On paper, a West End jukebox musical based on the work of Gloria Estefan is a tough sell. Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine may be massive stars in much of the Spanish-speaking world and in the US (where this show played for two years on Broadway before touring the country), but their UK appeal is rather more niche. The one big advantage that On Your Feet! has over so many similar musicals is that its story – of a Cuban-American band crossing over to an English-language audience – taps into something much deeper. At its best, Jerry Mitchell’s show is about immigration and assimilation, about the after-effects of the Cuban revolution, about how culture mutates in exile. All of the rags-to-riches cliches of the rock biopic are freighted with sociopolitical significance.
The one weak spot is that, for a show billed “The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan”, the role of Gloria’s husband and manager Emilio is very thinly written. The slightly clunky book (by Alex Dinelaris, co-writer of the Oscar-winning Birdman) constantly tells us things about him – his grasp of English is comically bad, he is incredibly charming, he has a terrible temper – that are never shown in performance. Even the triumphant speech that is supposed to define his character (“Take a good look at my face,” he tells a sceptical record-company exec, “because this is what an American looks like!”) seems like a desperate piece of applause-baiting.
Fortunately, the show is carried by a superb performance from the Miami-born Cuban-American Christie Prades as Gloria. The rest of the cast are mostly Europeans, supplying a variable array of accents, but any issues are disguised by Sergio Trujillo’s pacy choreography, Emilio Sosa’s snazzy costume designs, and the tight salsa-meets-R&B arrangements of the 10-piece band, directed by Estefan’s long-running bandleader Clay Ostwald. The big UK hits – Dr Beat, 1-2-3, Don’t Wanna Lose You, Can’t Stay Away from You, Anything for You – are smartly deployed, but even some of the less familiar songs soon have the audience actually on their feet by the final act. For all the show’s flaws, the rhythm really does get you.
At the Coliseum, London, until 31 August.
