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Over in Atlanta, Gloria Estefan and her daughter, Emily Estefan, are working with five-time Tony Award-nominated director Michael Greif to turn one person’s trash into another person’s treasure.
The new musical Basura, featuring music by the Estefans and a book by Karen Zacarías, has officially opened its world-premiere production at the Alliance Theatre — and director Greif exclusively tells BroadwayWorld that the response has been both “really strong and really informational” as the team of powerhouse creatives continue to fine-tune the piece.
After all, creating beauty from the ground up is part of the show’s DNA. Inspired by the true story of the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura in Paraguay, Basura (which translates to the English word “trash”) tells the story of young artists who turn scrap material into instruments. The 2015 documentary Landfill Harmonic, which shows how a music school materialized out of a landfill on the outskirts of Asunción, serves as its source material.
“Our wonderful book writer and dramaturg, Karen Zacarías and Ken Cerniglia, actually went to Paraguay to do a research trip before they started writing,” Greif explains. “And they met yet another group of young musicians from the Recycled Orchestra, and I think they really tried to distill their stories.”
Greif explains that the new musical is a story of “hope” — and one that he was eager to get his hands on.
“It was very irresistible,” he says. “The documentary that the musical is inspired by is so inspirational, and the opportunity to work with Gloria and Emily and Karen, who I got to meet early on, was also irresistible.”
In recent years, Greif — who directed the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent, among many others — has worked with mainstream musical artists such as Ingrid Michaelson on The Notebook, Alicia Keys on Hell’s Kitchen and now the Estefans on Basura. What they bring to the table when creating a new musical, he says, is simply “great songwriting.”
“In the case of Emily and Gloria, I was brought in very early into the process, and we had wonderful meetings in which we all got to talk about what the story of the musical might be and what songs might lead those ideas,” he explains.
As a director, “I’m sort of a wonderful conduit between the writers and the audience,” says Greif, adding that he approaches a new project by simply trying “to make the most impactful, emotional, hopefully surprising piece of theater — and hopefully that will keep audiences coming.”
But in a time when a long run on Broadway seems harder to sustain, directors may have to think differently when it comes to their approach. “I have to admit,” Greif says, “I’m a little more concerned about what weekly running costs might be because the marketplace is so competitive.”
Still, he seems hopeful that Basura — which currently plays the Coca-Cola Stage at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre through July 12 — will have a life well beyond Georgia.
“I of course would like to see it in my hometown in New York, and I’d love to be able to take it on tour — like Hell’s Kitchen and The Notebook are enjoying now — to lots of cities around the country,” Greif says. “So I hope it has that kind of successful future, and I think that the creative team and I look forward to continuing to develop it and make it as best as we can.”
Opening night in Atlanta “was very exciting and very encouraging,” he says, adding that it has helped the creative team “see what’s landing absolutely best” as they “continue scrutinizing what might get tinkered with.”
Basura’s story, about finding beauty amongst the rubble, feels relevant. “This [story] is about giving people a chance,” he says, “and I feel like what we, as a country, need to remember and get back to is we need to help one another out.”
Photo Credit: Greg Mooney
