Editor’s note: The Star’s senior music writer, Cathalena E. Burch (Cathy), and theater critic Kathleen Allen (Kathy) joined forces to review the Gloria Estefan musical, “On Your Feet.” Broadway in Tucson opened the jukebox musical about the singer’s life Tuesday night at Centennial Hall.
Cathy took on the music; Kathy the production.
Kathy says ...
Gloria Estefan seems like a nice woman. But brother, if her real story is like the one on stage at Centennial Hall, she’s had a thin life.
The Alexander Dinelaris-penned script is loaded with one-dimensional characters, devoid of tension and is achingly predictable.
There was some painful acting, as well.
But there was also some striking talent.
Ektor Rivera infused Estefan’s husband, Emilio, with nuance and passion. His character, oddly, was the most fleshed out.
Christie Prades’ Gloria was sassy but not particularly multidimensional. While Prades obviously has acting chops, she was not given much to work with.
The script felt forced; it’s clear its intent was to get from one song to the next. Which makes the story of Estefan’s life feel very inorganic.
But Sergio Trujillo’s choreography was clever and energetic and grand fun to watch. At one point, the cast jumped off the stage and shimmied up the aisles grabbing people to join them, which upped the party feel of the play. But be warned: if you live in fear of something like that, don’t sit on the aisle.
There is joy in this mediocre musical: the music. But that’s Cathy’s bailiwick …
Cathy says ...
They had me at “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You.”
Every time “On Your Feet” started to slip into the abyss of tedium — the flashback-esque scenes seemed forced and they fast-forwarded through big chunks of Estefan’s story, burying the rich nuances that made us root for her post-bus crash comeback — they would strike up that gorgeous band and hit play on the dynamic Miami Sound Machine jukebox.
Prades did a nice job of bringing the songs to life. Heck it was hard to sit there and not sing along, especially to the iconic hits “1-2-3,” “Conga,” “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “Turn the Beat Around” and “Oye Mi Canto.” But she doesn’t have Estefan’s muscular lower register in her soprano. When the real Gloria sings “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” you feel the passion and pain; when Prades’s Gloria sang the song, it was lovely but not as heartfelt.
And something was a bit mismatched in Rivera and Prades’s duets. The chemistry they had when they were speaking didn’t translate as well when they were singing. Their voices didn’t connect; the harmonies were off just enough that we didn’t feel that emotional bond that you would expect from the drama that led them to the song.
That wasn’t the case when Rivera and Nancy Ticotin (in the role of Gloria’s mother) had when they sang the hospital bedside duet “If I Never Got to Tell You.” The pair was in near perfect harmony, which really emphasized the emotional core of the scene.
Part of the problem is the same old story when it comes to Centennial Hall: The acoustical hiccups of the hall seem to rob us of the full impact of the voices. The sound isn’t as crisp as it should be and sometimes by the time the voices coming from the stage arrive to the audience, they aren’t as dynamic.
All of that aside, the pure joy of “On Your Feet” for fans of Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine is hearing those songs again, and not only the big Cuban-pop dance hits, but the ballads “Live For Loving You,” “Here We Are” and “Coming Out of the Dark.” It almost felt like we were at a Gloria Estefan cover band concert than a play.
