Nearly filled to capacity, the Arsht's 2-400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House housed a diverse audience of multiple nationalities - not just Jamaican - to witness the U.S. premiere of the musical adaptation of the film written and directed by Perry Henzell nearly 40 years ago.

"They were all full of energy and it was so good to see it again," said Lucia Annunziata from Italy, who had seen the original film when it was released, and related to what the play represented regardless of its language barriers.

The play was presented in Jamaican patois without the helpful subtitles that accompanied the 1972 film.

"It was such a landmark for our culture because from there you progress to reggae and Jamaica and rap and everything else," said Annunziata.

Produced by Jan Ryan, a 30-year veteran in the arts community and founder of UK Arts International, the work enjoyed a four-year run in her part of the Jamaican Diaspora and four-week buzz in Toronto before making its way to Miami this month.

"In London and Toronto, the Jamaicans in the audience always seem to get everything a bit quicker than everyone else," said Ryan, a British woman with multi-colored dreadlocks. "But, what happens is you end up enjoying the audience's reaction to the play."

The Harder They Come, a work that critics dubbed a Jamaican blaxploitation film similar to Shaft in the '70s, not only painted a true picture of the crime, poverty and systemic corruption peculiar to a Kingston shanty-town, but it introduced reggae music and singer Jimmy Cliff to the world - which eventually led the way for other revolutionaries like Bob Marley.

"I think what this does is it introduces reggae to younger audiences…my son whose in his 20s loves the show," said Ryan. "And, unlike many kinds of music, reggae has always managed to stay very cool. It's a musical genre that just endures."

And, frankly, you take away the iconic costume and props, the show still communicates the gritty pulse of reggae music to a contemporary audience as well as any Sean Paul could.

From fast musical numbers like "Higher and Higher" and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" to the solemn solo of "Many Rivers to Cross," audiences journey from the countryside with protagonist Ivanhoe Martin played by British actor Rolan Bell in hopes that he will indeed land that record deal he comes to pursue.

With the soulful arrangement of the widely known Jamaican church chorus, "I Am Blessed," we are introduced to the wide-eyed virgin Elsa played by Jamaican-born singer-dancer Joanna Francis who falls in love with Ivan.

"I think it's a human story no matter what country you come from, you have to fight to get where you're going. And, there are very few places, where things are handed to you. Even if you get it, you have to fight to keep it," said Francis. "In that respect, we can all benefit from seeing [Ivan's] fight regardless of if you're Jamaican."

However, Ivan's fight was not easy for Elsa to bear witness to after leaving the church - the only home she had known since her parents died - in support of her new-found love.

Whilst Elsa naively nurses the infant son of Pedro played by Lain Gray, Ivan's partner in his new money-making venture, Ivan becomes highly skilled at ganja trade, eventually stirring up dissension in the ranks and getting hunted by the cops.

"I tried to personalize everything for this character," said Bell, whose parents hail from Kingston. "I tried to remember everything that my mum told me growing up and my father in certain ways because he was a go-getter and a man of dreams."

Ivan's dream is conveyed impeccably through the title track, "The Harder They Come."

It is the emotion-steeped music that Jamaican attorney Marlon Hill deem is the "star of this show" and a fool-proof way to preserve Jamaican culture in the world.

"We are really the caretakers of our culture and we are responsible for making sure that the world has an understanding of who we are as a people - our body language, the food we eat and everything about the blood in our veins," said Hill.