My photos of Havana

Scenes in Havana: the Broadway Ambassadors, the hotel and streets... go to the Gallery page for full-sized images and photo descriptions.

Here is an article about the Broadway Ambassadors show in Granma Internacional Nov. 10, 2011:

ONE ENCHANTED EVENING

The Broadway Ambassadors review, which contains some of the best known numbers from the great musical shows, had its space in the Gran Teatro of Havana’s García Lorca Hall.

The function (November 4), began with an introduction by Robert E. Nederlander, founder and president of Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, one of the most important production companies on the Broadway theater circuit, who affirmed that it was an honor for them to act in such a beautiful theater and have the privilege of presenting the best of his country’s art, in this case Broadway musicals. "It is a privilege to be involved in this cultural exchange with Cuba."

The stage was set by four outstanding singers: Luba Mason, Capathia Jenkins, Norman Orell Lewis and Robert Evan Bucher, with Jeremy Roberts, the show’s musical director, at the piano. They were accompanied by 15 musicians from Havana’s Gran Teatro orchestra.

And they opened with Chicago. For the public crowded into the hall, Luba Mason recreated Velma Kelly, with an unrepeatable "All that jazz," from her Broadway performance with Brooke Shield’s Roxie Hart. She demonstrated and confirmed the reason for so much success, an exceptional voice.

It would be a fantastic night, as Rogers and Hammerstein wrote in the song "Some Enchanted Evening," interpreted by Norman Lewis.

During close to two hours there were ovations for Capathia Jenkins ("Somewhere", from West Side Story ), for Evan (Hello, Dolly) and for every song from musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Aint Misbehavin’, Phantom of the Opera, Company, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Man of La Mancha, Les Misérables, Jekyll and Hyde, Dreamgirls, Hairspray and, as a finale, the four of them together in two numbers from Hair and two of the best known songs in the world, "Aquarius" and "Let the sun shine in."