February 21 and 22, 2023, Broadway at the Fox brought On Your Feet to Riverside, and the mood in the room was already up before the first big number hit. People knew at least part of the catalog. Some came for Gloria. Some came because Broadway at the Fox has been on a good run. Either way, the energy was there early.
On paper, this show can sound like a standard rise-to-fame jukebox format. In practice, this production played with more edge than that. It is the Estefan story, yes, but it also moves through migration, family pressure, career risk, and the cost of pushing a sound into spaces that are not ready for it yet.
The central performances helped a lot. Scenes between Gloria and Emilio did not feel overworked. They felt lived in. Direct when they needed to be, tense when they needed to be, and occasionally messy in a way that made them more believable.
One moment made that obvious: applause started in one side of orchestra during a transition into a recognizable song, then spread unevenly across sections until the whole room found the beat. Not clean. Not perfectly timed. Better for it.
Then the tone tightened.
When the conflict around control and industry pressure moved to the foreground, the cast stopped chasing pure uplift and let the discomfort sit for a second. Good choice. It gave later emotional releases more weight and kept the night from feeling like one long celebration reel.
There was also a small cue wobble where lighting lagged behind movement and left one performer in a flatter wash for a moment. It corrected fast. Most people probably forgot it by the next sequence, but those tiny resets are part of what make live performance feel alive instead of packaged.
By the time the dance-heavy sections rolled in, the audience had already bought in. Rhythmic drive, strong catalog placement, choreography that read clearly from the house. In one quieter section, a program page turn near mid-house carried farther than expected, then the room snapped right back into focus on the next lyric.
The book work (Alexander Dinelaris) did enough to connect public success with private strain without over-explaining every beat. You could follow the climb and the cost at the same time. That balance matters in a show like this.
And the Fox helped. Its 1929 bones still give nights like this a specific atmosphere before the cast even takes stage. The restored interior and modern production support keep it practical for touring shows, but the room still feels like a room with memory.
Broadway at the Fox has built a real cadence in Riverside, legacy titles, newer hits, family pulls, and high-recognition crowd magnets. On Your Feet fit that pattern while still giving the audience more than nostalgia.
Post-show lobby traffic told the story pretty well: people replaying favorite moments out loud, smiling, and more than a few couples humming on the way toward Mission Inn Avenue.
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