Laugh all you want, but my first experience with the Tropicana Night Club came from my love of the I Love Lucy show. Ricky started his own Tropicana night club, based off of the Tropicana club in his homeland of Cuba. That's all I knew about it.
When we knew were were going to Cuba, one of the perks of the trip was the opportunity to chose from a selection of excursions, and I immediately chose the outing to the Tropicana. My husband and I love shows and this was right up our alley.
This was definitely a once in a lifetime trip that I do not imagine I will ever have the opportunity to make again.
We took a bus that was quite a long ride from our ship, and when we arrived, we were immediately greeted with a cigar - standard for each guest - and a hand was stretched out for a fee, on top of the $200 USD charged for the ticket. It seemed that if you wanted to take pictures, you had to pay a $5 charge, and video was a $15 charge. That was unusual, and unexpected, but ok.
We walked through the building, which was quite warm and stuffy - remember, no air conditioning, virtually anywhere - and out the door into what can only be described as a paradise. Truly, I've never seen any outdoor theater quite like it. An elaborate stage, surrounded by billowing trees, with steps built into the trees in such a cunning way as to be virtually invisible and bridges criss crossing the upper span of the theater, allowing for quick stage crossings and costume changes.
The first show starts at 10, but they begin to funnel the crowd in at 9, and they really pack you in. You are seated at tables in groups of four, and once you are seated, don't plan to get up. I mean, you can, if you need to, but you should be prepared to get up close and personal with your seat mates and be willing to be apologetic for the inconvenience, because when you get up, everyone's got to get up - at least, that was our experience. And after a time or two of this, people got a bit testy. :) Your ticket includes a drink and a snack (more on that in a minute) but that doesn't start until the show starts, so if you want something in the hour before the show, this is the time to do it. We elected to skip this, and we spent the time chatting with friends, letting people get up to walk around, and looking at the incredible scenery. The band was playing and the music was really amazing.
There was one large stage, in the front, and then a multi level stage to the left. Apparently the dancers graduate from the smaller stage to the larger as they progress through their career. A dancer who is lucky enough to be chosen as a Tropicana dancer, we were told, has a career for life. As long as he or she maintains skill and body, they remain in their job until around the age of 30, and they are then retired and become instructors. (So we were told.) This seemed plausible, at any rate.
They used every bit of the stage.
The costuming was like nothing I've ever seen.
One thing I did notice? How bored some of the dancers looked. Sure, some of them smiled, and some of them looked like they were selling it. I've done enough stage work to know how this goes - it's not all fun and laughs on the stage, and it's work up there - but people pay money to come to a show - a lot of money - and this is a job, and in Cuba, jobs are hard to come by. I'd think the dancers would want to keep those jobs. In reading up on the Tropicana Club, I saw that a lot of people made the same observation - the dancers looked bored.
(Side note: If you need a pair of fishnet stockings, go to Cuba - every woman I saw there was wearing them - in the airport, at the Customs, in the Immigration office, every restaurant - all the women were wearing fishnets.)
The dancers were very, very energetic and extremely fast at their costume changes - of course, it helps that there wasn't much to the costumes, lol.
When the show began, the waiters brought around a bottle of Havana Club Rum, to be split between the four people - hence being seated at a table of four people - and a bottle of Cane Sugar Coca-Cola. The rum was very, very strong. You were also given a dish of peanuts. This was your snack - Rum and Coke and nuts. :)
At the end of the show, we were quickly escorted out of the venue, because they had to reset - our show was supposed to end to 12, but it stopped at about 11:40, and the next show started at midnight, so it was a tight squeeze to get us out and the next group in. We grabbed our bottle of rum - we'd only had a couple of shots, so why leave it on the table? - and the one from our tablemates next to us was still sealed, so we took theirs as well. :)
All in all, it was a most educational evening.