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Songs, rhythms carry ‘On Your Feet!’

CLEVELAND — Make no mistake about it, the “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” in “On Your Feet!”

The musical, which started a three-week run Tuesday at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, is built around the music of Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine and has a buoyant energy that drives the show, particularly in the first act.

That mix of Cuban rhythms, R&B and dance pop is made for lively, eye-popping choreography, the kind that Broadway loves and this show delivers. There are some gravity-defying moves in those opening dance sequences that made my knees ache just watching them.

Even as someone who didn’t spend a lot of time listening to Estefan or the stations that played her music in the ’80s and ’90s, it was fun to hear “1-2-3,” “Conga” “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and the title song (and I was kind of surprised that “Turn the Beat Around” is relegated to an abbreviated version in the finale medley).

The band playing that music is incredible and having it center stage for several songs adds a spark to those numbers.

Christie Prades doesn’t really try to do an impression of Gloria Estefan on the vocal numbers, and the naturalness of her performance works here. The songs feel like they are part of a musical, not the work of an Estefan impersonator.

Prades commands attention, whether she’s fronting the Miami Sound Machine in concert recreations or in the playful banter with bandleader — and future husband — Emilio Estefan (Mauricio Martinez).

But “On Your Feet!” works better as a celebration of the music Gloria and Emilio created together than it does as a biographical musical.

Some of the details are unique, but the story will feel rote to anyone who has seen “Jersey Boys” or watched an episode of VH-1’s “Behind the Music.”

It hits the same dramatic beats that all these stories do, and they aren’t executed nearly as well as they are in a show like “Jersey Boys.”

And as a jukebox musical, it’s less effective at turning Estefan songs into storytelling devices than, say, “Mamma Mia.”

The one thing that elevates the story above the standard show-biz rise-and-fall tale and gives it a timeliness today is its Cuban immigrant story.

The biggest applause line of the night comes during a confrontation between Emilio and a record label executive, who tells Emilio that a Latin-sounding band never will cross over to American audiences.

Emilio’s response is, “Look at my face, whether you know it or not, this is what an American looks like.”

The show also is a lot more fun in the first act than the second, when a tragedy makes the show take a dramatic turn (it’s common knowledge what happened to Gloria Estefan, but I’ll treat it like a spoiler for those don’t know the background).

Even if the elements of Gloria’s story are true, it feels as if they’ve been shaped to conform to a too-familiar formula.

agray@tribtoday.com

If you go …

WHAT: “On Your Feet!”

WHEN: Through Dec. 23. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Connor Palace, Playhouse Square, 1519 Euclid Ave., Cleveland

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $29 to $109.

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