This Was My Birthday Show, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Theatergoers looking for a culturally immersive production, alive with dazzling colors and brilliantly conceived dances by reigning choreographer Justin Peck had best dash right now to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, and experience "Buena Vista Social Club."

                                         Having seen it, finally, I am not at all surprised it is still running.  In retrospect, this really was the surprise hit of last season.

                                            I was expecting an extended dance piece, and while dance is prevalent, I never realized how much of a story there was to this show.  Bits and pieces of members of the club, and especially the tale of two sisters, both wanting recording careers, but one wanting to leave Cuba for America, and one wanting to stay with the club, just when everything in that country is falling apart, is the heart of the show.  I had to wonder if these sisters were based on any real-life components.

                                             The show also goes back and forth in time.  Natalie Venetia Belcon, in a performance that won a well-deserved TONY Award, plays Omara, the sister who stayed behind, and her joy in music is infectious, as is her sad abandonment of it once she hears her sister has passed.  Their relationship was never mended.   She comes back to it eventually, but it takes work.

                                                Speaking of work, girls, this company works fluidly.  Like the original "A Chorus Line" cast, before they became legends, the whole show was the star.  So, it is with the "Buena Vista Social Club," who not only perform, but provide music and lyrics.  The whole thing is superbly directed by Saheem Ali, with dazzling lighting by Tyler Micoleau and set design by Arnulfo Maldonado.

                                                    Really, girls--Theater Queens and all you blue-haired ladies (maybe men!) out there--I cannot recommend a better time at the theater right now than "Buena Vista Social Club.  It is theatrically stimulating, and I am not surprised it has outrun the majority of last season's offerings.

                                                     Theater, especially on Broadway, is always in flux and change.

                                                     Maybe this show is a sign of change for the better.