On Your Feet

A couple of days ago we saw On Your Feet, a musical featuring the life story of Gloria and Emilio Esteban.  This show received quite a few Tony Awards. 

The story was an inspirational one.  Both Gloria and Emilio started as immigrants who have musical talents.  Their success was the combination of talent, hard work, and acute sense in business.  The Miami band was doing well in the Latino circle but they took the courage of breaking into English speaking world.  If Gloria is the visionary and artistic soul of the team, Emilio was the one who knows how to execute and turn the opportunity into a successful business.  In face of rejection from their agent for entering the English market, they were determined and used the most basic marketing approach: going to door to door of night clubs, etc, to promote their band.  After being successful, they worked relentless to reach higher altitude.  Along the way there were multiple strains affecting the couple's relationship with their families and between themselves.  They again worked hard to resolve the issues and moved ahead.

It was a solid performance with lots of hit songs. The lively Caribbean music and richly choreographed dances were the highlights of the night, along with colorful and exotic costumes. All the performers did a great job!  One notable actor is the boy who played young Emilio.  He was so good at dancing that he stole a lot of shows.  Before the intermission at the end of the first half, the boy and other performers came down stage and danced with audience sitting by the aisle.

It was a great show.