The Band of Buena Vista Social Club Never Thought They'd Be on Broadway. Now They Have a Special Tony

One of Broadway's most popular new shows isn't just a rollicking good time, it also includes a score that's entirely in Spanish. Buena Vista Social Club is currently the most Tony Award-lauded show this season: It has 10 competitive Tony nominations, tying with Maybe Happy Ending and Death Becomes Her, and it also has one Special Tony Award for its band. That band is arguably the heart of the show.

While in a typical Broadway musical, the musicians are usually playing in a pit under the stage, in Buena Vista Social Club, the band is onstage the entire time. And they play on a platform that, in numerous times in the show, pushes forward—putting them front-and-center in a way that very few bands are seen on Broadway.

"It's really a gift to be a part of this, to play this music with these incredible musicians," says Marco Paguia, who plays the piano onstage every night at the Schoenfeld Theatre, and he conducts, too. In addition to his Special Tony as part of the Buena Vista band, Paguia is also nominated for a Tony for Best Orchestrations.

Though this isn't Paguia's first Broadway show, he didn't even know it was possible for a show's band to be given a Special Tony. "[The band was] just really moved by the fact that the Tony community recognized something that was so outside of the box...They're thrilled, and they feel very proud, and they feel a real responsibility to share the Cuban music legacy with these Broadway audiences."

Buena Vista Social Club is based on the best-selling album of the same name, which contained Cuban musicians playing classic Cuban songs. When that album was released in 1997, it brought music that had been unknown to the outside world (due to the trade embargo)—son, bolero, danzón, music that captivated audiences around the world.

This new musical dramatizes the creation of that album, and also introduces that Cuban music to a whole new generation. A number of the original musicians on that original Buena Vista album have passed, and so it's a new generation of musicians playing their music currently on a Broadway stage. Besides Paguia, the musicians who have received a Special Tony are Eddie Venegas, Renesito Avich, Jesus Ricardo, Hery Paz, David Oquendo, and Leonardo Reyna. Many of them are Cuban and Spanish speakers, and it is their first time on a Broadway stage.

Says Leonardo Reyna, who plays the piano and was born in Cuba: "There's a lot of generations in this cast, that have been through this artistic process. It's a healing process. For our community, there is a strong power that we have found through the music to express our most deep feelings and dreams, for the well-being and the success of our histories, our stories."

For writer Marco Ramirez, who is Cuban-American and who was nominated for writing the book for the show, he was intentional in writing scenes that would showcase the musicians.

"There's a moment in the first act where Omara Portuondo, who is kind of the lead of the show, has very negative opinions about the flute solo on her song ['Candela']. And so, there's a moment where we dramatize a flute solo, and so the flute player has to step up. Between his flute solo and her reaction, where eventually she's won over and she starts dancing, and the audience just really joins in on that joy. That's my favorite moment of the show."

That flute solo is not on the original Buena Vista album. It's a new creation for the show, an indication that these musicians are given a chance to put their own fresh spin on some beloved songs. At a recent performance, Cuban guitarist Renesito Avich seemingly improvised a lengthly guitar solo. So this band isn't just playing music, they're jamming.

To Avich, the Special Tony is a testament to "the love that the whole team—dancers, the whole company—has for the show and to the Cuban music, to the music we're representing. We're one of the few [shows] that offers Cuban music on Broadway that gets awarded. And this honor, it means the life for us."