‘On Your Feet!’ Brings the Estefan Story and Its Message of Dreaming Against the Odds to Manila
Perhaps more than ever, Filipinos of today, grappling with harsher socio-economic realities, need to believe that they can reach their dreams or at least live better lives. Yet no one can do it alone – they need a partner, a friend, a family, and/or perhaps the whole community to stand by their side and encourage them to continue the fight, no matter what. This is what the cast of 9 Works Theatrical’s On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan wants audiences to take away once they catch the show this July.
Cuban-American actor Jason Canela, who plays Emilio, said of the musical and the titular couple, “It takes you on a journey where these two individuals go through a level of adversity that really feels like it’s impossible to overcome. They dreamed dreams that they knew were impossible, but they did not take ‘no’ for an answer. Every ‘no’ was one step closer to the ‘yes’ that they needed. They really did not stop until they got it.”
Canela, who knows Emilio and Gloria Estefan personally, added that “Gloria is still going strong [today] as Emilio.”
The couple’s stunning success in the musical and entertainment scene of the 1980s and their influence up to today also make the production a celebration. The mega-hits the Estefans and their band The Miami Sound Machine popularized more than 40 years ago—like “Conga,” “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “1-2-3,” and “Get On Your Feet”— promise to become show-stopping numbers that can encourage the audience to sing and dance along.
Freedom in movement
Choreographer Nunoy van den Burgh echoed that the spectacular dance numbers, while evoking “celebration,” will also mirror the struggles and the triumphs of the couple who had faced a lot of prejudices from their respective communities back then. “People from Cuba and the Philippines can relate to this: the struggle to get where we are today,” he said. “The way how we are being judged because of our language and how we look. It’s important that in movement, we create freedom and liberty.”
Van den Burgh himself had to revise his own thinking about Latin dance and music after diving deep into the material. “There is so much more to this than ballroom dancing,” he revealed. “I really wanted to have this feeling of coming from the streets. There is a representation of Latin dance and community, and an expression of one’s self, thoughts, and struggles. I realized – I do resonate with this. I do understand the vision, where this whole story is going through.”
It is a sentiment that Robbie Guevara hopes his predominantly Filipino audience will adopt once they watch the production. As the director, he asked himself, “Ano ang kukurot sa puso ng Pinoy? How can I make this relatable to the Philippines?”
Again, as the cast members repeatedly said during the press con, Filipino close family ties, which are also prevalent in Latin culture, are one important theme in the movie. Aside from Emilio, the two major influences in the life of Gloria (played alternately by Molly Langley and Kayla Rivera) are her grandmother (Pinky Marquez) and mother (Ayen Laurel).
Langley said the young Gloria “never wanted to be famous, and never wanted to have the spotlight. It is actually her mom who wanted her to be a singer. Emilio was one of the people who pushed her, and her abuela.” An introvert at heart, Gloria “did not show much of her feelings but she poured out a lot of emotions into her song – and that’s why her songs are so incredible.”
Rivera confirmed that in the musical, the young Gloria and her mother “might have butt heads but her mom was protecting her. At the end of the day, there was support. The show is about the importance of family, of having those people that surround you who believe in your dreams and would push you.”
The power of love
When it comes to hugot, both actors said they can relate to the dynamics between Gloria and her elders. As a teenager growing up in Canada, Rivera’s mother would “take the train to take me to voice lessons after a full day’s work. My dad would get in line for me for auditions at 3 in the morning for Canadian Idol. Gloria had that belief and support from her lola.”
Langley said she could relate to the young Gloria, who missed her mom after leaving home to pursue her dreams with Emilio. In pursuing her career, she studied musical theater in London for three years and worked in musical productions on cruise ships. “I was doing what I wanted and loved,” she said. “I was chasing my dreams, but it was like I was leaving something behind. That’s how Gloria felt: she had to leave her mom behind.”
Then of course there is the power of love which translates into a very powerful kind of teamwork. According to Canela, the young Emilio was at first hesitant to meet Gloria, the quiet songwriter, upon the urging of her more ambitious grandmother. Emilio already had his own all male-team, the Miami Latin Boys, which became the Miami Sound Machine; the inclusion of a girl in whatever capacity back then was unprecedented and unthinkable. But Emilio saw “there was so much more” to the lady who would soon become his personal and professional partner. He had the “ability to see what Gloria was even before she knew it.”
Canela described the couple as “trailblazers and visionaries.” Emilio, in particular, was “a dreamer” who has a “mind that is always thinking, what’s the next dream? They’re still to this day one-upping themselves and always trying to take a bigger step.”
Canela described how Gloria was instrumental to making their group evolve into a different form and direction: Emilio “comes to the realization that ‘we’re not the Miami Latin Boys but we are Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine,” Canela shared. “He realizes that with this woman out front, she can take the band to places he never dreamt of. That’s where she also realizes, ‘Maybe I do need to step out of my comfort zone and listen to this crazy man.’”
Soon enough, it was their team-up that would redefine the former all-boys group – and revolutionize modern Latin American music. But the big guns of the American musical landscape including record producers were not quite ready to sign up for the couple’s vision of what new music could be: merging Latin rhythm and melody with American lyrics. They felt that the fusion that Emilio and Gloria brought to their recording studios was either too American or too Latin, and thus unsellable to an audience.
Rivera described how Gloria would approach each rejection: “If they are saying ‘no,’ she would ask, ‘What can we do, what is in our control? It was a team effort between the two of them. She would feel defeated but she would tell [Emilio], ‘Let’s do this.’”
Langley said that the reverse is true: Emilio is Gloria’s “rock, super passionate and driven and that inspires her even more. He does not take no for an answer. Both of them together – that’s what made them what they are today.”
Canela said that ultimately the “universal” message of On Your Feet! will appeal to everyone who is willing to look beyond the difficult situations to pursue their dreams beyond it. It is also very personal to him, a second-generation immigrant whose parents had fled Fidel Castro’s dictatorship in Cuba to give their family a better life in America.
He said that the final song, “Coming Out of the Dark” “really inspires you…whatever challenges you go through in life, you will come out of the dark. There will be light. Whatever passion or dream you have, just keep on fighting for it, because it was placed in your heart for a reason.”
On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan will run on weekends from July 10 to August 2, 2026, at 8:00 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and 3:00 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, at the Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center in Makati City. Directed by Robbie Guevara, with musical direction by Daniel Bartolome and choreography by Nunoy van den Burgh, On Your Feet! features a book by Academy Award winner Alexander Dinelaris, and music produced and recorded by Emilio & Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine.
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