Gloria Estefan

CHRISTMAS party time came early to Dublin last night

CHRISTMAS party time came early to Dublin last night. Before a live note had been struck the near capacity audience were up on their feet, dancing to Village People's YMCA. Then Gloria Estefan made her entrance in a birdcage and the stage was set for a Studio 57 revival. Alas, it was not to be. That the atmosphere failed to be maintained was, if anything, due to the show's pacing.

This show was the final date of a two month European tour for Gloria and her Miami Sound Machine band (all 20 of them!) used as an excuse to relieve the onstage ennui of playing the same multi cultural ethnic pop set every night in the same order. Thus, it was whistles aplenty, onstage cross dressing from the roadies and a cringing glance through the back pages of Gloria's photo albums and home videos.

Most of the hits were played, although some of the slower ones (Can't Stay Away From You, Cuts Both Ways) were neatly dismissed by the singer as part of her "dysfunctional relationship medley."

The rhythm is gonna get you? Perhaps, but not me. Yet there for most of the preChristmas party animals, Gloria Estefan came, saw, and conga'd.