However, even if you don’t understand their lyrics in Spanish, the songs prevail. Never forced to literally serve as plot markers, but instead atmospherically performed by characters who would actually sing them, they bring coherence and depth to the story with their exquisite harmonies, delirious polyrhythms and raw brass. The exceptional musical production – the work of a team led by Dean Sharenow and Marco Paguia – enhances that effect with arrangements suited to the new contexts and intimate space of Atlantic’s Linda Gross Theatre. The sound design, fortunately with a lively sound, is by Jonathan Deans.
And although I was less impressed with a series of ballet duets for the young sisters, which seem labored, the club’s sizzling dances are a delight. As choreographed by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, they match and intensify the music with intricate, close collaborations as limbs find increasingly intricate ways to close the space between bodies.
Ali’s staging, on a unit staged by Arnulfo Maldonado that rightly suggests some of the cramped spaces in which the story takes place, doesn’t quite reach that level yet. It’s too often difficult, with 17 cast members and nine principal musicians on the small, dimly lit stage, to tell which location we’re in: studio, club, hotel, esplanade. Sometimes even which era, though Dede Ayite’s taxonomy of caps and fedoras, high-waisted trousers, flowing tunics and sock skirts (not to mention showgirl kitsch) offers delightful clues.
Cramped is also a lot of the action between songs, lending a frenetic feel to material that demands more focus or less volume. Seeming to recognize this, the show ends strangely and abruptly, as if interrupted midway by a supervisor’s stopwatch.
But as the staging, singing and sound come together, in both exuberance and sadness, I was joyfully reminded of another musical about music that originated in the Atlantic: “The Band’s Visit.” (David Yazbek, the show’s songwriter, is credited here as a creative consultant.) In these moments – the hypnotic “Chan Chan,” the haunting “El Cuarto de Tula,” the distressed “Veinte Años,” the gorgeous “ Drume “Negrita”: You really feel the past in harmony with the present. What the Company says is true: “Old songs reawaken old feelings.” Even, as in the shows, stopping and, yes, burning “Candela”, with a flute.
Buena Vista Social Club
Through January 21 at the Atlantic Theatre, Manhattan; atlantictheater.org. Duration: 2 hours.