Review ‘Buena Vista Social Club’: bringing a classic record to life

But even if you don’t understand their Spanish lyrics, the songs dominate. Never forced into literal service as a poster child for the plot, but instead performed atmospherically by characters who would actually sing them, they give coherence and depth to the story with their exquisite harmonies, frenzied polyrhythms and raw brass work. The exceptional musical production – the work of a team led by Dean Sharenow and Marco Paguia – enhances that effect with arrangements that suit the new contexts and intimate space of the Linda Gross Theater in the Atlantic. The wonderfully live sounding sound design is by Jonathan Deans.

And while I was less impressed by a series of ballet duets for the struggling young sisters, the vibrant club dances are a delight. Choreographed by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, they match and amplify the music with intricate, close collaborations as limbs find increasingly complicated ways to close the space between bodies.

Ali’s staging, on a set by Arnulfo Maldonado that aptly suggests some of the cramped spaces in which the story takes place, does not yet reach that level. With seventeen cast members and nine core musicians on the small and flatly lit stage, it is all too difficult to determine which location we are in: studio, club, hotel, esplanade. Sometimes Dede Ayite’s taxonomy of caps and fedoras, high-waisted trousers, flowing tunics and sock-hop skirts (not to mention showgirl kitsch) offers delightful clues.

Also, much of the action between songs is cramped, lending a frenetic feel to material that demands more thoughtfulness or less volume. The show seems to recognize that and ends strangely and abruptly, as if interrupted in the middle of his thoughts by a proctor’s stopwatch.

But when the staging, song and acting came together, whether in exuberance or sadness, I was reminded happily of another musical about music that originated on the Atlantic Ocean: “The Band’s Visit.” (David Yazbek, that show’s songwriter, is credited here as a creative consultant.) In moments like these — the hypnotic “Chan Chan,” the earworm-inducing “El Cuarto de Tula,” the heartbroken “Veinte Años,” the beautiful “Drume Negrita ” – you really feel that the past is in harmony with the present. What Compay says is true: “Old songs stir up old feelings.” Even, as in the dazzling and, yes, scorching ‘Candela’, with flute.

Buena Vista social club
Through January 21 at the Atlantic Theater, Manhattan; atlantictheatre.org. Playing time: 2 hours.