BroadwayCon 2023

The musical ON YOUR FEET! THE STORY OF EMILIO AND GLORIA ESTEFAN was groundbreaking in its own right when it premiered in 2016, then-hailed as an example of bringing more diversity and inclusion to Broadway. Now, on the road in 2023, the second national tour has taken this foundation even further — with cast, crew and musicians representing more than 10 countries including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and beyond. Additionally, half of the lead producing team are Puerto Rican-Americans, and the tour has created jobs for 12 performers currently in the country on artist visas. How can we use this success as a model to continue bringing more representation to the road, which has been slower to catch up to progress being made on Broadway?

Luis Salgado (director, choreographer and producer) and his team approached this project with three key ideas in mind — finding talent who represent the show’s key theme of “what an American looks like;” the importance of creating mentorship relationships between creatives and talent; and utilizing relationships with regional theatres as an incubator to support these relationships.

In this discussion, Luis will lead a discussion with Claudia Mulet (Associate Director, OYF second national tour), Gaby Albo (principal actor playing Gloria Estefan), and Holly Buczek, CSA. They will share their experiences with ON YOUR FEET! and other productions, and speak more broadly to how these ideas can unfold into future projects that strengthen representation in cast, crew and producers on the road.