When playwright Marco Ramirez was growing up in Hialeah, music from Cuba’s great orchestras could be heard through his grandfather’s small Sony boombox on cassette tapes at family gatherings, from Nochebuena celebrations to weddings.
Now Ramirez’s grandfather, Felix, who is in his mid-90s, will be in the audience at the Adrienne Arsht Center when the national tour of the Buena Vista Social Club, the Broadway musical his grandson wrote, comes to South Florida. Traveling to New York had been too difficult for Felix, so Ramirez waited and hoped the production would eventually reach him.
“I was rooting for its longevity because I was just like, ‘Broadway’s cool, but it’s got to go on tour so that my grandfather can see it,’” Ramirez said…