“On Your Feet!,” the bio-musical about Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s rise to pop superstardom, was already grossing over a million dollars per week before the critics chimed in on Friday, November 6. But the largely positive reviews means that its momentum as a Broadway hit will continue uninterrupted — and may even grow. Charles Isherwood, writing in the New York Times, echoed what most of his peers conceded: that the “rhythm is gonna get you” in this basically by-the-numbers story of Cuban immigrants reaching for their piece of the American Dream.Chalk another one up for the so-called “jukebox musical,” which was heavily derided when it gained a great deal of attention with the global success of “Mamma Mia!” However, that musical wove the hit songs of ABBA into a clever and, for many, a moving story about a young woman trying to find out who was her biological father on the eve of her wedding day. And creating a fictional story is proving to be the much more difficult task when it comes to bringing a pre-existing catalogue to the Broadway stage.Others musicals which have foundered on the shoals of this particular challenge include “The Times They Are A-Changing” (Bob Dylan), “Good Vibrations” (The Beach Boys), “Hot Feet” (Earth, Wind, and Fire), “All Shook Up” (Elvis Presley), and “Holler If Ya Hear Me” (Tupac Shakur).It would seem that producers would be smarter to follow a formula categorized as a Broadway version of the once-popular “VH1 Behind the Music” series: weave the songs around the dramatic biography of a singer, rock group, or family of artists. That has proven successful with “Beautiful,” the long-running Carole King production at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre; “Motown,” the Broadway hit which is cleaning up in a national tour; “Fela!,” which traced the life of Nigerian pop star Fela Anikulapo Kuti; and, of course, the gold standard of this type of musical, “Jersey Boys,” the Tony Award-winning hit about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons which celebrates its 10th anniversary on Sunday, November 8.The advantages are obvious. You start with a sizable fan base — Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine have sold over 100 million records worldwide and collected over two dozen Grammy Awards — and give them the added bonus of seeing a doppelganger of their idol in a hybrid of concert and drama. Ana Villafañe walked away with critical raves for her performance as Gloria, as did Andrea Burns as her disapproving mother, and Alma Cuervo as her encouraging grandmother. And there is no lack of drama in the second act of “On Your Feet!,” given that Estefan’s life was nearly snuffed out in a devastating highway accident that almost left her paralyzed. Moreover, the bio-musical formula allows for the songs to be rendered presentationally, in concert, in a rehearsal hall, a nightclub, or in a recording studio, which is less jarring that trying to shoehorn them within a fictional story. It also allows the director and choreographer full rein to exploit the setting, and Jerry Mitchell, as director, and Sergio Trujillo, as choreographer, press pedal to the metal in “On Your Feet!” Those sorts of flourishes can go a long way in excusing the flaws in the book by Alex Dinelaris (“Birdman.”)Of course, the VH1 approach doesn’t always work; flops include “Lennon,” the story of John Lennon, and “Baby, It’s You,” about the rise of the pop group The Shirelles under the thumb of Scepter Records executive Florence Greenberg. The problem with the former was the close involvement — and control — of Yoko Ono, an ever-present danger of the genre. Since Gloria and Emilio Estefan are lead producers of the show, there’s little doubt that their success, both personal and professional, has been whitewashed to a fare-thee-well in “On Your Feet!” But why let the tensions and complexities of real life interfere with all that fun and salsa sass?
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