Broadway Musical in Havana for Three Months

For the first time in more than 50 years the Broadway musical Rent will be staged in Cuba for three months as of December 24th.

The US’s Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment Group has finally been given the green light to stage the show in Cuba after several years attempting to do so. In 2011 the organization produced a concert based on songs of various Broadway musicals staged at Havana’s Grand Theater; following the performance, the Cuban Culture Ministry asked it to produce an entire musical in Havana, according to Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment spokesperson, Keith Sherman.

Sherman added that the show is part of the group’s permanent mission to bring Broadway musicals to new markets in the world. Nederlander, one of the biggest theater and concert hall operators in the United States, will present Rent, in cooperation with the Cuban National Performing Art Council, at Havana’s Bertolt Brecht Theater with a company of 15 Cuban actors and actresses.

The staging will be directed by Andy Señor, a Cuban American who played the leading role of Angel in the Broadway musical, and later worked with the musical’s original director, Michael Greif, and ran various productions that have been a hit all over the world.