Review of On Your Feet! at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

Being of about the right age when Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine first started to make it big, I was quite a fan. Even going so far as to have a few old vinyl singles and a couple of her albums on this new fangled CD system, in what was an admittedly limited music collection. In this collection was my favourite Estefan album, Cuts Both Ways, which included the track Get On Your Feet, which of course inspired the title of this relatively new musical of the life of the Estefan's. So, does it captivate this distant original fan, and or does it resemble a dad doing a bit of Latin dancing?

On Your Feet! is a telling of the Estefan's battle for success beyond the Latin market and interspersed with snippets of what made them who they were with family flashbacks, and it's safe to say that it is an endless mix of success and failure.

Where it works; vibrant colours from costume, backdrops, some superb choreography, and excellent music from the superb, occasionally on stage, band; this is a brilliantly entertaining show. However, for all its vibrancy from this, the often dull and corny book, over-complicated and busy scene changes (what is going on with those flats being moved all the while, even in scene changes? So clunky and distracting), and a few only average performances means it never quite comes to life.

Maybe half of the issue was that opening night of this first UK tour at Milton Keynes Theatre was beset with problems. These included a fifteen-minute delay at the start, cover Francesca Lara Gordon on for Philippa Stefani as Gloria Estefan, projection cutting out and showing the dreaded "signal" message in huge lettering on its return, a dodgy mic and a bit of set that refused for far too long to fix down. It's safe to say it probably wasn't the most successful evening of the tour.

Understudy Gordon as Gloria Estefan is a very capable performer, commending on stage with a superb singing voice, however, for me she doesn't quite cut it as Gloria, missing the vocal style by some distance. Gordon though beyond this was amazingly confident stepping into such an iconic role.

George Ioannides as Emilio Estefan is excellent, despite what felt like a rather nervous start in his opening singing number. He looks the part, and at a very shallow level, such as the audience fell to, he looks good in tight shorts. His charisma wins the day throughout and his singing talent is quality, despite being challenged with extremely difficult numbers to perform.

Madalena Alberto has perhaps the strongest singing voice as Gloria Fajardo, and her Mi Tierra is perhaps the best-performed song of the evening as a result. Completing the main cast is Karen Mann as Gloria's grandmother Consuelo, and this often comic role manages to garner most of the laughs from the show, despite it being very caricatured at times.

On Your Feet! is a curious thing, despite being beset by issues and rather corny in written content and scene-setting still manages to just about entertain throughout. If only the show itself could have been as upbeat as the music that inhabits it, this could have been a cracker of a show. As it is, it entertains, but never really fulfils the legacy that it should for the talent that is Gloria Estefan and the battles that she and her husband Emilio won.

A flawed but still entertaining telling of the life of the Estefan's.
⭐⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Tuesday 11th February 2020 at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.
On Your Feet! runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Sunday 15th February2020.

Further details about Milton Keynes Theatre can be found at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

Photos: Johan Persson

Review of Lord of the Dance at Milton Keynes Theatre

On what was so far the hottest day of the year, and the highest in many a record book, it feels a tad evil to watch as a group of extremely talented performers bring to the stage one of the most famous and most energetic dance shows to tour. However, arriving now at Milton Keynes Theatre, as part of what is now the still rather immodestly titled 30 Years of Standing Ovations tour, Lord of the Dance remains full of energy even on the hottest of evenings in Milton Keynes. I last and first saw Lord of the Dance as part of the 25 Years of Standing Ovations tour, four years ago (yes, the sums don’t quite work), and it was every bit as spectacular as you could imagine this world-famous dance show is. Born into the world from Michael Flatley and the Riverdance spectacular that preceded it, Lord of the Dance is a simple but effective battle between good and evil and the resolution of it through dance rather than fighting. The dancing here is, as expected, exceptional, led by the Lord of the...

Review of making second Kontakt with the R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton

As I said in my first Kontakt review, I wasn't really sure that I wanted to see this show. However come Sunday and a second opportunity to see it, I was genuinely looking forward to it. With the show now having departed, for my second review I will elaborate a touch more on happenings, which initially I shied away from as spoilers. My actor for my second encounter was 15 year old Michael. He had the enviable task unlike Michael before him of dealing with someone who knew quite a bit of what was coming. As those surgical gloves went on I this time was certain that the R&D were not going to overstep the boundary and do a full medical. I had also learnt that a crisp sandwich was something that should be left in the memory, so cheese was a much more sensible option. I was able to complete the calculation generally unaided and managed to express an exaggerated shock at the latter outcome. The game of Jenga managed to stay stable once again and rather amazingly managed to bring t...

Review of DNA by University of Northampton BA Actors at Jacksons Lane Theatre, Highgate, London

The final year performances of BA Actors this year upped sticks and headed away from their Northampton Royal territory and gathered to show their skills in London. The first of the three shows being performed was Dennis Kelly's DNA, a play which I saw performed on the Royal stage itself four years ago. I enjoyed it for its dark mysterious nature and was looking forward to seeing a different interpretation of the show. It tells the tale of a group of youngsters who do something really bad, and proceed to attempt to cover it up, resulting in the real bad, well, getting more bad. It's dark yes, but also, very funny at times. It opens with a looming movement piece of theatre, which I always love and this was no different for me, brooding and sinister. It's quite a long opening, which perhaps, in the end, becomes too long, but it's a fabulous piece of theatre for me. It set's the scene very well for Kelly's dark piece to unfold and in the hands of these, about ...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog