José Iglesias, the Cuban-born Major League Baseball infielder and Latin pop artist known as Candelita, has become the first Latin MLB player to appear on Broadway, joining the cast of the Tony- and Grammy-winning musical Buena Vista Social Club. He made his debut on 27 August as the Narrator, also performing with the ensemble on the Cuban classic "El Cuarto de Tula" at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, a role he says carries deep personal and cultural significance as he grew up in Cuba surrounded by the music of Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo and Ibrahim Ferrer.

Iglesias spent 13 seasons in the majors with eight clubs, including the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and New York Mets, and released the 2024 single "OMG", which topped Billboard's Latin Digital Song Sales chart. Unlike earlier baseball figures such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, who appeared on Broadway as themselves, Iglesias joins the production as a genuine musical theatre performer. In an interview with Billboard, he described the experience as "more than a dream come true" and said he feels a responsibility to represent "millions of Cubans" through the show every night.