On Your Feet! Review: Kayla Rivera Outshines Costumes
At the July 8 Preview Night of 9 Works Theatrical’s On Your Feet!, the show did not immediately explode the way a Gloria Estefan musical is expected to.
It was polished. It was colorful. It had the shape of a production ready to burst. But at first, it felt slower than expected. The rhythm was there, but the emotional pulse still felt like it was waiting for the right number to unlock it.
Then Anything For You happened.
That was when the production finally found its heart. Not because the number was the loudest or the biggest, but because it gave Gloria the space to be felt. Kayla Rivera settled into the moment beautifully, with the blending from Gloria’s sister Rebecca giving the song an added layer of warmth. It was tender, clear, and exactly the point where the show started to pick up completely.
From there, On Your Feet! became the show it was trying to become.
Kayla Rivera shines brighter than her costumes
And the costumes, to be clear, are not shy. But Rivera keeps pulling the eye back to the person inside the sparkle. Kayla Rivera as Gloria Estefan is not just a vocal showcase or a tribute-act version of an icon. She gives Gloria hesitation, grit, warmth, ambition, and a growing sense of self-possession. You see the woman before you see the legend, which is exactly why the bigger moments work.
The best thing about this On Your Feet! is that it does not treat the Estefan catalog as a shortcut. The hits are there, of course, but the production is strongest when the songs become memory, family argument, cultural pride, and survival instinct.
Rivera knows when to open up vocally, but she also knows when not to overdo it. Coming Out of the Dark gives her the strong Gloria spotlight the audience is waiting for, and she takes it with control. She does not attack the song just to prove she can. She trusts it. She stands inside it honestly and lets it rise.
Jason Canela brings the sazón
Jason Canela brings a different kind of heat as Emilio Estefan. His Emilio has that authentic, sensual, charismatic Cuban sazón completa. He does not feel like a generic leading man dropped into a Latin pop musical. He moves with rhythm, charm, and a kind of confident ease that makes you understand why people would follow Emilio into a room, into a negotiation, or into a dream that still sounds impossible.
Canela’s charisma feels natural, not forced. There is authority in the way he holds the stage, especially when Emilio has to stand his ground. With Rivera, he creates a partnership that feels lived-in. It is not just romance. It is ambition, love, timing, and two people slowly realizing how much they can build together.
One of the quieter surprises of the night was how strongly the Spanish songs communicated even when I did not understand Spanish. The Spanish songs delivered their meaning even when the words did not have to. That says a lot about the choreography, staging, and production design. The songs did not rely only on lyrics to land. The movement, images, and bodies onstage carried the emotion clearly enough for longing, joy, pride, tension, and release to be understood.
9 Works Theatrical knows how to build the world
That is also where 9 Works Theatrical’s design language becomes one of the production’s strongest assets.
The projection work is masterful, and at this point, it feels like a 9 Works Theatrical signature. It is not just there to decorate the stage. It builds place, memory, scale, and momentum. It helps move the story from family spaces to performance spaces, from private struggle to public breakthrough, without making the stage feel crowded or messy.
The quick changes are also seamless. In a show that depends so much on rhythm, transitions matter. The production cannot afford to feel heavy between scenes, and most of the time, it does not. Costumes, lights, projections, choreography, and entrances move with impressive discipline. Once the show is in full motion, it has that clean 9 Works snap where everything seems to know the beat it belongs to.
And, as expected, the dancing is a major pleasure.
The ensemble gives On Your Feet! its drive. They are not just background energy for the leads. They build the world of the musical. They make the music physical. Richardson Yadao is once again a standout, bringing precision, attack, and personality to the choreography. This time, it is also lovely to see him with his wife, Macel Dofitas-Yadao. Together, they add a different spark to the stage. They do not need to steal focus. They simply make the dancing sharper, fuller, and more alive.
Reach became one of my favorite moments because of the ensemble vocals. It was not just about the movement or the lift of the song. It was the way the voices opened it up. The number felt generous and expansive, reminding us that Gloria’s story is not only about one woman rising. It is also about the people, culture, and community rising with her.
The family story lands
The veterans, of course, know exactly what they are doing.
Ayen Laurel as Gloria Fajardo supplies the parental conflict with the right amount of firmness. The character could easily become just another mother standing in the way of a dream, but Laurel gives her emotional grounding. You understand the resistance, even when you are rooting against it. It comes from fear, experience, pride, and a mother’s complicated version of protection.
Pinky Marquez as Consuelo, Gloria’s Abuela, gives the production its inspirational but humorous warmth. She hits the mark each time. There is ease in how she brings light to the show without turning the role into a one-note dispenser of wisdom. She is funny, but not just comic relief. She is encouraging, but not sentimental wallpaper. She gives the family story a necessary softness.
Together, Laurel and Marquez remind us that On Your Feet! is not only a music-industry success story. It is also a family story. It is about mothers and grandmothers, migration and expectation, sacrifice and stubborn love. It is about the people who shape you, limit you, challenge you, and sometimes become the reason you keep going.
Neo Rivera also makes a breakthrough impression as Phil. The role could have easily disappeared into the machinery of the show, but Rivera commits to Phil’s antics with such comic clarity that the character becomes more memorable than expected. He gives the humor shape instead of just volume, loosening the room without pulling the production away from its emotional center.
Favorite moments and one nitpick
Outside the usual power songs, my favorite moments were Anything For You, If I Never Got To Tell You, Reach, and Coming Out of the Dark.
Anything For You is where the show first opened up for me. If I Never Got To Tell You, sung between Emilio and Gloria’s mother, gives the night one of its most emotional and vocally powerful moments. Reach gives the ensemble vocals a beautiful highlight. Coming Out of the Dark gives Gloria the spotlight she needs, with Kayla Rivera meeting it through control rather than excess.
If I have one nitpick, Vien King as José Fajardo could use more refining, especially with the accent. His performance does not hurt the production, but beside a cast this confident and calibrated, the moments that still need finish become easier to notice. There could also be more tenderness in how he plays a father longing for the sweetness of his daughter while carrying the darkness of war. The role has pain in it, yes, but it also needs that ache of love underneath the distance.
Still, by the end, the slow opening feels less like a major problem and more like the production needing a few numbers to fully warm up. Once On Your Feet! finds its rhythm, it becomes bright, moving, and technically polished, with a strong Gloria at the center.
For Manila audiences, this is the kind of glossy, technically confident musical staging 9 Works Theatrical has become known for. But the stronger surprise is how much of the show’s heart comes through not only in the big dance numbers, but in the quieter family moments.
Kayla Rivera carries the role with grace and fire. Jason Canela brings the heat and charm Emilio needs. Ayen Laurel and Pinky Marquez give the family conflict its emotional architecture. Neo Rivera gives Phil a welcome comic spark. Richardson Yadao, Macel Dofitas-Yadao, and the ensemble keep the stage alive through dance and vocals. The projections and quick changes keep the storytelling fluid. And 9 Works Theatrical once again shows how much it understands musical staging as movement, image, and feeling working together.
On Your Feet! may begin a little slowly, but when it gets going, it knows exactly how to make the audience rise with it.
And when Kayla Rivera stands in the light, brighter than every glittering costume around her, the show finds the reason for its own title.
