Kayla Rivera as Gloria Estefan
On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan is running at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center, Makati City. Tickets are available at Ticketworld.com.ph.
Theater formulas exist for a reason, and the appeal of the biographical jukebox musical is obvious. There’s almost a guaranteed base level of entertainment when a production is built around the discography of an established music artist, and most examples of this kind of show deepen our understanding of the songs by tying them to the events in a real person’s life.
On Your Feet!—the story of Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan and husband Emilio (sharing the stage as members of the Latin pop band Miami Sound Machine)—fully leans on the comforts of the format.
Ayen Laurel as Gloria Fajardo
But despite a lively showcase of Estefan’s catalog and its appeal across various communities and generations of listeners, 9 Works Theatrical’s staging of the musical also illustrates the limits of this style of storytelling. Without more purposeful direction that can bring out the full emotion behind its objective facts, this already hollow script only ends up setting the Estefans at a greater distance from the audience. The quality of the music endures, but Gloria’s story doesn’t register as an essential part of the experience.
This is unfortunate, because Estefan does make for a compelling, aspirational everywoman protagonist—not trying to escape personal demons nor driven by grand ambitions of fame, but just hoping to make music on her own terms. Much of the conflict in On Your Feet! is between the Estefans and the music executives who don’t believe in Latin music enough to let it reach a wider market, which becomes a handy entry point into issues of discrimination within the industry. With that said, none of the serious themes that the show brings up are actually unpacked because the production never wants to risk dampening its own spirits for too long.
‘On Your Feet!’ is also a story of family, unwavering love, and sacrifice.
No matter how much the musical’s book (written by Alexander Dinelaris Jr.) rightfully advocates for marginalized artists, the writing simply isn’t good. The dialogue here is a particularly egregious example of clunky exposition, with details neatly and artificially spelled out by each character, and no real dramatic through line that convincingly threads these themes into one unified perspective. On the page, Gloria is all but reduced into a generic figure with little interiority beyond requisite family relationships. Meanwhile, Emilio doesn’t come off in the best light: charming and determined, but also constantly pushing Gloria and making decisions for her in ways that go glaringly unexamined.
As much as the show wants to be a heartfelt tribute to the couple, its script only really musters surface-level compliments.
On the page, Gloria is all but reduced into a generic figure with little interiority beyond requisite family relationships
It doesn’t help that Robbie Guevara’s direction outside of the production’s concert-style scenes does little to even suggest more interesting angles to the narrative. In their attempt to appear naturalistic, conversations and confrontations here are often awkwardly blocked and visually messy, with action restricted to small corners on the otherwise spacious stage of Rockwell Center’s Proscenium Theater. And Guevara’s direction doesn’t always utilize Gabo Tolentino’s lighting in effective ways—at times the lights are more intentionally designed to show where and when certain characters are, and other times spotlights appear lost if not totally absent, leaving people in shadow and making it difficult to determine where we should be directing our attention on stage.
When these technical lapses continue adding up, On Your Feet! loses whatever tension and momentum it’s meant to have. The musical ultimately seems much more interested in being a concert divorced from plot. When the songs are being performed, Tolentino’s audience-facing lights and Nunoy van den Burgh’s Latin-inspired choreography can be exactly as exciting as they need to be, with Act One culminating in a joyful, impromptu conga line with the audience. But whenever the show returns to its narrative, it becomes clear just how much the production depends on nostalgia and not character. The stakes are practically nonexistent even during Estefan’s climactic final number, because the story never lets us worry that any of her relationships are actually in danger of being compromised.
A young Gloria in ‘On Your Feet!’
It’s a relief, then, that the cast of On Your Feet! does justice to the Estefans’ songbook, even as Aron Roca’s sound design renders several voices faint and overpowered by the mix. As Gloria, Kayla Rivera (alternating with Molly Langley) powers through with bright, crystal-clear phrasing and plenty of charisma that at least allows the character to be easy to root for. Jason Canela never matches Rivera’s vocal strength, but provides good harmonic support for several numbers, and has an earnestness that keeps Emilio likable. And in an ensemble of strong singers, Ayen Laurel finds unexpected emotional power as Gloria’s mother, Gloria Fajardo, in the Spanish-language Mi Tierra—while serving as a much-needed (if underutilized) emotional lifeline for the narrative. Fajardo’s initial disapproval of her daughter’s career leads to the show’s few truly tender moments.
The cast at curtain call
And even if one were to view the production primarily as a delivery device for Estefan’s music, the curation of songs here does emphasize just how diverse her body of work is. Be it in the dance-pop of the titular Get On Your Feet, the moving melodies of a ballad such as Anything for You, or the triumphant gospel vocals of Coming Out of the Dark, Estefan consistently brings soul and passion to her work, no matter the genre. Her songs really do speak for themselves; it’s just a missed opportunity that the musical can’t express itself as well as she does.
