There she is, Celia Cruz, her irrepressible smile looming almost as large over Biscayne Boulevard as she does in the consciousness of Cuban Miami.

Not the woman herself, of course, but her image on a gigantic poster at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts for the Off-Broadway musical opening there Friday for a three-week run. It's just eight blocks up the street from where, five years ago, tens of thousands of people lined up to say farewell to the Guarachera de Cuba as her body lay in repose at the Freedom Tower.

And therein lies the potential and the risk for a show that tells the tale of a woman who probably means more in Miami than she does anywhere else.

Celia Cruz was a beloved musical star throughout the Latin world and, often, beyond it. But she also had another dimension -- as a symbol of Cuban Miami's lost country, of its culture, of its ability to go on and find joy and triumph even in exile. No wonder a bejeweled statue of the island's patron saint, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, stood beside Cruz's body at the Freedom Tower.

Diva and saint are a lot for any one woman, or show, to embody.

CARRIED MESSAGE

''To Cuban exiles she was their flag that carried their message throughout the world,'' says Joe Cardona, director of the documentary Celia, The Queen, which recently opened at the Tribeca Film Festival. ``Outside of Miami she's this beautiful musical [godmother] to everyone who spread good will and happiness and joy. In Miami, there's that added effect that she is a political figure whether she wanted to be or not.''

''She was the queen of the community, a beacon of Cuba libre,'' says Jorge Plasencia, a longtime Latin entertainment publicist who helped organize Cruz's funeral ceremonies in Miami and New York. ``People saw her as the Cuban-American ambassador to the world.

``The risk is that you don't present her well or in the right way. But from what I've heard [this show] is a moving presentation of her.''

Indeed, Celia: The Life & Music of Celia Cruz already has moved thousands during its six-month run -- extended from eight weeks -- at New York's 350-seat New World Stages.

Although the show got mixed reviews, word of mouth kept it going, drawing repeat attendees and celebrities like Madonna, Paul Simon and Dionne Warwick. Five of the eight weekly performances were in Spanish, the rest were in English (the Miami run will be half and half), and audiences at both would often get up and dance in the aisles.

Some of that New York audience came up from Miami, and Miami is the first stop on a tour that will go on to Spain and Latin America later this year and to other U.S. cities in 2009.

For Arsht Center management, booking the show was a no brainer.

''Celia is obviously an icon in the Cuban community, and when we heard about this show in tribute to her we investigated and thought it would be a great show for South Florida,'' says Larry Wilker, the Arsht Center's interim executive director. Center managers originally wanted to run it for several months at the smaller, 250-seat Studio Theater, but the touring schedule only permitted this shorter run. Even that length of time in the 2,200-seat Knight Concert Hall is a new kind of risk for the arts center, which has striven to find shows that will appeal to Latin Miami.

''We see this show as part of what will make us unique,'' Wilker says. ``We don't just want to present the same tours as everyone else.''

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