Estefan a sound machine at Caesars Colosseum

Monday, Oct. 13, 2003 | 8:13 a.m.

Maybe it was because "Live & Unwrapped" at Caesars Palace started almost 30 minutes late and the older members of the mostly Hispanic crowd had other things to do. Like go to bed.

It certainly wasn't because the five-time Grammy Award winner and former lead singer of Miami Sound Machine has lost an ounce of her talent. She hasn't. Her voice is still strong and packed with emotion. The 46-year-old Estefan is as dynamic as ever, fully recovered from a near-fatal tour bus crash in 1990.

And she filled the cavernous Colosseum with her charisma.

Despite the concert-size venue, Estefan was somehow able to make the evening seem intimate and personal. While Celine Dion, the resident headliner of the showroom, sometimes seems dwarfed by the 22,000-plus square foot stage, the Cuban-born vocalist managed to make the space seem small.

She paced from one side of the broad, sharply tilted floor to the other, engaging her fans, pulling them into the show whether they were in the front row or near the rafters in the farthest reaches of the arena.

While there were several empty seats scattered around the Colosseum, they were hardly noticeable.

Supported by an 18-piece band (heavy on percussion), four backup singers and eight dancers, Estefan did not disappoint the near-capacity crowd as she performed a smattering of songs from her new, mostly English-language album ("Unwrapped") during an evening that drew heavily from her past success.

Her first was "On Your Feet," a hit single from the 1989 album "Cuts Both Ways," which reached No. 11 on the Billboard album chart.

Fans didn't need a lot of encouragement to do just that throughout the evening.

Estefan energized the room with the Cuban beats that have been her trademark since she joined a group in 1974 that eventually became the Miami Sound Machine.

She followed "On Your Feet" with "1-2-3," from the 1987 triple-platinum album "Let It Loose," then calmed the crowd down with "Here We Are" from "Cuts Both Ways."

Between numbers she talked. Estefan isn't like a lot of singers who stand stoically and merely introduce their next number. She interacts.

"There's a full moon tonight," she said. "In Spanish, moon is 'luna,' as in lunatic. I expect you to go crazy.

"If you feel like dancing, dance. If you feel like jumping, jump. We'll replace the carpet before Celine comes back."

Estefan is filling in for Dion for a couple of weeks while the Canadian-born diva is taking a couple of weeks off from "A New Day." At the same time, Estefan is heavily plugging her latest album.

Her first number from "Unwrapped" was "Your Picture," which onstage became a touching tribute to her family, enhanced with photos from a family album flashed on the giant LED screen at the back of the stage.

Most of her family members were in the audience for opening night, including her mother (also named Gloria) husband Emilio (who also is her business and creative partner and former keyboardist of Miami Sound Machine), their daughter, Emily, 8, and son, Nayib, 24.

After singing a couple of more songs from her new album, she returned to her roots with such favorites as "Words Get in the Way" (from the 1986 album "Primitive Love," Miami Sound Machine's first recording entirely in English), the ballad "Anything for You" (from the 1987 album, "Let It Loose") and "The Rhythm Is Going to Get You" (1987).

The final song before her encore was 1985's "Conga," Miami Sound Machine's first hit single in the U.S.

While the heart of "Unwrapped" was flawless, those who left early may have been spared a closure that detracted from the rest of the production -- Estefan reclining on the back of a 20-foot, mechanical alligator as it walked onstage and swallowed a mechanical poodle being walked by a daffy-looking female wearing a mumu.

The gator spat out the dog and then a surfer emerged.

It was an unnecessary attempt at humor for an otherwise classy production.

Without the tacky alligator, the Mardi Gras-style ending would have been perfect for an evening that was a Gloria Estefan festival.