‘On Your Feet!’. Book by Alexander Dinelaris. Featuring Music Produced and Recorded by Emilio & Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine. Directed and Choreographed by Marcos Santana. Set and Lighting Design by Jack Mehler; Costume Design by Emilio Sosa; Sound Design by Alex Berg; Wig and Hair Design by Charles G. LaPointe; Projection Design by Pamela Hersch. Presented by North Shore Music Theatre, 54 Dunham Rd., Beverly, through June 14.
By Shelley A. Sackett
On Your Feet!, in production at North Shore Music Theater through June 14, is a feel-good jukebox musical that played on Broadway for two years before hitting the road for an international tour that continues some nine years later. Based on the lives and musical careers of the 26-time Grammy Award-winning team, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, the musical features a score built around the Cuban-fusion pop music that brought the couple fame, fortune, and a life together, noteworthy for its lack of rancor as much as for its longevity.
It also features choreography by the talented Marcos Santana, music direction by award-winning Jose Delgado, and an engaging set by Jack Mehler.
Like most jukebox musicals, On Your Feet! uses pre-existing, well-known popular songs (26 to be precise) for its score, rather than original music composed for the show. These tunes are woven together to create a brand-new narrative.
Those familiar with the group’s repertoire will delight in this menu of hits; to the unfamiliar, they start to blend into a single high-energy song, repetitive but nonetheless enjoyable.
As is the case in every NSMT performance, the theater-in-the-round’s production values are high and among the show’s highlights. The many screens above the stage flash snapshots of the Estefans and their families. Director Santana starts off with a bang as the taut, terrific nine-piece band rises from center stage to the beat and blaring horns of the duo’s signature, “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” a promise the show keeps throughout its entire 2-plus hours (one intermission). The entire audience chair-danced right along with the excellent dancers.
Would, however, that the script (and, for the most part, acting) were as engaging and peppy as the score. Although there are some good points made about immigrants and the uphill battle of breaking into the mainstream American music scene, character and plot development take a back seat to the fast-paced and complex salsa, cumbia, bachata and other Cuban-based dance numbers. It starts to feel like we’re on a fabulous island vacation, which is one of the musical’s strengths.
The other is the vocal prowess of many of the actors, especially Karmine Alers as Gloria’s mother, Isabel Leoni as the adult Gloria, and Kendall Rivera as Young Gloria. Henry Gainza, as Gloria’s father, has his moment in the spotlight with a magnificent solo. The ensemble dances and sings their hearts out and, clad in Emilio Sosa’s sassy, sequined costumes, is worth the price of admission.
The storyline follows the couple’s journey: Cuban boy meets Cuban girl, boy woos girl, boy gets girl, boy and girl marry and make their way to America, where the couple takes the world by storm with their blend of music and chemistry. In this case, Emilio and Gloria’s path has a few detours that provide context, pathos and joy. Gloria’s overbearing mother (Alers is very good) resents that Gloria is getting to live the dream she had to give up when she became pregnant with Gloria. Her abuela (grandmother), a showstopping Sydia Cedeño-Genat, keeps the peace between the two while encouraging Gloria to go for it when Emilio notices her and asks her to sing with his previously all-male band.
Other touching, more emotive scenes are when Gloria sings to her father, bedridden with MS, and when she and her mother reconcile after two years of no communication. In both scenes, tender ballads set the tone and add variety to the otherwise dance-driven soundtrack.
The 1990 bus accident that left Gloria with two fractured vertebrae is meant to be an important turning point, but misdirection and unnuanced acting strip it of poignancy and impact. Gloria goes from a wheelchair to the stage for the American Music Awards with hardly a beat skipped.
Nonetheless, for all its shortcomings, there is no denying the raw energy, beautiful music (especially the harmonies) and lively dancing that are On Your Feet!’s strengths. For some, that alone can be enough.
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