On Your Feet!

On Your Feet! is playing at the Marquis Theatre located on 46th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue. It runs two hours and fifteen minutes with one intermission. The musical is open ended.

Gloria Estefan is a Cuban American singer. She has won seven Grammy Awards. Gloria was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has received several Billboard Awards. She married Emilio in 1978.

Jerry Mitchell is the director. He was nominated for a Tony Award for director and choreographer for Kinky Boots in 2013 and won for choreography. Jerry was nominated for six Tony Awards for choreography for Legally Blonde (2007), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and La Cage aux Folles (20050, Never Gonna Dance (2004), Hairspray (2003) and The Full Monty (2001).

Emilio Sosa is the costume designer. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Porgy and Bess (2012).

Sergio Trujillo is the choreographer. He was nominated for a Tony Award for On Your Feet (2016). Sergio won an Olivier Award for Memphis the Musical (2015). He has been nominated for four Drama Desk Awards for Hands on a Hard Body (2013), Leap of Faith (2012), Memphis (2010) and Jersey Boys (2006).

Gloria (Ana Villafane) fled Cuba to Miami, Florida with her father Jose Fajardo (Eliseo Roman), mother Gloria (Andrea Burns) and sister Rebecca (Genny Lis Padilla). Her father was in the Viet Nam war. As a teenager she took care of her father who was ill and her sister while her mother worked.

Gloria loves to write songs and sing. She has hopes to go to college.

When she is 17 her grandmother Consuelo (Alma Cuervo) takes her to meet Emilio (Ektor Rivera). He has a band. Consuelo asks him if he can help her granddaughter. After hearing her sing he decides to help her with her style, dance and singing.

The story tells how the group eventually becomes Gloria Estefan and The Miami Sound Machine. The musical tell what obstacles they come across. I’m not telling you what; you have to see the show.

It tells a little of her personal life.

Her career almost ended in 1990 when her tour bus was hit and she was in critical condition, being paralyzed.

This is a very enjoyable show worth seeing. The musical does a nice job of introducing Gloria to a new generation. The cast does an outstanding job. Eduardo Hernandez in only nine but can he dance, Wow!

The cast comes down the aisle at the end of the first act and encourages the people in the aisle seats to get up and dance with them. At the second act replay some of Gloria hits she is famous for. The ushers encourages the audience to come in the aisle and dance.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on recent photos for this and other shows.