Havana Night

We experienced a bit of “Old Havana” when we signed up to do the show at the Tropicana nightclub. The club has been doing their show since 1939 in the same location. And what a location. You are dropped off in a large circular driveway at an entrance that is a half-round tunnel ringed with lights. Outside the door is a small jazz combo playing to help set the mood.

Once you enter you are greeted by a set of hostesses handing out flowers for the ladies and cigars for the men.

You are then escorted into the club. The club itself is outdoors in a courtyard that is a jungle of trees and vines and flowers. There are tables in the middle of the courtyard and the stage is actually in several parts all around and above the seats. The main part of the stage is raised so that everyone has a good view of the dancers and singers, while the band is in a box above and off to one side. There are satellite stages all around so everywhere you look there’s something to see.

While we waited another jazz combo played and there was a slide show of acts from the past. Back in the day all the great American performers played here. Shots showed the likes of Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway and Josephine Baker.

Our group had very good tables reserved. The ticket includes a glass of sparkling wine each and a full-sized bottle of Havana Club rum for each table of 4 and a bottle of Coke. I think they intended us to make some very strong rum & Cokes, because we got a big bottle of rum and tiny little bottles of Coke. Just enough for a splash in your glass of rum. It was such good quality rum that it went down very smoothly and we both drank more than we usually do. But since we had a bus to take us home that wasn’t a problem.

The show is so over the top it almost defies description. Dozens of dancers, singers, even acrobats. And amazing costumes. You know it’s a nightclub show when the girls are wearing more above their shoulders than below. Huge, incredible headdresses 3 feet tall, and pasties and a g-string. To be sure, there were also many scantily clad boy dancers. The big numbers had 10 to 15 dancers and a couple of singers on the main stage. There were usually also 4 other singers way up high at the top of the main stage. Then there were another 8 or 10 dancers on the far side of the stage dancing on a three-tiered scaffolding.

Often there were other dancers on the platforms that jutted out over the seating area and sometimes dancers in the aisles as well.

In between big numbers there would be a simple one with just a single singer or a duo singing with just the band playing, giving the cast time to change into the next over the top costumes. For a change there were acrobatic acts. One of the most amazing was a spectacularly muscled pair who did a number of strength moves. What was striking about their act is that the woman lifted the man and he did things like handstands on her head, the reverse of what you might expect.

Another pair had a 10 foot long pole which the man wore in a harness around his waist which had side braces that rested on his hips and a band that went around his neck. This let the pole stand up from his waste, (Nope, nothing phallic about that. Not in the least), while the girl climbed up it and did pole dancing moves suspended in the air. For their last bit he switched from the neck strap to holding the cable by a bit between his teeth.

I have to give the dancers credit for being able to come out in some of those costumes and keep a straight face. One had them wearing a palm tree on their head and a body stocking that had just a little round red dot, ( I think it may have been a cherry), over each nipple and had three leaves sprouting from “down there”, both in front and in back. I can’t even imagine what the costume designer was thinking.

It seemed that each number was bigger and more elaborate than the last.

At one point they flew a big crystal chandelier in over the stage on a wire. The girls came out with crystal chandler headdresses, which they managed to keep on their heads as they walked around.

Of course, all the songs were in Spanish. But you didn’t need to understand the words to get the emotions. I seemed to catch a lot of “mi amore” and “mi corazon”

It was great fun; but it was a late night. The show ended at Midnight. The club stays open for dancing afterwords, but our buses were waiting to take us back to the ship. We got in after 1:00. We had just enough time for a bit of sleep before we had to be up for breakfast at 7:00 and our morning tour. It was a bit rough. But because of the good quality of the rum, we didn’t feel any ill effects at all the next morning, although we were dragging a bit from lack of sleep. But I’d say it was well worth it.

By the way, the Tropicana charges a fee to take photos. Since Van’s camera does better in low light we took his and he took all of these pictures. My thanks to him for letting me use them.