Other Information:
Sponsor Note: This collection processed with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
Rights Statement: The text of this webpage is available for modification and reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).
Although best known for his set and costume designs, Randy Barceló was also a dancer, photographer, interior designer, and all around artist. Born in Havana on September 19, 1946, Barceló left Cuba through Operation Pedro Pan at the age of 14. He studied art at University of Puerto Rico and in 1965 moved to New York where he enrolled in the Lester Pollard Theatre Forum School of Design.
Barceló began his career as a dancer and choreographer. At the age of 24 he worked as a designer for the Broadway musical, Lenny. In 1972 he designed the costumes for Jesus Christ Superstar and was nominated for a Tony Award, the first Hispanic nominee for costume design. He went on to design costumes for several on and off Broadway plays and musicals, ballet and dance productions, and operas.
Randy Barceló’s art work, primarily abstract and figurative sketches and paintings, have been shown in several galleries and museums including the Cooper Hewitt Museum, Hudson River Museum and Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
In 1994, Barceló designed costumes for ¡Si Señor! ¡Es Mi Son!, choreographed for Ballet Hispanico by Alberto Alonso and Sonia Calero with music by Gloria Estefan. These were his final designs as he died of cancer on December 6th of that same year.
Randy Barceló’s Production Credits
Broadway
Ain’t Misbehavin’, 1978, 1988
A Broadway Musical, 1978
Dude, 1972
Jesus Christ Superstar, 1971
Lenny, 1971
The Leaf People, 1975 (costumes and make-up)
The Magic Show, 1974
Mayor, 1985 (sets and costumes)
The Night That Made America Famous, 1975
Senator Joe (never officially opened), 1989
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Off-Broadway
Blood Wedding, INTAR Theatre (sets and costumes)
Caligula, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club
Cracks, Theatre De Lys, 1976
Lady Day, Chelsea Theatre Center
Mayor, Village Gate Theatre (sets and costumes)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre, 1982
The Moondreamers, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club
“Phillip Morris Superband Series,” Beacon Theatre (set)
Rice and Beans, INTAR Theatre (sets and costumes)
Spookhouse, Playhouse 91, 1984
The Tempest, LaMama Experimental Theatre Club
Opera
L’Histoire du Soldat, Carnegie Hall (sets and costumes)
Les Troyen, Vienna State Opera
Lily, New York City Opera
Mass, Leonard Bernstein, Kennedy Center
Salome, New York City Opera
Ballet and Dance
Black, Brown & Beige, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1976
The Blues Ain’t, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1974
Crosswords, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre
La Dea delle Acque, Alvin Ailey for La Scala Opera Ballet, 1988
For “Bird” – With Love, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1984
Fuenteovejuna, Ballet Hispanico
Lovers, Jennifer Muller (sets and costumes)
Mondrian, Jennifer Muller (sets and costumes)
The Mooche, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1974
Opus McShann, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1988
Predicaments for Five, Jennifer Muller (sets and costumes)
¡Si Señor! ¡Es Mi Son!, Ballet Hispanico, 1994
Spell, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1981
The Street Dancer, Ballet Hispanico
Television
Ailey Celebrates Ellington, Alvin Ailey for CBS, 1975
Ain’t Misbehavin’, NBC, 1982
Duke Ellington: The Music Lives On, PBS, 1983
Film
Body Passion, 1987 (production designer)
The Cop and the Anthem
Cubanos (art direction and costumes)
Fat Chance (set and costumes for theater sequence)
Fatal Encounter, 1981
Secret Life of Plants (costumes for dance sequence)
Tainted, 1988 (art direction and costumes)
Los Dos Mundos de Angelita, 1984 (art direction and costumes)
Welcome to Miami (art direction and costumes)
When the Mountains Tremble, 1983 (production designer)
Published
ArchonInternalCollectionID:104
The Randy Barceló Collection consists primarily of oversize costume and set designs by Cuban-born designer Randy Barceló. The collection also includes costume plots, drawings and sketches, posters and postcards, videotapes, photographs and slides, and two scripts written by Barceló.
The Randy Barceló Collection is organized into two series.
Please see the Finding Aid/Inventory section of this guide for more detailed information.
Gift of the Barceló Family, 1995.
Processed by Marta Martínez, 2007. Edited by María R. Estorino, 2008. Updated by Rebeca Gonzalez, May 2021.
Selected materials from this collection have been digitized.
https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/theater
INTAR Theatre Records (CHC5159), Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Manuel Martín Jr. Papers (CHC5064), Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
This collection is unrestricted.
Requests to publish or display materials from this collection require written permission from the rights owner. Please, contact chc@miami.edu for more information.
Preferred citation: Randy Barceló Collection, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Published
Original drawings of costume and set designs for theater productions including plays, ballets, and operas; and materials related to the productions such as reviews, programs, and photographs.
Arranged alphabetically by the title of the production.
Published
Play scripts and non-costume art by Barceló along with exhibition programs, invitations, catalogs, and clippings, videotapes, and photographs.
In alphabetical order by document type.