Tango Argentino on Broadway and the world revival, 1980s–1990s

By 1983 Argentine tango as a living social dance had been reduced, in the words of lyricist Enrique Cadícamo, to “un recuerdo.”^[1] Large orquestas típicas had vanished, a generation had never learned to dance, and the remaining practice was confined to older dancers and a few persistent musicians. Against this background the theatrical production Tango Argentino, conceived by scenographer Claudio Segovia and producer Héctor Orezzoli, presented a concentrated, historically informed evening of song, dance, and instrumental music that traveled from Paris to Broadway and then around the world, catalyzing the first sustained international revival of the genre since the 1950s.^[1][2]

Segovia had considered a tango spectacle since 1972. After the success of Flamenco Puro (1980) with Orezzoli, the project advanced with minimal official support and private financing. The creators sought “pureza” and “raíces” performed by artists who could command a stage; choreography was largely devised by the dancers themselves, with Juan Carlos Copes serving as choreographic adviser.^[1] The original Paris cast included Copes and María Nieves, Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau, the Mayorals, Virulazo and Elvira, the Rivarolas, and singers Roberto Goyeneche, Raúl Lavié, Jovita Luna, and Elba Berón, accompanied by Horacio Salgán and the Sexteto Mayor. The production opened at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 10 November 1983 (some sources give 11 November) as part of the Festival d’Automne and sold out its initial run.^[1][2]

After Italian and further European dates, American producer Mel Howard saw the show in Lyons and, with Donald K. Donald, brought it to North America. A one-week engagement at New York’s City Center in June 1985 generated strong word-of-mouth. The production then opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on 9 October 1985 and ran until 30 March 1986 for 199 performances.^[3] Performed entirely in Spanish, it violated conventional Broadway expectations of elaborate sets and young ensembles; a Time magazine critic imagined it as a recipe for failure—“a group of 15 Argentine dancers, getting on in years and sometimes in kilos, dancing that old and decadent favorite, the tango”—yet audiences filled the house.^[1][4] The show received Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Choreography, and Best Direction of a Musical, and a Drama Desk nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience.^[3]

The cast’s average age was around forty; many of the dancers had learned before the post-1955 break and could present both salon and stage styles without caricature. The musical direction drew on the Sexteto Mayor and arrangements spanning the early twentieth century through Piazzolla. Subsequent tours reached Japan (1987), additional European cities, and, eventually, Buenos Aires itself in 1992. A Broadway revival played the Gershwin Theatre in 1999–2000 and was nominated for Best Revival of a Musical.^[2]

The production’s impact extended beyond the theater. Dance schools in New York reported sharp increases in enrollment; European and North American cities that had never sustained regular milongas began to host them. Laura Falcoff later wrote that Tango Argentino “impulsó el renacimiento del género en su manifestación de baile de pista y en una escala que ha llegado a ser planetaria.”^[1] The Argentine Chamber of Deputies later honored Segovia for the role the show played in forming tango communities worldwide. Figures as varied as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Martha Graham, and members of European royalty attended or studied steps associated with the production’s visibility.^[1][2]

Tango Argentino did not invent the social dance that followed; it made visible, to a global audience, the technical and expressive range of the form at a moment when domestic conditions in Argentina had made that range nearly invisible. The subsequent growth of milongas, teacher exchanges, and new orchestras in the 1990s and 2000s can be traced, in large part, to the circuits opened by the show’s decade of touring.

Segovia and Orezzoli assembled a cast of established dancers (Copes/Nieves, Virulazo/Elvira, Mayorals, Rivarolas) and singers (Goyeneche, Lavié, Luna, Berón) together with the Sexteto Mayor. The 10–11 November 1983 opening at the Théâtre du Châtelet during the Festival d’Automne sold out and established the production’s international reputation before any Broadway engagement.^[1][2]

After a successful City Center week, the show opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on 9 October 1985 and closed on 30 March 1986 after 199 performances. It was performed in Spanish and featured an older cast than typical Broadway musicals. Critical skepticism gave way to commercial success; Tony nominations followed for Best Musical, Choreography, and Direction.^[3][4]

Tours through Europe, North America, and Japan in the later 1980s and early 1990s, together with the 1999–2000 Broadway revival, multiplied demand for instruction. Contemporary observers credit the production with the rapid appearance of milongas in cities that had previously known tango only as a stage or ballroom form.^[1][2] The Argentine premiere occurred only in 1992.