and musicians who all met, danced, loved and lost at La Havana Madrid. Original cast members Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel and Phoebe González are unable to continue with the production and their roles are being recast for the Goodman remount. The design team includes Ashley Woods (set), Elsa Hiltner (costumes), Heather Sparling (lights), Mikhail Fiksel (sound), Liviu Pasare (projections and video design) and William Carlos Angulo (choreography).

In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Latinos from Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico and Cuba settled all along Chicago's lakefront, from North Avenue to Devon. Although from different countries, music brought them together. Their shared rhythms-African rhythms-became the guaguanco, the mambo and the merengue. Now in the United States, these rhythms merged with traditional big band sounds and eventually became salsa. On the North side of Chicago, a handful of Latino music clubs opened up: Coco Loco on Lincoln Avenue, The Mirror Lounge on North Avenue and La Havana Madrid on Belmont and Sheffield. Luis "Witto" Aloma, a Cuban-born player for the Chicago White Sox, opened the club in the early 1960s to create a place for his Cuban friends to drink coffee and play cards and dominoes. Along the way, La Havana Madrid grew into a more lavish supper club with live Cuban musical acts, before it changed hands and Puerto Rican TV and radio host took over the club. La Havana Madrid closed in the late 1960s and later became the popular folk club The Quiet Knight. Today, the same second floor space is occupied by Milio's Hair Studio.



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