Three star-caliber performances, several topnotch supporting turns, and some exciting Latin dance numbers designed to get you On Your Feet! do their best to overcome the substandard production values given The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan’s non-Equity tour at the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts.

On Your Feet! takes audiences from mid-1960s Little Havana, where young 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 an exhilarating 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! emotional heft as Gloria finds herself slowly but surely “Coming Out Of The Dark.”

On Your Feet! not only spotlights dance hits like “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and “Turn The Beat Around,” it 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.”

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

It’s a show I fell in love with in 2018 when its First National Tour played Costa Mesa, but that production featured the show’s original Broadway designs which were Grade A all the way.

Not so the bus-and-truck-level sets and projections on display in La Mirada, designed to accommodate the tour’s one-night stays in such out-of-the-way places as Sioux Falls, Topeka, and Lincoln … and it shows.

Lighting is less than spectacular (and washes out projections on a flimsy white upstage scrim intended to replace physical design elements), and though costumes have the requisite flash, only major female players get to wear period/character wigs, leaving dance ensemble members to look pretty much the same throughout the show, no matter when or where or who they are in Gloria’s story.

Featured players Max Cervantes (José Fajardo), Jake Dylan (Phil), Emma Heistand (Rebecca Fajardo), and Adela Romero (Consuelo) are all quite good as are Javier Iván (Nayib) and Sophia Yacap (Young Gloria), the latter two in roles that are done a disservice by being played by adults rather than the child performers who brought them to more authentic life on Broadway and on the musical’s First National Tour.

Luis Salgado directs with a certain flair, though it’s his choreography that proves a production standout, particularly as executed by ensemble members Camila Aldet, Miguel Flores, Madelin Marchant, Sara McGuire, María Moreras, Ralphie Rivera De Jesús, Khi’Shawn Robinson, Angelliz M. Rosado Ramos, Cami Taleisnik, Glendaliris Torres-Greaux, Josué Torres Ortiz, and Sebastian Treviño, who display vocal talents to match their dance-pertise.

Still, if there’s any reason to burst into applause, it’s the sensational star turns delivered by stardom-bound Gaby Albo as the feisty, fabulous Gloria, Venezuelan heartthrob Samuel Garcia as a handsome, dynamic Emilio, and an on-fire Kristen Tarragó as Gloria’s angry, resentful mom Gloria.

As for the show’s live, sometimes on-stage band, they deliver the salsarrific goods and then some under Daniel Gutierrez’s expert musical direction.

Brian Márquez, Matt Rivera, and Maya Santiago are swings.

Some of the best national tours I’ve seen during my years as a reviewer have been non-Equity, but these have all featured production designs to rival their Equity counterparts, and onstage talent, often fresh out of school, who’ve given their more experienced Equity counterparts a run for their money. (The latter asset holds true in La Mirada.)

Still, it’s disappointing to see a theater known for providing more local Equity contracts per show than any other SoCal regional welcoming a non-Equity tour.

The onstage talent is there in On Your Feet!, to be sure, regardless of union status. What’s missing is a production worthy of their gifts.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Boulevard, La Mirada.
www.lamiradatheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
October 7. 2023
Photos: Jason Niedle

Tags: Alexander Dilenaris, Emilio Estefan, Gloria Estefan, La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, Los Angeles Theater Review, McCoy Rigby Entertainment