Love and family, tragedy and triumph, and música, música, música propel the immigrant American dream as lived by the one-and-only Gloria Estefan in On Your Feet!, now evoking justified cheers at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts.

 “The Emilio & Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical” takes us from mid-1960s Little Havana, where eight-year-old Gloria grows up with island rhythms filling her Miami neighborhood and her Cuban-American heart, to an early-‘70s meeting with Miami Latin Boys band leader Emilio that will change her life.

Before long, Gloria and her husband-to-be find themselves doing battle with record label execs who laugh at their plan to cross over to the Top 40 market with English-language lyrics, hardly the last time the Estefans will find themselves at loggerheads with so-called music experts who think they know what’s best for the biz.

 Three guesses as to who comes out on top.

If On Your Feet!’s first act is a salsa-filled ride from anonymity to fame sparked by get-up-and-dance smashes like “1-2-3,” “Dr. Beat,” and “Conga,” it’s Gloria’s comeback from a cataclysmic event that would have felled anyone less talented and determined that gives On Your Feet! its emotional power as Gloria finds herself slowly but surely “Coming Out Of The Dark.”

 And because no jukebox musical should end with without its “Mega Mix,” expect to be following the musical’s titular advice as hits like “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “Turn The Beat Around,” and “Everlasting Love” make for one fantástico grand finale.

Though not the ultimate jukebox bio-musical (Jersey Boys still holds that title), On Your Feet! (like Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Motown: The Musical) scores points for figuring out ways for at least some of its hit songs to advance plot, as when Gloria and Emilio express their growing feelings for each other with “I See Your Smile.”

Oscar-winner Alexander (Birdman) Dinelaris, Jr.’s book mostly avoids biopic clichés as it recounts a life of sky-high ups and equally extreme downs while developing three-dimensional characters and connections along the way, in particular the romcom-ready Estefans and Gloria’s conflicted relationship with her decidedly complicated mother.

Only the second Broadway hit post-West Side Story to feature a predominantly Latino cast, On Your Feet! (like In The Heights) provides a bonanza for performers and audiences of color … and traditional, white-bread theatergoers will love it just as much.

Finally, if On Your Feet! already had audiences cheering when it made its 2015 Obama-presidency debut, imagine the added punch of Emilo’s “This is what an American looks like!” in America circa 2018.

With two-time Tony-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell confidently ensconced in the director’s chair and choreographer Sergio Trujillo (the musical’s sole Tony nominee) staging one thrilling dance sequence after another, On Your Feet! is in Grade-A creative hands all the way, and in any year other than Hamilton’s, Trujillo’s “shake your body baby, do the conga” footwork would have been the hands-down winner.

 Speaking of winners, the real-life Gloria and Emilio can be proud indeed to see their lives entrusted to triple-threat stunners Christie Prades and Mauricio Martínez.

 Without resorting to imitation, Prades embodies Gloria’s beauty, her talent, and her grit opposite Martínez’s magnetic, silken-throated Emilio, the duo making it abundantly clear why the Estefans’ love and marriage have endured four decades and counting.

 Nancy Ticotin gives one of the year’s most fiery and fabulous featured turns as Gloria’s mother Gloria Fajardo, fiercely loving but bitterly resentful of her daughter’s success at a career she was denied.

Debra Cardona makes Consuelo the feisty grandmother any young Cubana would be proud to call Abuela, Jason Martinez brings Gloria’s father Jose Fajardo to velvet-voiced life in the moving “When Someone Comes Into Your Life,” Carmen Sanchez is a petite charmer as Little Gloria, and Jordan Vergara (Nayib, Jeremy, and Young Emilio) shows that song-and-dance stars can come in small packages.

 And speaking of song-and-dance stars, Anthony Alfaro, Jonathan Arana, Danny Burgos, Natalie Caruncho, Sarita Colón, Shadia Fairuz, Adriel Flete, Jennifer Florentino, Devon Goffman, Claudia Mulet, Eddie Noel, Marina Pires, Jeremey Adam Rey, Gabriel Reyes, Joseph Rivera, Maria Rodríguez, Shani Talmor, and Claudia Yanez prove themselves the very definition of triple-threats, acting multiple roles, dancing up a storm, and singing to the heavens under Clay Ostwald’s expert musical direction of an onstage band featuring multiple Miami Sound Machiners among its members.

 On Your Feet! looks fabulous thanks to the ace Broadway team of scenic designer David Rockwell, costume designer Emilio Sosa, lighting designer Kenneth Posner, projection designer Darrel Maloney, and wig and hair designer Charles G. LaPointe and it sounds every bit as fab as it looks thanks to SCK Sound Design.

Associate director Andy Señor, Jr. and associate choreographers Maria Torres and Caruncho keep Mitchell and Trujillo’s vision fresh on tour.

Carlos Carreras and Ana-Sofia Rodriguez alternate as Little Gloria and Nayib/Jeremy/Young Emilio. Dance captain Skizzo Arendillo and assistant dance captain Ilda Mason are swings.

Eric Insko is production stage manager and Susan G. Guszynski is company manager.

It’s hardly surprising that a musical filled with one Gloria Estefan hit after another should make for one of the year’s most tune-filled national tours. That it’s also one of the most powerful and heart-filled musicals of this or any year makes On Your Feet! an August must-see.

Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scfta.org

–Steven Stanley
August 22, 2018
Photos: Matthew Murphy

Tags: Alexander Dilenaris, Emilio Estefan, Gloria Estefan, Orange County Theater Review, Segerstrom Center For The Arts