You might think that a jukebox musical based on the life and back-catalogue of Cuban-American chart-topper Gloria Estefan would be called, simply, Gloria!
But the first of many missteps of this colourful, loud, brash, disposable cash-in show – which did a respectable but not head-turning two-year stint on Broadway in 2015 – is to lure the public in with a title that re-defines anodyne.
It’s telling, in its way. Estefan, 61, recently told a journalist that the guy hired to write the book, joining the dots of 20 or so hits, Alexander Dinelaris, pointed out an obvious stumbling-block. Estefan (nee Fajardo) has long been happily married to her first love – and her producer – Emilio. Apparently the couple haven’t argued in more than 40 years. “There’s no conflict,” Dinelaris (whose credits include the book for the musical spin-off to The Bodyguard) protested.
Estefan did, it’s true, have a life-threatening accident in 1990, when her tour-bus collided with a truck in a snowstorm, leaving her with a fractured spine. It required a slow recovery to, well, get back on her feet. Combine that struggle with the usual slog to get established – the show accentuating the way in which her mother, thwarted in her own aspirations, was a resentful obstacle – and the title makes some kind of biographical sense. But above all, it’s there to serve as a feelgood invitation: before the night is up, you’ll be grooving in the aisles, etc.
