Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Miami launches vibrant national tour of Estefan musical
“On Your Feet! The Emilio and Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical” earns that exclamation point the old-fashioned way, honestly and thoroughly.
Which is surprising since the show — essentially the same old pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps immigrant success story, this time starring Miami’s pop power couple, the Estefans — still manages to come off fresh, tight and sleek, even as it ticks off tropes with old school showbizzy zeal.
Seamlessly shifting from scene to scene and back and forth in time (occasionally we lose location in all the flurry), “On Your Feet!” opens with the toe-tapper “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and runs through the Estefan oeuvre with hits such as “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” “Conga,” “1-2-3” and “Coming Out of the Dark.”
Yet for all its briskly laid-out plot lines, much of the show feels elevated from the typical jukebox musical. For one thing, Miami’s own Christie Prades manages to channel Gloria’s particular timbre, especially in the upper register, without impersonating her. There is also an adept blend of the Estefan songbook into the narrative with the script by Alexander Dinelaris (the movie “Birdman [or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance]”).
“On Your Feet” opened on Broadway in 2015 and closed in August after 780 performances. At the Tony Awards, it was outshined by the “Hamilton” juggernaut. Although this road version opened last month in Buffalo, which deserves another exclamation point on its own, the producers and Broadway Across America are touting the run in Miami as the “grand opening” of the national tour. Friday night’s show saw the Estefans in attendance, Emilio bopping his head along with the beat and Gloria singing softly along with the score. Late in the second act, when Gloria’s real-life fight from the brink of paralysis is portrayed onstage, Gloria fought back tears while Emilio comforted her, gently rubbing her knee.
It could be that “On Your Feet” feels like more than it is because of the very real and palpable connection between Miami and the musical-comedy’s undercurrent theme of CubanAmericans ascending to the American dream.
“Look at my face — whether you know it or not, this is what an American looks like,” says Emilio (played by Mauricio Martinez) in one of the more applause-bating moments. If the rhythm doesn’t get you, some of those formulaic declarations will. Otherwise, you’d have to be made of stone.
That’s because “On Your Feet” swirls and twirls around its own cliches in a story centered on strong family ties counter-balanced with the Estefans butting up against the recording industry’s endemic bigotry as they try to expose their songs to a more lucrative market. In one of the bigger laughs, Emilio argues his potential for success with a white audience by recalling the enthusiastic response of their Latin sound in Sweden. “You know how white those people are. It’s like watching a room full of Q-tips bouncing all over the place.”
In lieu of a real villain (the record exec can only hold out so long against the infectious barrage of the aptly titled Miami Sound Machine), the show has Emilio’s fierce la reina ofa mother-in-law, Gloria Fajardo (Nancy Ticotin). For Emilio, crossing over on the charts is a cinch compared to crossing over into her good graces, even with the deft assistance of Gloria’s grandmother Consuelo (Alma Cuervo), the genuinely hysterically funny comic relief for “On Your Feet.” The mother-in-law’s intransigence and Gloria’s 1990 bus crash, which left her physically broken, are the seemingly insurmountable conflicts in a story that is warmed from within by the romance between Gloria and Emilio.
For that, there must be chemistry between the leads, and this touring production has an abundance of that between Prades and Martinez, who shoot sparks every time their eyes meet. Sure the tall panels of window shutters that evoke Cuba and Miami are effective, especially with the painterly lighting. And goodness knows the hip swiveling/feet spinning/ skirt flicking choreography is a wonder to behold and executed with enough ebullient energy by the cast to hold you over when the second act becomes a tad turgid with six back-to-back ballads.
But without that heat between the two leads, “On Your Feet” would be a flashy, whiz-bang of a show with a cracking band (peppered with original members of the Miami Sound Machine) tearing into some catchy as all hell songs. Now that is enough, goodness knows. But that mix with Prades and Martinez allows us to fill in the nuances glossed over in the name of keep-it-moving, with the production running two hours with a 15-minute intermission.
Then, like any great jukebox musical, there is a drive-you-out-of-your-seat mini-mix of a medley at the finale, including “Turn the Beat Around, “Oye,” “Conga,” “Everlasting Love” and “Get On Your Feet.” Punctuation mark earned indeed. “On Your Feet!” runs through Oct. 15 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., in Miami. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays, with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. Sundays. Tickets $29-$200. To order, call 305-949-6722 or go to ArshtCenter.org.