Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

Gloria Estefan was right: the rhythm is gonna get you. Though it's been open since November, I only just recently saw On Your Feet , which tells Emilio and Gloria Estefan 's story (using their music, of course). The show begins with a concert, which is a great way to immediately engage the audience. The incredible band, which includes actual members of Miami Sound Machine, get that rhythm going, and then Gloria ( Ana Villafane , making an impressive Broadway debut) kicks it up a notch. We're then taken back to Gloria's younger days in Miami, and watch as she meets Emilio (a charming Josh Segarra ) and takes up with Miami Sound Machine, much to the chagrin of her protective mother, played by the terrific Andrea Burns ( In the Heights , Songs for a New World ). Academy Award-winning writer Alexander Dinelaris ( Birdman ) is entrusted with the book. He takes care to hit the highlights/important moments in Gloria and Emilio's career, though it never feels like...

Tell people that you’re going to see a show called Kinky Boots and they’re instantly intrigued. It sounds like a show that might add some flair to a sometimes staid art form. This splashy, flashy musical certainly does add some pizazz to the Great White Way, albeit in a rather traditional way and with varying degrees of success. Kinky Boots , based on the 2005 film, is a good old traditional book musical. Book writer Harvey Fierstein ( Newsies , Safe Men ) knows his way around the book of a musical and does nice work integrating the book with the score, even if the book itself somewhat lazily borrows heavily from the film. (The stage version does incorporate some moments that did not make the final cut of the film but are available in the DVD extras. Their inclusion helps bring closure to the story’s heart.) And like the first book musicals, Kinky Boots uses the show-within-a-show device to make itself more palatable. (More on that later.) In what’s becoming another tradit...