On Your Feet

Josh Segarra and Ana Villafane

by Eugene Paul
There are so many ways to look at this endearing, heart warming monster musical that it
would be a shame not to enumerate some of them: first: theres the smart money
Broadway savvy, far from visionaries who see clearly that this show would be totally out of
their picture if it were not for the deep pockets and enormous following of the real stars of
the show, Gloria and Emilio Estefan. So, hedging their bets and tucking schadenfreude
deep into their cheeks they give this show a great big solid Maybe. They are, happily,
wrong.
Secondly, but closely related, are the Sondheimers, adorers of intricacies in lyrics, music
and concepts who are gobsmacked by the deeply clever solutions achieved by our foremost
composer/lyricist and whose disdain for this sweetly fresh show is foreordained. Theyre
wrong, too. And third, just to keep things simple, there are the innovators, who have been

having some good licks in the past few seasons and welcome non-standard Broadway
efforts on Broadway. Theyre more and more, the right ones.

Nevertheless, why does it feel perilously like wishful thinking? Here it is, a great, big
musical that right off the bat deliberately looks like a pop star road tour show enhanced
with a too familiar family chronicle, batteries of lights, batteries of costumes, of sets, of
volume, batteries of everything, supporting a large cast almost entirely making Broadway
debuts. Yes. Neophytes. Then what, you are asking, makes it so special? That they are
giving their all? No, we see that on Broadway again and again, far more polished in many
instances. This time, though, their all comes from their roots, their Latin roots, from their
passion to tell Glorias and Emilios story which has woven them together, a marvelous
company loaded with talent, in as tight a family as I have seen on so large a scale, and for
their sheer love of what they are performing, singing, dancing, acting the story of Glorias
and Emilios life? Yes, yes, and yes.
The story? Fiercely beautiful, talented Gloria Fajardo ( fiercely beautiful, talented Andrea
Burns) her early singing career quashed by disapproving parents, is just as disapproving,
and definitely jealous of her own daughter, also Gloria, ( stunning Ana Villafane) whose own
Cuban rooted songs and singing have become the rage of her Miami neighborhood. And
when young immigrant musician Emilio Estefan (splendidly stalwart Josh Segarra) comes
seeking young Gloria to be the lead singer of his band, the conflict deepens. Mother Gloria
forbids daughter Gloria to join the band. The band becomes the Miami Sound Machine, and
with Gloria and her music, the band roars to Latin fame.

For years, mother and daughter do not even see each other. When Gloria and Emilio fall in
love and she becomes Gloria Estefan, the estrangement from her mother is complete.
Gloria and Emilio build their lives together without her, success after success, until they hit
the wall that separates Latin music from the great white music world. They want to cross
over. Their agent, Phil (snappy Lee Zarrett) says theyre crazy to jeopardize their Latin
success, refuses to help. Stick to what you do! Its enough!
But it is not, of course. Gloria and Emilio, on their own, insert their English lyric songs into
gigs reduced to weddings and bar mitzvahs, striving to get their new music heard, going
hand to hand to radio deejays, until Conga. The fused salsa with strong drums, and
English lyrics comes magically together and a huge hit is born. The walls come tumbling
down. Conga is a smash world wide. The Swedes go mad for Glorias music. Rhythm
Is Gonna Get You, and it does. Anything for You is everything a hit can be. The songs
spill out more and more, success after success.

Gloria goes to visit her father, crippled, immobile, a victim of the Vietnam War. Her mother
wont stay in the same room with her.
Gloria, shining lodestar. Emilio, the rock. The love story. The rags to riches trajectory. The
burning talent projecting them. The irresistible sinuosity of Latin suffused music, the
cascade of 100,000,000 albums. Struggle after struggle. Huge success. Brought to a
horrific halt when a tractor trailer crushes their tour bus. Gloria is paralyzed. Only then
does her mother relent.
Those beautiful, young people devastated, fans devastated, families devastated. Then, the
grueling climb back.

Yes, it all makes a show, and yes, book writer Alexander Dinelaris fashions a workable
narrative around the music of Gloria and Emilio and the Miami Sound Machine, their
band. And yes, theres been a fortune poured into David Rockwells endlessly active
settings, Esosas twirling costumes, Kenneth Posners exactostabbing lighting, and in sound
design, music design, music direction, orchestration and on and on and on, nothing spared,
everything chivvied and chased and worked to a gleam, but both choreographer Sergio
Trujillo and director Jerry Mitchell at the top of their craft, have the insight to know that
they have to save the truly felt love in their entire company for what they are doing as the
very essence of the show. And they have succeeded brilliantly.
Thats why On Your Feet is the charmer that it is. Such singing! Everybody sings his and
her heart out. Such dancing! Everybody dances his and her heart out. Ana Villafane is
Gloria to the nines, simply brilliant. Charming Josh Segarra is the rock Emilio, the strength,
the cement, the building block of the show. Everyone in the company is completely
there. As wonderful as Ana and Josh are, so are they all. Andrea Burns, wonderful, Alma
Cuervo as Glorias beguiling grandmother, wonderful. The children, Alexandria Suarez,
Eduardo Hernandez, outstanding. The entire cast of thirty, exhilarating. The roar of the
audience filling the huge 1700 seat Marquis auditorium, on its feet, pulled there at the final
curtain. You give heart, you get heart. What a show.
On Your Feet at the Marquis Theatre, Broadway at 45th Street. Tickets:$79-$199. 800-2502929. 2 hrs, 20 min, Open run.