Atlanta stage hosts Broadway musical premiere

Welcome back. 837 is your time. One of last year's most honored Broadway hits is finally making its premiere here in Atlanta. The musical Buena Vista Social Club opened at the Fox Theater last night, filling the venue with its vibrant Grammy-winning music. And good news, Paul Milliken is live at the Fox this morning. Paul, the local connection to this show as well. Seems like there often is. Right here. Absolutely. Yeah. Powder Springs Elementary School. How does it feel to be back home, man. It feels amazing. I'm so blessed to be here. I'm so happy for you. I'm so excited to see you. Jaleel Battles Jr., one of the stars of Buena Vista Social Club. So last night was your debut on the Fox Theater stage. I asked you before, you called it electric. Tell me more. What was it like last night? Yeah, I mean, it was amazing to be here, a full circle moment. I think that, first of all, the theater is beautiful. I was getting distracted looking up at the blue lights. It was Kind of distracting. You look up at the sky, which actually is like perfect for this show. It is, truly. We have a lot of moments where we have like a, it's called the Malecon, and we're looking at the sunrise. So it was very realistic in that moment. That is so cool. Well, let's talk a little bit about your story, because you've never performed at the Fox Theater before. You have been to the Fox before. How did you get into theater? Yes, I have to give a shout out to one of my favorite teachers, her by the name of Stacey Ansari. She was my fourth grade teacher, and she knew that I grew up singing in church and that I had a voice, and she told my mom, she was like, hey, they're having these auditions, and I think you should take your son, and it really opened me up to the world of musical theater. Yeah, that's amazing, and that was Motown the Musical that you came and you saw here. What was that experience like for you to see that show on this stage? How inspired were you? Oh, I was super inspired. The show itself, it was so nice and a breath of fresh air to see people that look like me on stage. And it showed me how close it was to me. But also the experience of me auditioning for the show. I got to final callbacks. I got to meet Barry Gordy. It was a whole experience. And so without my teacher, I would have never even known about that. Well, you said before, you don't know what happened to Ms. Ansari. If she was watching right now, what would you want to say to her? Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't thank you enough. Look where I am now. Actually, she's right here. Oh, my God. We found her for you, Jaleel, and we brought her in. Stacey Ansari, it's wonderful to see you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. It's great to see you. Go on in. Go on in. Oh, my God. You didn't know that we found her and we orchestrated a little reunion. This is the woman right here who you said is responsible for you being here. Wow. Julia, how are you? Ms. Ansari, how are you? I'm doing well. So tell her right now, what did her words and her... Oh, wait a minute. Did you bring a yearbook? Wait a minute. Now you know we want to see the yearbook picture. What do you want to say to her now that she is here and we tracked her down for you? Oh my gosh, Ms. Ansari. Truly, truly, truly, you have blessed my life. You don't know how much it has done for me. I didn't even know that this was something that I wanted to do. And because you saw something in me and you told my mom, hey, he has something. I should have brought you a sweet tea if I would have known he was going to be here. All right. You'll be seeing each other again. Don't worry about that. What do you want to say to this young man? What do you remember about Jaleel Battles Jr.? I remember when he sang for us. Another friend of mine, a teacher, Miss Morgan, had said, Jaleel sings. And I'm like, no, he doesn't sing. And she said, yeah, he sings. I said, well, he's got to sing for us. So he stood up by his desk, and it was absolutely fabulous. It was no music, no nothing, and he sang. It was a church hymn, and it was fabulous. And it just happened to be about this week in October, so I mentioned to his mother. I said, you know that boy has a fantastic voice. And I had known a friend of mine who was going to try out for, Michael Jackson in New York on Broadway I said you ought to take him And his mother did So you are not at all surprised To see him standing here right now Having performed on Broadway Now in the national tour Of Buena Vista Social Club Absolutely fabulous voice And this was 10 years old Understand he was only 10 years old When this happened And it was like oh magic You could hear it in his voice At 10 years old Well, this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt what arts education, what a good teacher can do. This is it right here. Now, we're not going to leave without you showing me the picture of this elementary school kid that sang for you and that you said, wait a minute. Oh, there he is. From Miss Ansari's class, there's Jaleel Battles, grown up to be in Buena Vista Social Club. Guys, we're going to let you have a little reunion now. Yes, thank you so much. How are you feeling? Oh, I'm speechless. I couldn't believe y'all did this and didn't tell me. Wow. He was talking about her and saying, can y'all maybe help me find her? Can you help me? And we're like, oh, yeah, we'll take the info down. Don't worry. We'll figure it out. We already knew you were showing up. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Absolutely. Thank you for remembering me. I'll never forget you. Truly. Thank you. Back to you guys. This is the kind of good news that people ask us for. Paul, you guys really did something special with this. Yeah, two things. She said that she's not surprised to see him standing there, but, boy, was he surprised to see her standing there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We orchestrated the whole, we were like, she's going to come out of the elevator. I said to him, now, if you hear the elevator go off, don't worry about it. It happens sometimes. Don't turn around. Don't even look back there. We've been planning. One more thing, Paul. Get her some sweet tea. Come on, man. Do your job. You get her there and you don't bring her a sweet tea? Absolutely. We are going down this street. We are doing it. Don't worry. We got her. Look at them. They're like picking up like they never left off. Yeah, that is so cool. Very cool. All right. Thanks, Paul. Performances of Buena Vista Social Club continue through Sunday at the Fox Theater. For showtimes and ticket information, follow the links on our website, fox5atlanta.com. Just look for Paul's story under the Good Day section. I hope that brought a smile to your face. It certainly did for us.