Bernie Williams Takes a Rookie Role With Buena Vista Social Club

By Grace Kim

Bernie Williams will perform with Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway through November 29, according to his Broadway.com interview with Managing Editor Beth Stevens. The Yankees center fielder (the outfield player stationed in the middle of the field) helped secure four World Series championships. After retiring from baseball, Williams pursued classical guitar, released two studio albums and earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2009.

Williams has joined the Tony- and Grammy-winning band of Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway. He tells Stevens that the ensemble (the show's group of performers) demands a different kind of concentration from the career he left behind.

A Puerto Rican childhood soundtrack

Born in Puerto Rico, Williams grew up there. His mother worked as an educator and used Sundays to unwind, exposing him to the show's music from ages seven through ten.

“I grew up listening to this music,” says Williams. “My mom was an educator and Sundays were her day to unwind.”

“[At] 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, this is the music that I listened to. This is the soundtrack of my childhood. So I have a personal investment in the show.”

That music also shaped his schooling. He spent four years at a performing arts high school in Puerto Rico, where he performed in ensembles with cuatros (four-string guitars) and guitars. The students performed at different government agencies.

“When I went to a performing arts high school for four years in Puerto Rico, a lot of this music was the music that we were performing,” he says. “We used to be part of an ensemble that had the cuatros and the guitars, and we used to go into different governmental agencies to perform as young kids.”

His father connected the two parts of his life. A merchant marine (a commercial seafarer), he brought home a guitar from Spain and taught himself to play. Williams says the instrument became his entry into music.

“My father was a merchant marine and he brought a guitar from his travels in Spain and he taught himself how to play. I got really interested in learning how to play guitar. So that was my entry into music,” shares Williams.

“But then around the same time, he started taking us to little league fields and [sharing] all these great life lessons: discipline, practice, commitment, not giving up, give it 100% all the time.

“All those things have been in music and in sports, the one thing that makes me the person that I am today.”

What does Broadway change for Williams?

Broadway replaces baseball's self-contained concentration with dependence on fellow musicians and direct attention to the audience. Williams makes that contrast explicit:

“I think we're as strong as our weakest link,” explains Williams of the similarities between performing on Broadway and playing baseball.

“Everybody is very strong here. So I've got to bring my game up to their level. I am very blessed to have this opportunity to perform every day for six weeks on the biggest stage in the world.”

The difference extends beyond stagecraft. A baseball player could isolate himself from the crowd; Williams says a stage performer must invite everyone in.

“When I was a baseball player, I could get away with isolating myself from the crowd and just playing my game, hitting the ball, running. Here it's totally different. You have to really invite everybody in, because this is what it's all about.”

Williams also says he was somewhat superstitious during his Yankees tenure. Onstage, he now favors controlled effort and preparation while continuing to learn from the company around him.

“Here, I think it's a little bit more controlled. The effort that you put in is what you get out. So it's all about the preparation. I'm still learning my way around the show and around these great artists. I'm kind of like the rookie in the room right now.”

He also wants former Yankees teammates at the Schoenfeld Theatre. Williams teased that Mariano Rivera may attend and said he had heard that Tino Martinez might appear.

“We have rumors that Mariano [Rivera] may come,” Williams teases. “I heard Tino Martinez may show up. I'm going to try to make every call that I can make. If they're in the vicinity, I want them to come here and see the show.”

Williams says he still has something to learn from every musician in the company.

“All the musicians are world class and they know how to play this music front and backwards. Every time that I step in with them, I'm getting a learning experience,” says Williams.

The role also frames his ambition beyond the stage. Williams says a limited life should hold the fullest relationships he can make with family and friends, not only performing and sport.

“The way I see it, my time on this earth is very limited, so I want to have the fullest life that I can live. It's not only performing and playing sports, it's trying to have the best relationships that I can with the people that I love, my family, my friends.

“I know that I've been blessed with a lot of opportunities, so I'm trying to make the most out of each and every one of them.”

His measure of success on Broadway is therefore collective rather than solitary: raise his game to the company's level, prepare with discipline and invite the audience into each performance. Through November 29, the self-described “rookie in the room” is still learning onstage.