Video: Go Backstage With ON YOUR FEET! Star Christie Prades

My hello, Broadway world

My name is Christy Prades and I play Gloria Stefan in London's On Your Feet

We're here in my dressing room here at the Coliseum and I'm about to get ready to transform

from Christy to Gloria, so join me. So we just finished about three hours of rehearsal getting ready for Westin Live

We're very excited to be performing there, but now we have a show tonight

So I'm going to show you a little bit of my prep and my routine every single night as I

transform from Christie to Gloria. I always start with my hair usually, but I'm going to do some makeup so you guys see a

little bit of that. I always say it's so exciting to see the show and how it's evolved through the three years

that I've done it, especially with three different casts. It's been kind of cool to see totally different people portray and interpret the story in

their own special and organic way and just seeing them kind of like evolve into their characters and

being a witness to each person kind of finding their way with the show it's been a really really

exciting and fulfilling thing to to witness especially with the lending cast because they've

never seen the show at all whereas our tour cast they've seen it on broadway and whatnot so they

kind of knew what to fall back on but the peeps here it's kind of like they had a chance to

really build it from the ground up and me getting to witness them do that and be like the veteran

and knowing that I was a rookie once and was in the same kind of place is a very special thing

And yeah, I'm just happy to be out here and to be telling that story with this cast in particular

I love them. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Especially from my debut, from my Broadway debut to now

I've just had and developed such a relationship with Gloria herself that I was able to kind of dive in a little bit deeper into my personal Gloria because I knew her a little bit more

On Broadway, I didn't really have a chance to connect with her because we were already open and it was just kind of like a machine that kept running

but yeah for tour and for here it just getting to know her and getting to know her intention behind

each scene and everything like that I was definitely able to find new meaning behind

my intention on stage and that was something that I wasn't you know able to get in the beginning and

now that I have it just completely transformed my outlook on my character and how I interpret

things on stage. So I was told that UK audiences were very reserved and I was

preparing for it just because in the States we're a little laid back or like

we kind of like to connect with the show in general at least on Broadway On tour it was different but coming here and especially starting in Leicester which is obviously a smaller town than here I was expecting it to be like a little quieter but

they were so loud and with us and and they were connecting with us right away and it was just kind

of shocking really to to see that and then to talk to them after and be like yeah we're not

usually like that so it was kind of really cool to witness that we're breaking that mold with our

show. I've always wanted to come here, which is really crazy that this show has helped me see so

many places that I've dreamt of going to. London has always been like on the top of my list just

because I know this is kind of crazy, but I was a huge Harry Potter fan when I was younger. So I

kind of fell in love with just like the accent and the way that people are here. They're so friendly

and so open and willing to like help out and just really, really kind. So I was always kind of like

intrigued on coming out here and exploring and the fact that I get to come and work here and

and explore it while I'm doing that is is amazing it's a dream come true really I love it here

it's really special um just because as an actor we're always told to kind of um be something that

we're not and kind of live in another world of interpretation depending on the character that

we're playing but with this show and with those kinds of shows the fact that I get permission

to be my organic self and to be a Cuban American, sharing a story of dreams and sharing a story of acceptance

in immigrating to a new country and just starting from scratch and making yourself out of nothing

I mean, it's kind of really special because that's so... That's like a vocabulary that I know very well because of my parents

and just like all of my family and friends that have been through the same thing

So it's been wonderful to kind of share that story and to see the response of people loving our culture and like what we bring to the States

And we bring here, there's Cubans here. There's two Cubans in our show that I didn't even know that they live in Germany and then one lives here

So it's kind of crazy that we get to actually have these shows that we get to say our own personal story within this story

And it's been a big privilege to be able to be that person, to expose that

And especially people getting to represent, yeah, my Cuban-American side, but also, like, my people from Miami, like, where I grew up

It's kind of weird. I always say I'm spoiled that I get to play a little bit of myself

whenever I play Gloria. It's very special. It's very unique. Not to be acting, but just to kind of be and just to respond in a human way

And to do that on top of just kind of not having to worry about my accent

or not having to worry about the way that I talk with my hands a lot

I usually have to control that and think about that. It nice to be able to just be okay with doing that doing those things Yeah I love it Auditions left and right while I was cocktail serving at night on 59th street around columbus circle and it was all about working on nights and then

taking class and auditioning during the day so when it came to this show i had actually gone in

the first time to audition for aside from 2014 for an ensemble role and that's one of the dancers

and I had gone in and I was doing the West Side production at the time

so that was in Miami, so I flew back to my home in New York and auditioned for that, and they let me stay

I went through a couple of rounds, and then when I auditioned in front of Jerry

and Sergio and our producers, I sang Mi Tierra because I knew her music already

so I was like, perfect, yes, I'm going to sing this song. And then I sang mi tierra and Jerry kind of looked at me and he was like, I'm going to do something

I'm going to give you the Gloria packet. And I was like, the Gloria packet

And he literally sends me the roll of Gloria to just kind of like, just, you know, look it over, come back, you know, practice a couple times

And we, you know, we just want to see you. Hold on, pause

This takes so much concentration. um so then when that happened i flew back to do my west my shows in west side story

and then i went back in and i auditioned in front of them again and then i didn't hear

from them for about a month then it was in may uh april that they called me and they're like hey

so we're gonna have you come in for like final callbacks and when i went back in it was going

to be with Gloria and Emilio and the entire team Sergio Trujillo Jerry Mitchell all of our producers

so that's the first time I actually met her was in the audition room no no pressure and yeah I went

in and did my thing I sang her songs I did a couple of scenes and she was very sweet she gave

me really good energy I remember feeling that she didn't talk much she just looked at me and was

like nodding her head a lot and three days later my agent calls me and he's like how would you like

to be on Broadway and I was like shut up that's so crazy so yeah that's kind of like how it went

and I was still cocktail serving when I was doing all of this so it's just it's a beautiful it's my

beautiful personal story the most important thing about this show is that it's about family I know

a lot of people think it's like a jukebox musical but there's a huge storyline behind the family

aspect that is Gloria's family everything from her to her mother to her grandmother to her sister

to her father you get to see this normal girl kind of go through this evolution of becoming

this star but also juggling the real real life and illness you know her father is sick her she taking care of the household with her mother I mean that that just a lot of what we go through essentially in life And um it also

a story about dreams. It's a story about kind of making the impossible dream a reality. And that's

what they did with their music. Um, you definitely get to see the tribulations that come with it

You get to see a lot of the fails that come with it, a lot of the pushing throughs, making a lot of those breakthroughs so that they can make that dream happen

It just doesn't happen like that. You have to really work your ass off. And we say that in the show in a different kind of way

And it's a story about love. You get to see these two individuals who are kind of evolving their music and working together, but also kind of recognizing the love that they have for each other

And you just see it unfold beautifully. so while they're creating the music while they're creating their empire for their success

in the work aspect you also see them in their love aspect and it's kind of a beautiful thing

um to witness there and then you also see a lot of defeat and pushing through that defeat with her

bus accident but a lot of people actually forget that she went through um so you get to see another

fail again it's like fails and triumphs and fails and triumphs and it's just a story about life

family life and and dreams and i think that that's something that's very much needed to be seen

and has needed to be seen for a long time energy culture

love honesty and humanity i feel like those five things are definitely

uh definitely sum up on your feet people don't expect to get more than what they get

they just think it's like a concert and it's so much deeper than that. And I love that people

don't realize that until they come to the show and they're like, what a surprise. And I'm like

I know it's, it's pretty amazing. Um, social media. Uh, I have an Instagram, a Twitter and

a Facebook. If you just like look under Christie Prades, C-H-R-I-S-T-I-E-P-R-A-D-E-S. Um, and

And IG, I'm at Christy underscore Pradas. And Twitter, I'm at Christy Elaine

Yeah, you can look for me there. There's so many things in the works. Hopefully much more after this here in London

But if not, follow me along in the States because there's so much brewing there all the time in New York

London's like New York, actually, when it comes to work and the buzz and the vibe

so follow along because it's it's been a while to ride this far and it just keeps on coming

so it's exciting to share thank you so much for joining me here in my dressing room in the london

coliseum please come and see our show that's on your feet from june 14th through august 31st we'll

be here all summer and i can't wait to go out with you guys later conga down to the london

Coliseum to see our story on your feet this summer from June 14th