Well, despite some lovely dancing and a very charismatic performance from NYC Ballet's Robert Fairchild, I found this to be a swing and a miss.
Much of the blame can be laid at the feet of Craig Lucas and his plotless, meandering and ineffectual book. I swear, nothing really happened the whole first act, and although the plot found minor momentum in act two, things petered out without much resolution for most of the characters by the end. I guess you could call it "impressionistic," but that's not what this type of musical needs; fade out/fade in on characters and their emotions without an forward motion makes for a frustrating evening. For what I thought was going to be a romantic musical comedy there sure was an awful lot of talk about the Nazis, and nothing puts you in the mood for dream ballet like talk of concentration camps.
There was plenty of technically wonderful dancing, but the numbers were occasionally over-choreographed; not EVERY number needs to turn into a production number with full ensemble or it loses the effect. A prime example is Fairchild's first big attempt to woo Lise, "I've Got Beginner's Luck." It starts out very well with Fairchild dancing around a store and Lise worried that his advances will cost her her job. All of a sudden the entire cast is dancing along with him for apparently no reason and the business of her having to agree to the date to keep her job is lost in the commotion. What should have been a cute, charming number becomes frustratingly overblown.
There's also a quality of "haven't we seem this all before?" that pervades the whole evening. We've, of course, heard all the music before whether in Nice Work, Crazy For You, all the Gershwin productions at Encores of late, as well as countless other places. There's a strong resemblance to On the Town, as well as lesser works like Never Gonna Dance.
By the time the big ballet comes along I was feeling each minute pass. Although The King and I ran 3.5 hrs last night and had its problems, I never was bored. Without any stakes for the characters or real dramatic tension this just sort of plodded along from one number to the next.
Even the ever reliable Veanne Cox couldn't spin much magic out of her woefully underwritten part. Jill Paice and Max von Essen had a little more to work with, but honestly not much. Max has a sort of "Live, Laugh, Love" follies number in act two that they try to whip up into a showstopper, but neither the song nor the choreography really support the decision. (Max gives 110% and sails vocally through it- I find no fault with him at all.)
The set and costumes were pretty. The lighting design was nicely done. I just wish I had liked it more.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!