Stage Sounds: On Your Feet!

Jukebox musicals (musicals that almost exclusively feature songs from pop culture) are an interesting phenomenon, and not one that I'm necessarily opposed to. I've seen some that have been really well done and were interesting, fun, well-acted and well-sung. For me, though, my viewing experience of On Your Feet! only hit a few of these marks, and while I had a good time there at the theatre this is a show that just didn't make the biggest impression on me. I think where I've landed with it personally is that it would've been a good, fun movie musical, but as a stage show it just didn't land for me.

On Your Feet! is a musical with a book by Alexander Dinelaris and music & lyrics by Gloria Estefan, Emilio Estefan, and Miami Sound Machine. Based on the life and career of musical icon Gloria Estefan, the show opened in 2015 at the Marquis Theater (located on W 46th Street), where it remained in residence until 2017 after over 500 performances. The original Broadway run was nominated for one Tony Award in 2016 and won an Outer Critics Circle Award (Outstanding Choreographer), a Theatre World Award (Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance), and a Fred & Adele Astaire Award (Best Choreographer). Apart from Broadway, the show has enjoyed success in Chicago in 2015, in the Netherlands in 2017, the UK's West End in 2017, and has seen national tours in the US (2017) and the UK (2019).

For this post, I will again focus on one song for each main cast member. I will be discussing the original live cast recording as well as Estefan's original recordings of the songs, all of which are available to stream on Apple Music. There will be honorable mentions again because Gloria Estefan pretty exclusively writes bangers, and the music is so much. Let's get started! Warning: potential spoilers ahead.

Gloria Estefan (Mezzo-Soprano)

Spotlight Song: Conga

Honorable Mentions: Rhythm Is Gonna Get You; Anything For You; I See Your Smile; Here We Are; Get On Your Feet; Oye Mi Canto; Cuba Libre; Mega Mix

Original Recording (Primitive Love, 1985): Miami Sound Machine ft. Gloria Estefan

Original Broadway Cast (2015): Ana Villafañe

While no one sounds like Gloria Estefan, Ana Villafañe did a pretty good job emulating her sound and definitely her energy on all of these songs. There's so many good MSM and Gloria songs in this show, but using Conga as the finale to Act 1 was such a move that it had to be the spotlight for her. While the original song is already fairly long (a little over four minutes), the show version drags those energetic instrumentals out even more as we watch Gloria and the band perform it at various functions trying to get the attention of their producer, who doesn't want any part of it because it's in English and doesn't think it will sell. It's a great number that it's hard not to sing along to.

Come on, shake your body, baby, do the conga/I know you can't control yourself any longer/Come on, shake your body, baby, do the conga/I know you can't control yourself any longer/Come on, shake your body, baby, do the conga/I know you can't control yourself any longer/Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger/Don't you fight it 'til you tried it, do that conga beat/Everybody gather 'round now, let your body feel the heat/Don't you worry if you can't dance, let the music move your feet/It's the rhythm of the island, and like the sugar cane so sweet/If you want to do the conga, you've got to listen to the beat

Emilio Estefan (Baritone)

Spotlight Song: Don't Wanna Lose You

Honorable Mentions: I See Your Smile; Here We Are; If I Never Got to Tell You; Mega Mix

Original Recording (Cuts Both Ways, 1989): Gloria Estefan

Original Broadway Cast (2015): Josh Segarra

Emilio ended up being my favorite character in the whole show, largely due to his incredible monologue about what it should mean to be an American. In a day and age where celebrity couples don't always have longevity, watching the beginning of Emilio and Gloria's incredibly sweet love story was even more satisfying knowing they've been married for an impressive 45 years this year. Gloria's original version of this song is already a beautiful power ballad, but Josh Segarra's delivery of Don't Wanna Lose You in Act 2 while waiting for Gloria to come out of spinal surgery after their infamous 1990 tour bus accident adds a whole different layer of emotion to it. When they sing together, Villafañe and Segarra's voice blend together really nicely and do justice to this on stage portrayal of this iconic relationship.

Sometimes it's hard to make things clear/Or know when you face the truth, and I know that the moment is here/I’ll open my heart and show you inside/My love has no pride, I feel with you I've got nothing to hide/So open your eyes and see who I am/And not who you want for me to be/I am only myself, myself/I don't want to lose you now/We're gonna get through somehow/I don't want to loose you now or ever/‘Cause baby I've finally found/The courage to stand my ground/But if you want, me I'll be around/Forever

Gloria Fajardo (Mezzo Soprano)

Spotlight Song: Mi Tierra

Honorable Mentions: If I Never Got to Tell You; Mega Mix

Original Recording (Mi Tierra, 1993): Gloria Estefan

Original Broadway Cast (2015): Andréa Burns

It can get a little confusing in a show when three characters have the same name, but Andréa Burns makes sure you know "Big Gloria" has arrived when she takes center stage. Playing the mother of Gloria Estefan, it's interesting to see the relationships between her, her daughter, and her son-in-law, especially once you get the backstory that Gloria is essentially living the life her mother had always dreamed of but was forbidden from pursuing by her own father. The original Gloria Estefan version of Act 1's Mi Tierra is, again, fantastic, but it's a heck of a performance from Burns in this flashback scene as we see Big Gloria perform this song in a Cuban club directly before she discovers she has to leave the country without her husband. It's a powerful, well done scene that helps flesh out more of the backstory of this talented family. A rough English translation of this song's original Spanish lyrics is below.

From my beautiful land, from my holy land/I hear that drums cry and the timpani to cumbanchar/And that proclamation that a brother sings that from his land he lives far away/And that the memory makes him cry a song that lives, singing/Of his pain of his own crying and you hear him mourn/The earth hurts you, the earth gives you in the middle of the soul, when you are not/The earth pushes you from the root and lime, the earth sigh, if it does not see you anymore/The land where you were born, you can't forget her/Because she has your roots and what you leave behind/The earth hurts you, the earth gives you in the middle of the soul, when you are not

José Fajardo (Baritone)

Spotlight Song: When Someone Comes Into Your Life

Honorable Mentions: Wrapped; Mega Mix

Original Recording (Eyes of Innocence, 1984): Miami Sound Machine

Original Broadway Cast (2015): Eliseo Román

Gloria's dad unfortunately doesn't get a lot to do in the show due to his real life counterpart suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, but the moments he gets are made the most of by Eliseo Román. In a scene reminiscent of Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist (if you know, you know, and you're probably crying right now), Act 1's When Someone Comes Into Your Life shows Gloria confession her feelings for Emilio to her now nonverbal father and imagining what he would say to her if he could speak. It's a sweet, beautiful father/daughter scene that leaves you smiling through misty eyes.

When someone comes into your life/Take a chance, my love/Forget all the pain that's inside/Open up your heart/You'll forget as she's touching your face/That I once held you in my embrace/It might even feel right when you kiss her goodnight and not me/If someone should hold down her hand/Make her yours, my love/Don't know how long it may last/Oh, how fast love goes/You'll forget me one day, don't you know

Rebecca Fajardo (Mezzo Soprano)

Spotlight Song: Anything For You

Honorable Mentions: Mega Mix

Original Recording (Let It Loose, 1987): Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine

Original Broadway Cast (2015): Genny Lis Padilla

Gloria's little sister doesn't get to sing a lot, but the one duet between Villafañe and Genny Lis Padilla is still super cute. Another Miami Sound Machine classic, Act 1's Anything For You is sung by the sisters as Gloria prepares to solo with the band for the first time and shows how deeply these young women care for each other. Knowing that Gloria initially rejected a potential music career so that she could provide and care for her parents and sister, the emotion, pride, and love in this song from these actresses was apparent and well-acted.

Anything for you, though you're not here/Since you said we're through, it seems like years/Time keeps dragging on and on/And forever's been and gone/Still, I can't figure what went wrong/I’d still do anything for you, I’ll play your game/You hurt me through and through, but you can have your way/I can pretend each time I see you/That I don't care, and I don't need you/Though you'll never see me cryin’/You know inside I feel like dying

Little Gloria (Mezzo Soprano)

Spotlight Song: Cuando Salí de Cuba

Honorable Mentions: Tradición; Wrapped; Mega Mix

Original Recording (Luis Aguilé, 1967): Luis Aguilé

Original Broadway Cast (2015): Alexandria Suarez

The one non-Gloria Estefan song in the show is performed in Act 1 by Alexandria Suarez, who plays Gloria as a child growing up in Miami. I liked that they added Cuando Salí de Cuba because it shows that Estefan's Cuban heritage is every bit as important to her and a part of her identity as her American citizenship and how she's interwoven both of those sides of her into her music. A rough English translation of the original Spanish lyrics is below.

I can never die/My heart, I don't have it here/Someone is waiting for me/It's waiting for me to come back here/When I left Cuba/I left my life, I left my love/When I left Cuba/I buried my heart

I hope you found some fun, exciting music to listen to from this post, and if you're a Gloria Estefan fan definitely give the On Your Feet! soundtrack a listen. Happy listening, and see ya'll next week!