Buena Vista Social Club: Musical cast

Buena Vista Social Club cast

Cast and Characters: Buena Vista Social Club (2025 Broadway Production).

Principal Cast – Broadway (2025).

Natalie Venetia Belcon as Omara Portuondo (adult) – a vocal storm, sorrow and fire woven together.
Isa Antonetti as Young Omara – fierce innocence and a voice learning its purpose.
Mel Semé as Ibrahim Ferrer (adult) – grounded gravitas, his vocals aching with memory.
Wesley Wray as Young Ibrahim – vulnerability mixed with rhythm, a boy shaped by boleros.
Jainardo Batista Sterling as Rubén González – suave, elegant, keys whispering defiance.
Leonardo Reyna as Young Rubén – wide-eyed prodigy, piano as lifeline.
Julio Monge as Compay Segundo – humor and grit, storyteller with a six-string soul.
Da’von T. Moody as Young Compay – kinetic joy, young energy captured in strings.
Renesito Avich as Eliades Ochoa – playing himself, blending character and craft in real time.
Justin Cunningham as Juan de Marcos González – the architect of reunion, driven and hopeful.
Ashley De La Rosa as Young Haydee Portuondo – luminous, a voice like velvet shadows.

Ensemble and Band (Awarded Special Tony).

These are not pit musicians. They’re woven into the heartbeat of the show. Each one performs onstage, in motion, responding to the story as if they lived it.

Marco Paguia – Music Director, Conductor, Piano
David Oquendo – Guitar
Renesito Avich – Tres (also playing Eliades Ochoa)
Gustavo Schartz – Bass
Javier Díaz, Román Diaz, Mauricio Herrera – Percussion
Jesus Ricardo – Trumpet
Eddie Venegas – Trombone
Hery Paz – Woodwinds

Creative Choices in Casting.

Casting fuses actors and musicians across age lines. The decision to double characters (young and adult) onstage creates echoes between past and present. It's memory in dialogue with itself. No accents are exaggerated. No caricatures are performed. Everyone on that stage either *is* the music or carries it like an heirloom.
Last Update:July, 08th 2025

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