Long road to Barcelona

His 10th version showed promise. Eleven versions later, Mike Ruffolo ’82 is getting closer to Broadway with his theater production Barcelona: The Musical.

Barcelona will make its world premiere with TheatreZone in Naples, Florida, Feb. 4-14, 2027. The musical is a story of youth, love and the moment when private lives collide with a rapidly changing world, set between the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

“There’s tragedy, there’s romance, there’s family issues, there’s successes, there’s failures,” said Ruffolo. 

For Ruffolo, it’s a dream that has been a long time coming.

In 2021, Ruffolo, a former UD board of trustees member from 2012 to 2021, spent a month working on the musical with more than 50 UD students. The students’ performances contributed to the production, which was turned into a film. Ruffolo said connecting with UD students to create the first musical adaptation allowed them to learn skills — project management, production practice, performance experience — they would need in their future careers.

“After being part of the University all these years, I didn’t even look anywhere else; I wanted to do it with UD students,” Ruffolo told UD Magazine in 2022. His hope for the film was to create new opportunities to share his work with the UD community and beyond.

As he worked on the project, Ruffolo, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in business, found theater was no different than any other business. The process — planning, raising money, selling tickets, hiring staff — remained the same. But, he said, this business needed a creative foundation. 

“What this is really about,” Ruffolo said, “is for me to exercise my dream of being a creative writer.” 

In the few years since working with students with the production on campus, Ruffolo has spent many late nights writing, rewriting and constantly revising to create music he felt was as strong as the story. 

With his previous film version, the students lip-synced to songs by Queen. 

“Now this is 18 original songs. So it’s a very different ... production than what [UD] saw,” he said.

Wanting to ensure the musical was worthy of being on Broadway, Ruffolo took a chance on using help from AI. Feeding his play and lyrics into AI music apps, such as Suno, allowed him to jumpstart the soundtrack and show the sample music tracks to potential producers.

He then collaborated with an experienced Broadway composer to improve and complete the music.

“[The] music is as strong as this story,” he said.

As he looks forward to the premiere next year, Ruffolo said that after eight years of writing and producing, he is most excited to see the finished product performed by acting professionals and see the reaction of the audience: tears falling down cheeks, stomachs aching from laughter and hearts clutching at the hope of a happy ending. 

“It was a journey that took a lot of twists and turns,” Ruffolo said. “It was the catalyst to write an original creative project that ultimately [was] turned into a musical.”

He hopes to not only take the musical to the Broadway stage, but to license it to universities to be performed by students, maybe even returning someday to where it all started — Dayton. 

For more information on Barcelona: The Musical, visit https://theatre.zone/shows/#Barcelona-the-musical-world-premiere.