DANCIN' To Receive First Broadway Revival — Page 3

Thanks for the full review!  I knew there would be a lot of changes, but actually expected... a few less.  Interesting they got Sing Sing Sing AND Beat Me Daddy in there (both were briefly in workshops for Fosse but Beat Me was removed cuz it was felt it was too similar a number).  But I get why Wayne wants to include Big Deal stuff.

The patriotic stuff is hard to really do now with the same earnestness (no matter what you think of the country, this is a very different era than when it premiered shortly after the bicentennial mania and Yankee Doodle Disco prob would go over now like a wet noodle, not to mention the black dancers doing a number to Dixie, even if that was meant to have some sort of irony at the time), but I am positively shocked the famous Dream Barre ballet class (or as one dancer called it "that ballet cunninlingus number" isn't there   OK, of course I'm not, it seems to be the most reviled number Fosse did, and was dropped sometime before the tour.  I know If It Feels Good, Let It RIde was cut from the tour too, with some fears about how a stoner number might play outside of New York, so was a bit surprised that it's one of the ones here, but I guess issues have changed although maybe the entire number with its "stoned coupling" (as a 1978 review in the Washington Post I found which claimed the show was pornographic stated).

But that's where I always have trouble with Dancin' research (I obviously wasn't born until after it closed).  The reviews call the numbers one thing, but ibdb and wiki list the numbers mostly by the music used.  For example that If It Feels Good is called Joint Endeavour in reviews, and it took me a second to realize that same 'critic' complaining about a threesome scene was talking about Sing Sing Sing (really??) when he referred to the Benny's Place number (I should have guessed that one given the music though.)

I

Updated On: 4/27/22 at 10:24 PM

Ah thanks, I wasn't sure how long either lasted.  I saw both when I saw Fosse in Toronto which I guess was actually post workshops, so I worded it wrongly.  I see on Wiki it went from Toronto, to Boston and then LA where the most cuts were made pre-Broadway.  I do know from friends that Rich Kid's Rag was in Toronto (I guess in workshops) but was out by the time I saw it.

BrodyFosse123 said: "I have friends who did the entire workshop period of the show plus the Broadway run so I have lots of damn paperwork I never purged. I need to go into storage and get this stuff as I have a list of ALL the numbers that were workshopped (yes, there was a lot of Gwen’s stuff that eventually wasn’t used), plus the full list from each stop and what was cut during the out-of-town stops and during Broadway previews. Lots of backstage drama went on with FOSSE (project developed with Gwen and Chet Walker years earlier, then one day he’s gone and Reinking is there overnight, etc)."

Who are you BrodyFosse - former producer-retired agent as you know so much about the biz?

henrike said: "I saw the Sunday performance and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I will preface by stating that I'm not familiar with the original Dancin or Fosse aside from their Tony telecasts.

Based on the song list, it does seem to have a lot in common with the original Broadway production in the late 70s. It starts with Crunchy Granola Suite - and the cast is incredible! It moves to Mr. Bojangles, Percussion (parts 1-4, including ionization), and Big Noise from Winnetka (with trippy projections).



Then, I'm guessing the show diverges slightly from the original production by paying homage to Fosse's shows with a loose storyline of a boy visiting a big city. Here, however, the music is arranged such that the tunes are in barely recognizable form. I recognized tunes from Sweet Charity (Hey Big Spender) , Pippin (Glory/Manson Trio, Magic to Do), Cabaret (Mein Herr), Gypsy (Let me Entertain You).



Act 1 ends with I Wanna be a Dancin Man. Act 2 opens with Sing Sing Sing. Impressive. Notably, the Trumpet solo part was performed by Kolton Krouse.



That is followed by a comedy scene (while they do a scene change?) that addresses feminism which simply did not work in my opinion. Next, there's a scene that is listed as "Romantic Fantasy" but I don't remember much. Next was "If it Feels Good Let It Ride" This leads to the America? sequence. They took the approach of critiquing the meaning of America heavy-handedly. (e.g. the cast lining up to say a line of quote from historical figures that critiques America one by one, projections of Amanda Gorman speech, etc.) Watching it in 2022, it felt a bit predictable and the direction felt stale and I'm not sure if the message is as powerful as it was intended to be. (I found some clips from the 70s cast performing the songs in patriotic TV appearance, which was quite the departure.)



Lastly, the show ends with The Big Deal sequence. Khori Michelle Petinaud belts out Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries, some of the dancers have fun in Ain't We Got Fun, and then Tony d'Alelio and Nando Morland leads the cast in the exhilarating number Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar (the number that was performed by Wayne Cilento in the original Broadway production of Fosse's flop The Big Deal in 1986).



There was some Epilogue scene and then the curtain call. Overall, I loved the production as a whole. Would love to see it Opening or Closing night on Broadway with an enthusiastic audience."

Never heard of Big Deal at the Broadway Theatre in 1986 well I was only 10 lol - It was a BIG Flop 69 performances!? That Beat Me Daddy number is Fosse at it's best HOT!  

The reviews for this have not been kind.

Updated On: 5/3/22 at 04:57 PM

Cilento's only big success (as choreographer) is Wicked. His choreo for AIDA was interesting, his last Bway credit is HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME(!!!) and his revival of Sweat Charity remains some of the worst choreography I've ever seen on a Broadway stage.

How did this revival/revisal originate? Did Nicole Fosse & the estate approach Cilento or has this been a passion project for him? Or did Joey Parnes pull everyone together with the idea to revive it? I know there was the scrapped Graciela Daniele/Roundabout revival a decade ago.

Those were the only reviews I could find as well--are there ones I haven't found yet? 

I agree with ACL about how terrible Cilento's choreography for Sweet Charity was (was he hampered because he wanted to differentiate his work from all the iconic Fosse numbers in it?)

In this LA Times article they quote Nicole Fosse a lot and say she was pushing for a revival since 2005 and *imply* she OK'ed Cilento https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-04-30/bob-fosse-dancing-broadway-show-rvival

 

Saw this last night and while it definitely had its moments and some strong individual performances - and the audience responded with the de rigueur standing ovation - IMO there are some big problems that need to be fixed before this gets anywhere near Broadway.

First, and most problematic given the title of the show, is the dancing. Again, some great solo work, but the lack of uniformity and general sloppiness in some of the group and ensemble numbers was really surprising (particularly this deep into the run, as last night was supposed to be closing night before the late extension). When you've got a row of dancers performing precision choreography in supposed synchronization and every leg extension is a different height and every hat tilt is at a different angle, that's very noticeable - and it ain't Fosse. (Note that I blame Cilento and not the dancers for this, since it's his job to take in the whole stage picture and ensure consistency.)

Second, there are some stunningly misguided choices that have been made in attempting to update the show's book and structure. Act I contains a new and long (ok, interminable) "Big City" section that incorporates bits of classic Fosse choreography such as the Manson Trio, Rich Man's Frug, and Mein Herr, but performs that choreography to different music (rights issues, maybe?), severing the movement from the music it was originally created to serve. It seems the creative team wasn't comfortable retaining the original concept of a fully original standalone show and instead attempted to throw in a fan-service Fosse-like "greatest hits" pastiche that ends up not being that at all. It all feels jarring and very misguided. And pretty much the entire second act - after the great "Sing, Sing, Sing" opener - is a mess. The pointless "Female Star Spot," in which four performers sing "Here You Come Again" while trading attempted-woke but actually-trite dialogue about female empowerment, includes no dancing at all and plays like a 12:50 a.m. SNL sketch. The "America" sequence (now retitled "America?" ) understandably updates the 1970s jingoistic patriotism in the original by opening with a new segment of the cast reciting quotes and angry reflections about the state of the country - which would be a powerful segment in a different show - but the updated text bears little connection to the original choreography that follows. And while "Beat Me Daddy" is a hugely fun number, placing it within a lengthy new Big Deal section in which the cast provides Cliffs-Notes summaries of the characters and plot while reenacting a seemingly random selection of truncated dialogue scenes - and preceding the section with an "interview" of character "Bob Fosse" in which he congratulates himself for being such a visionary as to make the show about Black characters - is a whole series of head-scratching "what were they thinking?" moments. By placing the segment at the climax of the evening and giving Big Deal a level of attention and veneration shown to no other Fosse show, it makes it seem like the pinnacle of his career; it wasn't (except possibly for Cilento).

I saw the original Dancin' in 1978, and while I honestly don't remember the specifics all that well and am pretty sure there were one or two numbers that fell flat, I do remember a general feeling of awe at the range and expressiveness of movement. This revival might recapture that with some major reworking of the book and a whole lot more precision in the direction and choreography, but it's not there yet.   

Updated On: 5/30/22 at 06:24 PM