LOS ANGELES, USA – Marco Paguia, who made history as the first Filipino and Asian to win the Tony Awards’ Best Orchestrations and a special Tony as part of the Buena Vista Social Club band last June, remembered his father as he was delivering his acceptance speech on the Radio City Music Hall stage.
In a recent one-on-one video interview, Marco, the music director, arranger, and orchestrator of the Broadway hit Buena Vista Social Club, recalled, “My dad used to tell me stories of when he was a student and spent his summers in New York City. He’d go to the Radio City Music Hall and see a movie or a show. He always talked about Radio City and the grandness of that.”
“And so I thought it was pretty fitting that the Tonys were at Radio City and being able to say their names (Victor and Ruby Paguia), thank them and think about how far they must have come, thinking that their son was on that stage.”
At first, news and social media posts bannered that two Filipino-Americans, Nicole Scherzinger and Darren Criss, won Best Performance by an Actress and Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Sunset Blvd. and Maybe Happy Ending, respectively, in the 78th Tony Awards.
But when Rappler reported that Marco also triumphed in addition to Nicole and Darren, there was widespread jubilation over the historic win of three Fil-Ams on a single night in theater’s most prestigious award.
Marco cited “not just the Filipino-American representation, but all the Asian-American representation in the nominees. This season was incredible. Francis Jue also won (Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play) for Yellowface.”
On winning two Tonys on a single night, including the previously announced Special Award for the Buena Vista Social Club band — a first in the history that a band was honored for its performances — Marco answered, “That was the big shock when they announced the nominations. They also announced the special Tony for the band. I’m so thrilled for the other musicians in this band.”
“Obviously, I’m not Cuban, and most of the members in the band are Cuban — varying degrees of folks who grew up there. Some folks who left a little bit when they were younger, but they all share a common bond with living and growing up with this music.”
He added that it was also incredible to receive the special honor for the band in the musical set in Havana, Cuba, following four musicians from the 1950s to the 1990s.
“It was pretty remarkable to have the Tony committee decide that the band was worthy of a special Tony,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years in New York, and I’ve been part of many special orchestras and musicians.”
“For us to be recognized in this way is incredibly special. And what an honor. And for the guys in the band who haven’t done a Broadway show before, which is most of them.”
This made the band, which performed on stage and not in the pit, relish the recognition even more.
“So, understanding what the Tony Awards mean in the industry was eye-opening for them, and for them to be honored for something really outside the box. That’s what they were really moved by — their contribution to this Broadway season was so remarkable that they had to be given an award.”
As for his individual award, Marco remarked, “I was very honored and grateful to win the orchestrations Tony, but to be able to celebrate with the musicians as a member of the band was beyond what I could have imagined going into this Broadway season.”
It may seem that the boyish-looking artist is an overnight Broadway sensation, but he has been working in theater for over two decades. From playing as a dance rehearsal pianist to working in regional theater and show tours, Marco steadily rose, handling music supervision and orchestrations in Unknown Soldier and becoming a music director in Gutenberg! The Musical!, Girl From the North Country, Peter and the Starcatcher, Goddess, and Everyday Rapture.
In 2024, the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards honored Marco for his orchestrations for Buena Vista Social Club in its earlier staging at the Atlantic Theater.
In his childhood, Marco discovered the allure of musicals. He reminisced, “As a kid, I grew up in the Midwest. My parents are from the Philippines, and we used to go see a lot of Broadway-style shows, especially the big ones like the Cameron Mackintosh shows in the ’80s, like Les Mis and Miss Saigon.”
“Lea Salonga was such an icon of Broadway. Not just Broadway, but just representing the Philippines and being a trendsetter or making a mark. And so she was always held to this otherworldly place, especially within the Filipino community.”
Lea recently added another feather to her cap as the first Filipina who will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“As a kid, I knew she was like the Michael Jordan of Broadway for the Filipinos. So yeah, just to be included in this group this year with Nicole and Darren is quite shocking,” said Marco.
“I got to meet Lea over the years and actually saw her during the Tonys. And she was so happy for me. I did not imagine my career would go this way. I’m just really grateful. I’m still absorbing.”
“I started like many Asian-American kids studying piano at a young age,” Marco recalled his early training that would lead to a career in musical theater. “My brothers and I all studied piano, but I was the one who stayed with it the longest. And having the classical background really gave me a foundation for technique and just being able to play the instrument,” Marco shared.
“In my teens, I started to get really interested in playing jazz and then went really went full force on that towards the end of high school and college. I really wanted to be a jazz pianist, and having those backgrounds (jazz and classical) as a musician, I feel like they opened up my appreciation. You can dissect a lot of different kinds of music.”
The holder of a bachelor’s degree in music from Northwestern University in Illinois elaborated on growing up as the middle of three children of Filipino immigrants, Victor and Ruby.
“I was born in the States. Early on, we were in central Illinois, near Springfield. And then a little bit later, the whole family moved up to the suburbs of Chicago. That’s where we had our high school and middle school,” he shared.
“I went to the Philippines. We had a big family reunion in 2003. I still have quite a bit of family there, especially on my dad’s side. It was an incredible trip because it was a family reunion.”
“I met so many people I had never met before. I got to see where my mom grew up, where she went to school. I was still in my mid-20s then. So it was cool to see where your parents come from and see the culture.”
The Fil-Am continued, “It wasn’t my first trip (to Asia). About a couple of years before that, I made a trip to Japan on tour, which was my first time really going to Asia as an adult. It was really eye-opening to be in a country where you look like most of the other people. Versus here (in the US), where you’re always different.”
“But yeah, I would love to get back there (Philippines). My family had another reunion this past February but unfortunately, I was in the middle of putting up Buena Vista Social Club. So oftentimes, our big family trips are around these times where I’m working a lot,” he added.
“There were a few Filipino families where we grew up in Illinois, in our town. But I was always close to my aunts, uncles, and cousins in the States. I can understand Tagalog from my parents, but I didn’t really speak it.”
He shared that his younger brother, Vic, was a diver who competed for the Philippines and is now a stunt coordinator for film and TV in the States. His older brother is Emil.
Marco spoke about the Asian immigrant assimilation culture dynamics: “We’re Filipino, but we live in America. And so we are kind of always juggling those two identities. It’s been a trip.”
“In the Midwest, we grew up mostly around Caucasian people. Trying to fit in was always the way — not make waves. It’s a very Asian-American thing to do, to just put your head down and do good work.”
So he welcomes the recent victories of people of color in the televised Tony Awards. “And so I would say, especially this last year in the Tonys, having a lot more Asian folks and Filipino-Americans who are being recognized has gotten me really excited about the Filipino pride in the business.”
Still on his upbringing that led to Broadway, Marco said, “My parents have always loved music. My dad’s a huge opera fan. My mom always talked about her love of The Beatles and Elvis. And they love watching shows.”
“They still go to New York often, and they see as many Broadway shows as they can. When we were kids, we would go see shows. Lea was a big icon. We would see shows like Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis, or the big ’80s shows when they come to Chicago.”
“We all studied piano. Music was always on in the house. But I would say my parents just encouraged. Once it became clear to me that I wanted to be a musician, they really supported me all the way through that.”
Understandably, Marco was extra ebullient when he talked about the show that gave him his biggest break so far in his career.
Buena Vista Social Club, a stage musical retelling of the story of the original musical ensemble that released the eponymous studio album in 1997 — which became an international hit — has been drawing crowds and acclaim since it opened as a Broadway show last March.
“I’m just very grateful and feeling very fortunate to be part of an amazing show celebrating Cuban music which, at this point, has demonstrated its reach globally. It’s how much people respond and appreciate Cuban music, not just when the album came out in the ’90s,” Marco said.
“Every night at the Schoenfeld Theater on Broadway, we are really feeling this love and appreciation, both by people who have grown up with the music and their families, and also by a new Broadway audience. And people who go to see shows all the time.”
Marco gushed about the joyful production that reverberates with the on stage musicians playing bongo, tres, trumpet, piano, güiro, and more to evoke a Cuban dance floor.
“And maybe this is the first time they’re hearing Cuban music. So it’s been a blessing. I’m very grateful to be a part of it,” he said.
“The musicians are just incredible. They are some of the finest musicians around. Some of our older musicians in the band are so revered and are masters of their individual crafts.”
He continued, “It really brings me back to my early days when I was studying music or wanting to become a musician and being inspired by the other musicians around me. This is exactly what that feels like again. And it’s amazing that this happens far into my career here in New York. What a pleasure!”
“And the last three years immersing myself in Cuban music has been incredible. It’s such a deep tradition. The more I study it, the more I realize how the history of Cuban music really is the history of American music and music of the new world, as we would call it.”
Asked about his other career highlights, Marco cited playing piano with the New York Philharmonic under Maestro Gustavo Dudamel in the film soundtrack recording session for Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of the classic West Side Story musical.
“That was probably the biggest pinch-me moment in my career ever,” he admitted. “My proudest moment as a professional pianist in New York. I started playing at dance rehearsals.”
“There were weeks of pre-production dance rehearsals with Justin Peck, who is also the choreographer of Buena Vista. What started off as me filling in for a friend for dance rehearsals turned into me playing on the recording sessions.”
Recalling being in the recording studio with Steven, Gustavo and some of New York’s finest musicians for the film’s songs composed by Leonard Bernstein, Marco confessed, “I was very intimidated at first. It’s such an iconic score, iconic orchestra. The biggest star conductor in the world (Gustavo) who’s an incredible musician and an amazing leader.”
“One thing I really got out of that whole experience was watching him work with the orchestra. I think about conductors who go from orchestra to orchestra, and the orchestra stays and they have their own thing.”
“You have to find a way to communicate to them to move towards you and what you’d like or what filmmaker Steven Spielberg wanted.”
He added, “I grew up with Steven Spielberg movies and just being in the same presence with him and working on one of his movies really was a dream come true. I did not think that was ever going to be on my career bingo card,” he said.
“But playing with the orchestra, I hadn’t prepared for a gig like that. I had a few moments during the recording session where things went really well, and even one moment when Dudamel singled me out.”
Smiling, Marco said, “That was in one of our takes of one of the songs. It really fueled me for feeling like I belong here or I can do this now. I don’t think it necessarily needs to be a gig like that to prove that to yourself.”
“But for me, that was. That’s the kind of experience I always go back to whenever I’m feeling like, do I belong here or should they have hired somebody else? But no. I’m here for a reason, and playing that score and just being in the room listening to that music was incredible.”
When Broadway legend Rita Moreno, who starred in both the 1961 and 2021 film versions of West Side Story, came backstage after watching Buena Vista, Marco had “to tell her how much those recording sessions meant to me.”
“And in particular, she sings Somewhere in this version of West Side Story. There’s a bit of solo piano accompaniment, which was me. I remember being really nervous in the recording session for that and then it was going really well.”
“Cut to me seeing the movie, hearing it and seeing Rita sing it. That was mind blowing to be a part of.”
Asked to share other major breaks in his musical theater career, Marco replied, “I’d say one that was more recent. I was the music director for a show called Girl From the North Country. That was all Bob Dylan music, written and directed by Conor McPherson.”
“It took place around 2020, around COVID. I think it was my third show as a music director on Broadway. But it was really one of the first times I felt like I was no longer on the younger side of the people in the room.”
“That I was more on the leadership. I felt like I was of an age where I could really embrace being a leader in the room and not being like a young whatever I am. I learned a lot on how to be a leader of a Broadway show which is no small feat, especially coming back from COVID. There was a lot about coming back after not working for 18 months.”
He said, “I made my Broadway debut as a music director in this show called Everyday Rapture, which was a one-woman show by Sherie Rene Scott.”
“She had two actors who were her backup singers, played by Betsy Wolfe and Lindsay Mendez. We all became very close in such a short period. Lindsay and I ended up making music together for quite a while. We’re still very good friends.”
He added, “That was just a great experience for me to finally make my Broadway debut as a music director. I’d been playing in pits and subbing (for musicians) and doing that for probably about 10, 12 years. And for me to get the opportunity, it was a big deal.”
Marco brought up another career-defining moment. “I did a show called Gutenberg on Broadway (Gutenberg! The Musical!). That was a two-hander with Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells.”
“I was the music director but I also played a character in the show. And I had some lines. I would deliver a few lines at the beginning of each act, sort of introducing the two guys. I had never done any acting, really.”
“To have to stand at center on a Broadway stage every night was great and really fun. The play was really funny. There was so much joy in the room every night.”
With a grin, he recounted his debut as a musician with speaking lines: “And the lines I had always killed. They were really funny. I was thinking back to the Tony night giving that speech in front of 6,000 people at Radio City and having that feeling of standing in front of an auditorium full of people for Gutenberg. It really helped me just feel very comfortable standing before a mic, talking to thousands of people.”
He relished the part about Gutenberg having celebrity guests who came up and delivered “a little scripted bit that would surprise the audience.”
“I got to meet Steve Martin and Martin Short,” Marco recounted. “That was incredible. Hillary Clinton came and did it. Anne Hathaway and Anna Wintour were paired together. And I got to meet Henry Winkler.”
On Buena Vista, Marco said that aside from Rita Moreno, he also met other artists. “We’ve had a lot of people come backstage. Ruben Blades, the Panamanian singer, activist and actor, came and he means so much to the company at Buena Vista.”
“Spike Lee came back the day after the Knicks lost in the playoffs, and he said the show cheered him up. So that was cool.”
Marco could have worked on a musical version of All The President’s Men, the 1974 book by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward on the Watergate scandal that brought down then US President Richard Nixon and inspired Alan J. Pakula’s film of the same name.
“Michael Friedman, who wrote that (musical adaptation), passed away shortly after we had done a presentation,” Marco said. “He was ill and I don’t think many of us knew. He concealed his illness until it was late.”
“He wrote basically the opening number of what a musical version of All the President’s Men would be. He was such a brilliant artist and could really dissect the most important bits of a story and find a way to ‘musical’ them and make it compelling.”
“We spent a morning together with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, playing this opening number for them.”
Marco recalled meeting the two journalist legends: “They (Bob and Carl) wanted to talk. They had questions as reporters. As much as we were presenting for them, they wanted to ask us about the process and about what this means, what that means.”
“They were really floored by the treatment that Michael made for this piece. It was at the very end of his life but I got to see Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein really praise Michael and receive this sort of affirmation from these two geniuses, these two legends.”
Marco lamented that the musical will no longer come to life on the stage. “As a friend of his and a colleague, I was really moved and happy for him to have something like that, even though the show was not going to continue because unfortunately, Michael passed shortly after that.”
On how his wife Helen, a Korean, and his two kids whom he lovingly describe as “Koreapino,” inspire him, Marco opened up: “ My wife, Helen, and I — we’re an incredible team. When you get married and you have kids, you really realize that as husband and wife, it’s a real partnership. And she’s been amazing through all that.”
“We met on a show many years ago. She used to be a dancer. We met on a Flower Drum Song tour. So she understands making a show.”
“Before we had kids, I was trying to make it here in New York as a musician and doing a lot of theater. You give up your weekends once the show is up and running,” he added.
“That’s not my favorite thing about show business — that it doesn’t have the most family-friendly schedule. But when you have kids, everything you’re doing is for them.”
“And so that’s what I really feel like with my children. It’s just beautiful to share these last few weeks of the excitement of the show with them.”
He shared what the Tony awards means to him personally: “On some level, it’s like your kids know what Broadway is, what their dad does, just like dads work a little bit. And it’s nice to be able to share with them, especially with the way things went at the Tonys.”
“It’s what I do but this is also a very special time and a very special project to be working on. I would say my wife is the rock of our family. It’s an amazing, beautiful partnership,” Marco said.
“I’m grateful to have somebody like that in my life. I wanted to share that with everybody in Radio City that night when I was giving my speech.”
Towards the end of our interview, Marco expressed again his respect for his Buena Vista bandmates and the spotlight the show shines on them.
“Because the band is often the centerpiece of the show. And it’s really refreshing to be on a show where music is valued and music is put up out front and center,” he said.
“And because for most of us, that’s not the case. The orchestra is in the pit. Usually it’s about the star or the actor if it’s a (Stephen) Sondheim piece, it’s about the show itself.”
“So it’s nice to be part of a piece where you are featured as a musician and that your musicianship is valued and put out there like, check out how amazing these musicians are. And we don’t get that microphone that way all the time.”
Asked if he will join the national tour of Buena Vista next year, Marco replied, “I almost certainly won’t be going on the road everywhere. But I will probably be involved. We are starting to get it organized, cast, and figure it out.”
“There’s definitely an excitement for the show beyond New York. The album was a huge success all over the world. And so I’m sure all over the world, they would love to see a version of the show. So yeah, I’d be happy to go work on it and put it up and see it in other cities. But my touring days are long behind me.”
As for his other next projects, Marco said, “This (show) is going to keep me occupied for a bit. It’s nice to kind of settle in. I had been working on a show called Goddess that was at the Public Theater directed and conceived by Saheem Ali, also the director of Buena Vista.”
“The composer is Michael Thurber, who’s an incredible musician and songwriter. Hopefully, that will take the next step from a really great run at the Public Theater that just wrapped up a few weeks ago. That’s one that I would love to see make it to Broadway. Incredible music,” he shared.
“And again, another musical where music and musicians are valued. I have a few other projects that are still just conversations with directors that I’ve worked with over the years.”
“I have some concert work with some other friends. I mentioned my collaboration with Lindsay Mendez. We’ve been talking about doing some more concerts again.”
“But, yeah, at least in the short term, the Social Club is going to keep me occupied. I’m very happy to be doing that because it’s going to be hard to go back in the orchestra pit somewhere and disappear and be heard but not seen on the show,” he admitted.
“So I might as well take advantage of being in the front with this incredible band. The energy and the audience are incredible. It’s hard to find that in other shows, to be honest, where you really get that kind of feedback.”
With his talents and hard work, Marco may stay front and center and may even be back on the stage of the Radio City Music Hall that left his father in awe. – Rappler.com
