By David Bellan for the Oxford Times 17th Feb 2010

I’ve been a fan of Cuban music ever since, long ago, I discovered the ancient performers of the Buena Vista Social Club, and three singers, very nearly of that vintage, are the real stars of this music and dance spectacular. Maida Casteneda, Tomas Sanchez and Pachin Innocente sing with the world-weary assurance of great performers who could well be retired, but just love what they are doing. They are at the heart of this exciting show, which aims, successfully, to bring the exuberant flavour of the Tropicana Club of Havana to our shores. There is also an 11-piece on-stage band, performing against a backdrop of the dilapidated houses and ancient American cars of their native city. Adding colour and flamboyance are the dancers – four men, four women – in a series of increasingly exotic costumes, with the dancing getting more and more exciting as the show progresses.

There’s no real story, but it’s quite clear that these characters are attracted to each other, and showing every trick in their choreographic book to impress. The Cha Cha was apparently invented in Cuba, and one of my favourite moments features the four girls, in huge green and yellow head-dresses and scanty costumes, cha-cha-ing around for all the world like dancing pineapples. Maida Casteneda, who is clearly a major star at home, sings sad songs in an achingly melancholic voice, while Sanchez and Innocente perform mainly as a duo, harmonising easily like the seasoned performers they are. The song La Tristessa was beautifully put over by this talented pair.

There is a lot of talent, too, among the backing musicians, with one or another stepping into the limelight to perform on the guitar, or sing, or just encourage the dancers. One criticism, though: when the cast work so hard to create a Cuban atmosphere, why book a smug, heavily accented German actor as the compere?

Pasion de Buena Vista is at the New Theatre, Oxford, tomorrow, at the London Palladium on February 28, and at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, on March 5.