On Your Feet - Gloria Estefan musical

[japhun]

Just home from On Your Feet- a great little jukebox musical with a lot of heart. Really enjoyed this show as I have been a lifelong fan of Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine.

House was about 55-60% full and balcony was closed. The Coliseum simply swallows it whole and this would be so amazing at any standard West End theatre as a lot of the energy is lost with the insane distance front stalls are from the stage. Usually the orchestra fills the void nicely, but they strutted their stuff on stage (at regular intervals) which was lovely and made them a showcase of the piece.

This will do VERY well on tour around the UK and I imagine word of mouth in the provinces will be great. Finding its footing in London is much much tougher and I imagine they will play to half filled houses on the regular as the prices are way too expensive (typical ENO).

If you are a fan on Gloria, go see it! If you aren't...well don't.

[Mark]

How accurate is the 2 hrs 15 runtime?

[Steffi]

Jul 12, 2019 11:07:19 GMT Mark said:

How accurate is the 2 hrs 15 runtime?

It was about 2hrs 25 minutes when I went 2 weeks ago.

[xanady]

Apparently this has become upgrade-city...beware of paying top dollar for this,my friends...

[Mark]

Saw the matinee today, was row E dress circle (which unfortunately was only about half full today).
It was “good”... it didn’t have the oomph of some other jukebox musicals and it is completely the wrong venue - evident in them only using a part of the size of the stage.
I don’t think Gloria is as much of an icon as some other like Tina or Cher and I really did only know a few of the “hits”.
They should have taken a more intimate venue because the story is fairly intimate and personal. Lots of quieter moments with her mother and family which even from the dress circle I felt disconnected from.

[Mark]

Jul 12, 2019 11:23:25 GMT Steffi said:

Jul 12, 2019 11:07:19 GMT Mark said:

How accurate is the 2 hrs 15 runtime?

It was about 2hrs 25 minutes when I went 2 weeks ago.

Finished 17:35 today, mad rush to the Vaults for a 6pm curtain!

[frankubelik]

Saw this last week with whom I discovered later was the alternate "Gloria" which explained a lot to me. She was fine but absolutely no charisma whatsoever. Loved the very hard working ensemble and the band was excellent. Of course it's in totally the wrong venue and much of the enjoyment lost as a result.

[Deleted]

Jul 15, 2019 17:44:23 GMT frankubelik said:

Saw this last week with whom I discovered later was the alternate "Gloria" which explained a lot to me. She was fine but absolutely no charisma whatsoever. Loved the very hard working ensemble and the band was excellent. Of course it's in totally the wrong venue and much of the enjoyment lost as a result.

Is there a cast board on display anywhere?

Going tmr!

Any idea if the alternate has scheduled performances?

[princeton]

From the London Coliseum website:

The role of Gloria Estefan is played by Christie Prades at performances on Tuesday 7:30pm, Wednesday 7:30pm, Thursday 7:30pm, Saturday 2:30pm, Saturday 7:30pm and Sunday 3:00pm. Philippa Stefani plays the role of Gloria Estefan at performances on Thursday 2:30pm and Friday 7:30pm.

I believe that Philippa Stefani takes over the role full time for the UK tour.

[frankubelik]

That may be on the website but last Wednesday evening it was definitely the alternate with no announcement or obvious foyer signage.

[helso1]

Jul 17, 2019 3:06:26 GMT frankubelik said:

That may be on the website but last Wednesday evening it was definitely the alternate with no announcement or obvious foyer signage.

Christie was out sick last week, so Philippa went on for her scheduled performances and all weekend as far as I know. Christie returned last night x

[Deleted]

Good fun at this last night. Not gonna set the world alight (they can put that on the posters lol) but an enjoyable night out with mates.

Did slightly annoy me that the best songs seemed to be cut to verse and chorus and truncated with dialogue. They were very keen it seemed to keep the plot moving on and just framed by the music (The Band was the same - the best songs reduced to 1-2 mins!).

Is the set identical to Broadway? Thought was fine anyway. Your classic modern design - very projection heavy.
Loved the lighting - they seemed to have spent more money on that than the set.

I wish it well on tour!

[samchap]

Great fun show. Very much at home in such a big room.

[manu]

I loved this tonight ( Philippa Stefani was Gloria)

[Dr Tom]

Decided to see this before it closed. I was busy when rush tickets went on sale yesterday, but was still able to grab one an hour later, just a few rows back in the side Stalls. Excellent view, decent rake and no one at either side (at least for the first half, someone moved forward at one side for the second half). There were plenty of empty Stalls seats, including premiums, but I didn't move across as I had a clear view.

With the way the theatre is constructed, even if you're in the front row, there's a very wide space for the orchestra and so you're a long way from the stage. Being a few rows back is no real difference in quality of view here.

Mostly a good audience, with the odd phone going off and people lighting up the room with watches and checking messages, as well as a couple of people in front randomly standing to dance. There's a funny message played at the start reminding people to turn off their phones, which lots of people near me seemed to think was just background noise and ignore.

I found I remembered a lot more songs than I expected. They were the ones that were being constantly played on the radio in the 1980s, but the kind I haven't listened to for years.

The lead, Christie Prades, was very good. I love Philippa Stefani though, so I would have liked to have seen her (but I didn't love the musical enough to try and catch it on tour).

I do think the book for this one is weak, but a lot of that comes from trying to introduce jeopardy into a life where most things went right. Even where there was tension, I just got the feeling that was being overplayed for dramatic effect. Now, I must say that I don't remember the main incident from towards the end of act two at all, so maybe there was some foreshadowing that I missed that would have got me emotionally attached, but I was young when it happened and not a particular follower of Gloria Estefan. The musical has made me interested enough to find out a bit more about the full story.

Overall then, this is performed with energy. I don't think it connected with the audience that well and the cast really struggled to get people to join in with the Conga (two girls at my side, one of whom was the person who kept getting up to dance, although her friend was less keen). I think it will do better in smaller venues, but I can't see this having anywhere near the success in the UK of a Jersey Boys or Beautiful. A pleasant enough show to see once.

[candela]

Jul 17, 2019 7:41:34 GMT helso1 said:

Jul 17, 2019 3:06:26 GMT frankubelik said:

That may be on the website but last Wednesday evening it was definitely the alternate with no announcement or obvious foyer signage.

Christie was out sick last week, so Philippa went on for her scheduled performances and all weekend as far as I know. Christie returned last night x

Christie was back on when i went to see it last Saturday evening  

[theatrefan77]

Top price tickets reduced to £29.50 by using the promo code GLORIA29 on the London Coliseum website for all performances

[clair]

Thank you for that code - just booked using it, need a fun night out with a friend quite badly and this is perfect

[theatrefan77]

Enjoy! It's fun, not the best show you'll ever see but entertaining enough and the choreography is excellent.

[clair]

Thanks I'm sure we will. This is the right show for two people who just want an evening out, no thinking but great music and seeing some great dancing. I have serious on Friday at the Old Vic to even things up!

[alece10]

Saw the show yesterday for the 2nd time thanks to the GLORIA29 offer and sat centre block in the 4th row of the stalls. I can see why these are premium seats as the view was great, decent legroom and well raked so clear view over the heads in front. From what I could see all 4 levels open, stalls pretty much full, less so the higher you went and only the front couple of rows of the balcony. I was surprised that they didn't close the top 2 levels and move people but they must have had their reasons.
Christie was on as Gloria so I have now seen them both.
Thoroughly enjoyed it again as did the audience. Everyone was "On their feet" at the end and dancing away as best we can do at our age. Most of the audience was of a similar age to me. We are all of an age who remember Gloria Estafan when we were of the "disco" age.
A very hot day yesterday in London but the air con at the theatre was top notch. Amazing how good it was for such a huge venue.

[jgblunners]

I saw the Saturday matinee and have to say it was utterly mediocre. A totally formulaic bio-musical with nothing particularly notable about it other than the music. Most of the plot points and staging were rather predictable. Now I have no problem with this, in fact I suspect that 90% of people booking to see this are doing it for the music and couldn't care less about the plot. However, with Tina playing just across the West End it really does highlight that Gloria had it pretty easy - the attempts at injecting dramatic tension into this musical are laughable compared to the genuine hardships that Tina faced.

Anyway, enough criticism. The cast are good but for the most part nothing particularly special - Christie Prades has a lovely voice and acted the part well, but she clearly doesn't have as powerful a voice as Gloria and backed away from the really big notes, with ensemble backing singers to cover her. I'd be intruiged to hear Philippa Stefani sing the role as I'm sure she has those notes in her. George Ioannides was so gorgeous that I almost didn't care about any other aspect of his performance. His acting was good and his voice was too aside from a few wobbles and a tendency to drift flat. The stars of the show for me were Madalena Alberto and Karen Mann as the mother and grandmother respectively - both fully convinced in their roles and Madalena's voice and moves are still up there with the best of the West End.

[intoanewlife]

Aug 26, 2019 22:19:06 GMT jgblunners said:

I saw the Saturday matinee and have to say it was utterly mediocre. A totally formulaic bio-musical with nothing particularly notable about it other than the music. Most of the plot points and staging were rather predictable. Now I have no problem with this, in fact I suspect that 90% of people booking to see this are doing it for the music and couldn't care less about the plot. However, with Tina playing just across the West End it really does highlight that Gloria had it pretty easy - the attempts at injecting dramatic tension into this musical are laughable compared to the genuine hardships that Tina faced.

So you can't have a bio musical written about yourself unless you've had a harder time than Tina Turner?

That sounds fair x

[jgblunners]

Aug 26, 2019 22:30:43 GMT intoanewlife said:

So you can't have a bio musical written about yourself unless you've had a harder time than Tina Turner?

That sounds fair x

I was simply trying to state that the Tina musical is much more dramatically engaging as a result of the events in her life. By comparison, the Gloria musical has far less emotional heft. As I said, if you're just there because you like her music then there's no problem with that.

[drowseychap]

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