Gloria Estefan transports inspirational music tale from Paraguay to Atlanta
Gloria Estefan has racked up nine Grammys, is a recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Kennedy Center honoree who has sold more than 100 million records. Now in her 60s after decades of grueling tours, she should rightfully be lying on the beach calculating how to spend her millions and taking a well-deserved rest.
And, in fact, Estefan has been sunning on Vero Beach along the Florida Atlantic coast watching the sea turtles lay their eggs, vibing with the exquisite wonder of nature.
But while she was digging her feet into the sand, Estefan was also writing the music and lyrics for a brand new musical, “Basura,” which begins a world premiere run Saturday at the Alliance Theatre.
Inspired by a 2015 documentary “Landfill Harmonic,” the musical, which features a cast of young musical talent, centers on the real-life story of a community in Cateura, Paraguay, whose citizens live next to a landfill. That trash heap has defined the local economy of selling plastic bottles and other goods salvaged from the trash. And under the direction of music teacher Favio Chavez, the community’s children have found escape and purpose by turning the piles of waste all around them into musical instruments.
“Their motto is: the world sends us garbage, and we give back music,” said Estefan, speaking by phone from Miami along with her musician daughter Emily Estefan. Collaborating with Emily, Gloria Estefan has translated the story of the Recycled Orchestra into a musical centered on resilience, hope and the transformative power of music. The show is directed by Broadway vet and five-time Tony nominee Michael Greif (“Rent,” “Dear Evan Hansen”).
Estefan was approached about “Basura” in 2019 in a call from producer Michael Shulman, who pitched the idea of Estefan, known for hits including “Mi Tierra” and “Turn the Beat Around,” writing the score.
“I was so inspired by these kids’ story, and by what they have done, taking a very difficult situation that they have and turning it into something really beautiful,” she said. “And what really inspired me the most was that they don’t just succeed and get out of town. They literally went back home to their community and made it better.”
She said yes to “Basura” despite initially feeling some trepidation about writing her first score for a stage production. “When I got home that day, after I said ‘Yes,’ I thought to myself, ‘What the hell did you get yourself into?’”
But this child of Cuban immigrants who escaped the Cuban Revolution, who helped care for a father exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, then survived a devastating tour bus crash and childhood abuse, has spent a lifetime running toward challenges. That grit — along with her enormous talent — has made Estefan an iconic figure in the music world.
The “Basura” score was created by Estefan and her daughter, whose old-school musical tastes run more to Chet Baker than Bad Bunny. It is their second stage collaboration after working together on the jukebox musical “On Your Feet.”
A clearly devoted and proud mother, Estefan praises her daughter’s multifaceted musicality. “She’s a multi-instrumentalist, she writes, she produces, and she’s a dynamic and riveting live performer.”
Music has been a shared vocabulary since Emily was 2 years old and turning anything she could into a drum set. Like her mother, Emily loved to write and started out writing poetry before she began making music.
Their score draws from a variety of sources, including the vernacular music of Paraguay with its distinctive use of the Paraguayan harp, as well as Argentine, Germanic and indigenous Guaraní influences.
The production developed over the course of four workshops in New York and Miami, where “Basura’s” creators, many of them also Hispanic, honed the show. The melting pot of Latin American talent playing key parts included choreographer Patricia Delgado, an American with Cuban immigrant family roots who won a Tony last year for the musical “Buena Vista Social Club”; Karen Zacarias, the show’s Mexican American playwright; and its Cuban-American music supervisor Alex Lacamoire.
During their time in Atlanta, Gloria and Emily met the Atlanta equivalent to the Recycled Orchestra, the Buford Highway Orchestra Project, which provides free string instrument instruction to DeKalb County children who might not otherwise have music programs in their schools.
“They kind of mirror what Recycled Orchestra has done (in Paraguay),” said Estefan, who noted that the Buford Orchestra members will be present at one of the “Basura” performances. In addition, the Recycled Orchestra is traveling to Atlanta to see the show.
Estefan is no stranger to Atlanta. She performed her song “Reach” at the 1996 Olympics closing ceremony and spent two months in the city while filming opposite Andy Garcia as the mother of the bride in the 2022 film “Father of the Bride,” for which she rented a home close enough that Estefan could walk the Beltline every day. Spending time in Atlanta inspired the idea of premiering “Basura” in Atlanta.
“We couldn’t think of a better place than Atlanta,” Emily said. “There’s a lot of different communities and a lot of attention to the arts, and it’s a very vibrant city.”
Said Gloria: “We had many cities that were interested in doing it, but we chose Atlanta for that reason, and secretly for me, because it’s kind of like a good-luck charm. So many wonderful things have happened for me in the city.”
THEATER PREVIEW
“Basura”
Saturday through July 12. $25 and up. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-4600, alliancetheatre.org.
