Picture: Roy Tan
On Your Feet continues at the London Coliseum until 31 August 2019
Star rating: two stars ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Gloria Estefan, together with her husband Emilio and their band, the Miami Sound Machine, is one of the few artists who can honestly be said to have changed the face of contemporary pop music.
As documented in the biographical jukebox musical On Your Feet, which is making its UK debut at the London Coliseum, the Florida-based group became huge in Latin America, touring South America and dominating the Spanish-language market in the USA. And yet when the Estefans wanted to expand into mainstream, English language pop music, the record industry resisted their attempts to move out of the pigeonhole they found themselves in.
As conflicts go, that is a threadbare one upon which to base a large-scale musical. Alexander Dinelaris’ book is not handed any favours in trying to eke out a storyline from the Estefans’ rise to superstardom. Unfortunately, that means it barely bothers trying in places, instead wallowing in its role of delaying the next danceable hit so that they can be spaced out along the play’s full running time.
Dinelaris also garbles some of the Estefan family’s roles. Gloria’s father José (Elia Lo Tauro), and her grandmother Consuelo (Karen Mann) are particularly ill served; the former as a man defined by his multiple sclerosis, the latter as a cartoonish Abuela that reinforces every stereotype of the older Latina woman.
The chronological storytelling means that Act I comprises many of the tunes that the Miami Sound Machine made before coming truly famous, although later hits including ‘Anything For You’ are repurposed for storytelling purposes.
Indeed, the best parts of Act I are its start – a rocking rendition of ‘Rhythm Is Gonna Get You’ – and its conclusion, similarly picking up the beat with ‘Doctor Beat’ and ‘Conga’ (and a half-hearted attempt to get people in the stalls to dance along). Such numbers are enlivened by Sergio Trujillo’s choreography, and the onstage band (normally hidden by uninspiring backdrops and moving flats) moving to the fore is forever a good sign.
Elsewhere, though, there is often an absence of dance fever. Act II’s opener looks like it will kick the show into a higher gear, with a medley of Miami Sound Machine hits as Emilio and Gloria embark on a world tour on a scale commensurate with their popularity. But that dynamism cannot last, as events build up towards the fateful coach crash which nearly cost the Estefans their lives, and after which Gloria struggled to walk again.
Once again, Dinelaris‘ book does the bare minimum here, relying instead on the undeniable charisma of Christie Prades as Gloria and George Ioannides as Emilio to do the heavy lifting. As the musical culminates with Gloria’s eventual return to the stage, performing ‘Coming Out of the Dark’ at a televised awards ceremony, the syrupy gospel stylings may match actual events from history, but a satisfying climax to a musical they do not make.
That instead has to come from the closing finale, the sort of megamix that was all the rage 20 years ago. As ‘Rhythm is Gonna Get You’ is reprised, it’s a reminder that the Estefans’ songbook has some absolute bangers among it, and their traversal of disco and Latino styles were unique and, yes, transformative.
But one cannot help feeling that their personal story is the wrong vehicle for their music. An original story, with a book that drives the audience from number to number instead of sauntering along at its own pace, would do Miami Sound Machine’s legacy far better justice than this production ever could.
Scott Matthewman
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