Show: On Your Feet!
Format: Musical
Genre: Drama
Cast: Philippa Stefani, George Ioannides, Madalena Averto & Hollie Cassar
Review Date: February 17 2020
Performances: February 17-22 2020, 7.30pm & 2.30pm matinees
Location: Empire Theatre, Liverpool
Duration: 160 Minutes incl. an interval
Age Rating: 10+
The story of husband and wife legendary Cuban duo Gloria and Emilio Estefan was brought to life in On Your Feet! at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre on the opening night of a week-long run. With hundreds of millions of records sold, Grammys galore, an American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement and even a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, these are musical icons. The musical illustrates their meeting, love story and the encouragement Gloria’s grandmother gives her to follow her singing and songwriting career.
On Your Feet!
Synopsis Of On Your Feet!
Gloria and Emilio’s story is a tale of an American and immigrant dream, brought to life with colour, love, music and dancing. We can only imagine the hardship that so many Cubans experienced fleeing Castro’s regime and the musical touches on the upheaval that thousands of people faced, and also upon the prejudice and trials they came across in their adopted countries. We learned about their success with Miami Sound Machine, and their story included the severe road traffic accident the band experienced in March 1990, which left Gloria with spinal injuries that took her many months to recover from. In 1991, they made their comeback with a world tour and Launch of the successful album Into The Light.
Analysis Of On Your Feet!
Philippa Stefani plays Gloria with such energy! Despite the dancing, her voice (which really does sound like Gloria Estefan herself) is spine-tingling. George Ioannides as Emilio has such wonderful chemistry with Philippa, and has a real presence whenever he is on stage. Praise, though, must also go to the other cast members. Madalena Averto as Gloria’s mother plays the downtrodden and slightly bitter character who had to give up her opportunity of a Hollywood starlet, and we are shown a flashback of some of the singing and dancing talent that was wasted – and what talent it is! Gloria’s grandmother Consuelo, played by Hollie Cassar, provides some comedic moments, but also has a wonderful voice. Gloria’s father too also has wonderful vocals.
The smash hits keep coming right throughout including Conga from way back in 1985, Anything For You (which gave me goosebumps), Into The Light, Don’t Wanna Lose You, Rhythm Is Gonna Get You, 1-2-3 and lots more. Latin style music is so prevalent today within the charts, and with influences throughout and a resurgence of Hispanic and Spanish styles, it is easy to forget how ground-breaking Miami Sound Machine were.
Other Notes
The lighting is fabulous, from hot Cuban sunshine to moody, darker and atmospheric indoor scenes and the vibrant, bright and all-encompassing, arena pop concert colourful style illumination. Furthermore, the audience were kept entertained and interested throughout. The band, who remained on stage for a little while after the encore, were hugely appreciated by the audience. Cuban beats, traditional riffs, amazing brass, keyboard, guitar and accomplished bongo-playing really drew you into the Latin feel and you couldn’t fail to tap your feet or indeed, get upon them to the dance vibe.
Onto the choreography and the dancing – just wow! The dancing was as good if not better than those from any Strictly dancers. Additionally, their skilled moves enthralled me; they were so vital and colourful that it was absolutely jaw-dropping. Furthermore, the height of the leaps and jumps and the speed and accuracy of those salsa and rhumba moves were awesome.
Summary Of On Your Feet!
Gloria Estefan’s outlook has always been “you make your own luck, and you have to continue your dream”. So, the success of this show must be a dream come true for the Estefans. Therefore, On Your Feet! is one of the best musicals I have ever seen, and it lived up to all my expectations. ¡Estupendo!
Notes
Target Audience: 10+
Content: Infrequent Moderate Language
Recommendation?: Yes
Overall Rating: 10/10 – Perfect
Further Links
On Your Feet! runs at the Empire Theatre until Saturday February 22 2020. To buy tickets, click here or call 0844 871 3017.