DOLLY can't seem to dance !

[deena]

Posted: 6/15/06 at 11:28pm

I got such a chuckle from these two reviews on the dancing in DOLLY at Papermill.

From Theatermania.com:...Michaels's choreography is inventive and expansive for "Dancing," but the "Waiters' Gallop" is a disorganized free-for-all, a random series of unrelated gags that stubbornly refuse to gather momentum. The title song begins, inevitably, with Feldshuh descending that staircase and contains the expected duck-walking waiters and the parade around a runway that is otherwise hardly used here. But it also has the waiters leaning on each other's backs in bizarre groupings and waving their gloved palms, Fosse-style. This may be the number's gayest staging ever -- and that's saying something!……….

From Variety:
Even odder is the choreography from Mia Michaels, a first-timer whose credits include shows with Celine Dion, Madonna and Cirque du Soleil. What we get is the townsfolk of Yonkers, circa 1880, putting on their Sunday clothes while doing leaps out of Alvin Ailey (this with an all-white cast); the waiters at the Harmonia Gardens working pushups into their routine; and a moment in the title number in which the boys surround the star with the sunburst of hands you'll recognize from Bob Fosse's "Magic to Do" in "Pippin."

If ever a number called for unison dancing, "Hello, Dolly" is it. Here, the boys comport themselves like frenetic ants, with occasional Fosse-like shoulder slinks. Let it be added that the waiters are supposed to recognize Dolly from "those good old days," but all but one of them look like they must have been in diapers when Dolly last came down the staircase.

I think I'll pass on this one.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 6/15/06 at 11:30pm

Why would they ever replace Gower Champion's staging? It's as much a part of "Dolly" as the score is.

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 6/16/06 at 12:03am

BECASUE THEY WANTED TO MAKE IT MORE FOSSE, THAT'S WHY!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/16/06 at 12:33am

Do the waiters Strip?
That would be innovative!

[sondwisenheimer]

Posted: 6/16/06 at 12:43am

Bummer, but I'm still going to see it. Choreography is only a small part of what I personally want to see "Dolly" for. I particularly want to see this production because I've absolutely loved Tovah Feldshuh in everything I've seen her in. Can't wait.

[dancnqn5]

Posted: 6/16/06 at 2:10pm

I love Mia Michaels but to me, her choreography doesn't scream Musical Theatre. At all.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 6/16/06 at 2:11pm

It's so hard to have jazz hands when you're carrying a tray.

Updated On: 6/16/06 at 02:11 PM

[DBillyP]

Posted: 6/16/06 at 2:19pm

From what I have seen on "So You Think You Can Dance," Mia Michaels is a wonderful choreographer, but nothing I have seen of hers says "Hello Dolly" to me!

[jimnysf]

Posted: 6/16/06 at 3:14pm

"It's so hard to have jazz hands when you're carrying a tray.".

LOL!