Douglas Carter Beane Lovingly Steers "Band Wagon" to Create Broadway-Aimed DANCING IN THE DARK- Page 2
Douglas Carter Beane Lovingly Steers "Band Wagon" to Create Broadway-Aimed DANCING IN THE DARK
re: Douglas Carter Beane Lovingly Steers 'Band Wagon' to Create Broadway-Ai#26
Posted: 3/11/08 at 7:41amThe idea sounds like it could be marvelous, but in some way, it seems to negate the whole point of The Bandwagon- Adding too much drama and reading far too much into what is intended to be a lighthearted and fun piece just winds you up in disaster.
re: Douglas Carter Beane Lovingly Steers 'Band Wagon' to Create Broadway-Ai#27
Posted: 3/12/08 at 1:41am
The buzz from the previews has been very negative...
let's hope they can get the show in shape before opening night. I'm sure the Old Globe theatre is afraid of the LA Times reviewer panning Bandwagon the same way he panned A Catered Affair.
re: Douglas Carter Beane Lovingly Steers 'Band Wagon' to Create Broadway-Ai#28
Posted: 3/12/08 at 8:04am
I've seen the show twice -- The first night the first act needed a little bit of work, but overall it was a great show. The second night, the entire show was incredible and completely blew me away.
I'm still not understanding all of the hype surrounding Scott Bakula - but Beth Leavel, Mara Davi, Adam Heller, and Patrick Page are all absolutely fantastic in this show.
They need to give this a chance on Broadway.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#29
Posted: 3/15/08 at 8:00pm
One person on this board and 3 others on the ATC board hated it...so I'm glad someone liked it on one of the boards.
The San Diego Union-Tribune's James Herbert gave it a qualified review, saying the show is a hit, even though it feels like a "work-in progress":
THEATER REVIEW
'Dancing' finds its comedic rhythm
James Hebert
ARTS WRITER
March 15, 2008
The song “That's Entertainment!” is an American classic; who knew it also was the world's most potent ad jingle, or maybe some kind of theatrical Viagra?
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
Adam Heller and Beth Leavel in the Old Globe's production of "Dancing in the Dark."
In the Old Globe Theatre's seriously fun new musical, “Dancing in the Dark,” Patrick Page plays a suave director who seduces first a writing team, then a leading man, then a snobby choreographer into doing a musical together, simply by trotting out a few bars of the tune.
He could charm snakes with that number, or sell snake oil (maybe even to charmed snakes), and writer Douglas Carter Beane does a canny job of pitching this bit of Broadway rah-rah with both a knowing wink and an adoring grin.
In sum: “Dancing in the Dark” makes the sale. It's a bit long, the second act starts to wander, the look is a work in progress and lead-character questions may linger. But it'd still be a surprise not to see this show make its way to New York, just like its own musical-within-a-musical (only with a less tortured development process).
It works in good measure because Beane has done something stunning with Betty Comden and Adolph Green's screenplay to the 1953 backstage musical “The Band Wagon”: made sense of it.
Because of studio complications, the duo behind “Singin' in the Rain” never got to finish the “Band Wagon” script, so the last part of the Vincente Minnelli-directed movie wound up a mishmash of production numbers set to the tunes of composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz (“Dancing in the Dark” among them).
Beane strings them into parallel love stories that are sweet and believable, even as they hopscotch from the hokum of “Louisiana Hayride” to the can-do pep of “A Shine on Your Shoes” to the vinegar-laced vaudeville of “Triplets.”
In one of many art-imitates-life touches, film-TV star and onetime Tony Award nominee Scott Bakula plays Tony Hunter, a former theater type who went Hollywood and now comes shuffling back. He gets an icy greeting in New York from his ex-stage partners, writers Lily and Lester Marton (Beth Leavel and Adam Heller), stand-ins of a sort for Comden and Green.
But the extravagantly vain Jeffrey Cordova (Page) insists they work together again, and he brings in the celebrated modern dancer Gabrielle Gerard (Mara Davi) and her Svengali of a squeeze, choreographer Paul Byrd (Sebastian La Cause). They all make for an “A” team, as in animosity, acrimony, antipathy.
Jeffrey seals the show's doom by seizing on Lily's throwaway plot remark about a “deal with the devil” and reconceiving the work as a wildly misguided modern take on “Faust,” a disaster in its out-of-town tryout (though a hoot in its brief appearance on the Globe stage).
Tony and team then have to figure out how to salvage the show, along with their tangled relationships.
In a part played on film by Fred Astaire, Bakula – best-known for TV's “Quantum Leap” – is less a hoofer than a journeyman entertainer, a role that fits the laconic and likable actor well.
His voice seems better suited for belting than for the quieter tones of a tune like “By Myself,” but Bakula has a talent for tap as well as good comic timing.
Still, he has all he can handle to match the major triple threats alongside him. Whatever Faustian bargain director Gary Griffin might've made to get Beth Leavel, it's worth an adjustable-rate mortgage with Old Scratch to land her as funny and lovelorn Lily. The Tony-winner for “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a singing dream and matches up well with Heller, who brings a needed bit of edge to the show.
Davi (another “Drowsy” alum) is also a standout, a graceful dancer and powerful vocalist who's a good fit for the ingenue-ish Gabi. One nagging issue: When Cyd Charisse played the part in the film, she was some 20 years younger than Astaire; the gap between Davi and Bakula appears closer to 30 – a concern because of the romantic story line to follow.
As impressive as this cast is, though, Page threatens to run away with the show as the fearlessly self-beatifying Jeffrey. He gets many of the best lines, and seems to revel in playing off his own glittering Shakespearean résumé (though he also was the Grinch in the Globe-sprung Broadway show). This might be a career-maker if Page wasn't so established already.
After the giddy, slap-bang pace of the first act, where Beane condenses practically half the movie into the first couple of numbers, the second act feels stuck in New Haven (site of an out-of-town tryout). The number “Rhode Island Is Famous for You” is as much sight gag as song (though with seriously witty costumes), and with a show stretching to nearly three hours this might be a place to trim.
Throughout, Beane salts in so many great lines it seems like cheating to quote them; the crack about fuming producers up and leaving “with both sets of books” is just one that got big laughs on opening night.
Warren Carlyle's choreography has old-fashioned panache, and Griffin directs with a winning sense of backstage life – check the touching scene where Jeff's dutiful, self-effacing right-hand man, Hal (elegantly engaging Benjamin Howes), quietly mimics the dancers' moves from just behind the curtain.
Pleading his case for one awful ballet number, Byrd (a perfectly haughtyLa Cause) says critics will love it.
“But not just critics – people!”
People – and others – oughta love this show, too.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#30
Posted: 3/16/08 at 3:44am
Here's a mildly favorable review from Sandiego.com (which unfortunately has one serious editing mistake- which I will let you find)...(In my mind, the critical review will be the one from the LA TIMES which is usually more critical than the San Diego critics...)
San Diego Arts
"Dancing in the Dark" at the Old Globe Theatre
All those songs!
By Welton Jones
Posted on Mar 14 2008
Last updated Mar 14 2008
“Dancing in the Dark,” the new musical at the Old Globe Theatre, launches itself vigorously with an act curtain saturated in nostalgia and an overture to die after.
(Given a bottomless trunk of Arthur Schwartz-Howard Dietz songs like “By Myself,” “You and the Night and the Music,” “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan,” “A Shine On Your Shows,” “That’s Entertainment” and the title tune, what would you expect? Well believe me, overture-writing being the quaint and all-but-lost craft that it is now, this could have been something sad and sodden but, thanks to either Larry Hochman’s orchestrations or Eric Stern’s arrangements, it is instead a sparkling cascade of dear tunes served with deep love and solid respect.)
The bad news is that the show which follows isn’t yet at the same level. The good news is that it’s never really bad, either.
This is a musical for true believers and slaves of the passion. It’s a backstage story based on a legendary movie (“The Band Wagon”) adapted from the early Broadway revue of the same name. It’s packed with theatrical and dance in-jokes (Did somebody mention Arthur Laurents?) and sticky with all the standard sentimentality. The only thing resembling a bad guy is the modern-dance choreographer (“Martha Graham without the laughs,” a line that REQUIRES quoting.) who doesn’t get it.
It’s an assemblage sprung from the brain of Douglas Carter Beane, last seen fashioning a successful Broadway show out of the fabled film flop “Xanadu.” That’s the sort of labor that begets rueful tales such as this one, in which collaborators rip each other’s artistic flesh just out of audience view, whilst cooing publicly about their creative bliss.
Well, I might as well say it. What this show lacks that its two predecessors had is Fred Astaire. That’s all.
It always seemed kind of a dumb part even with Astaire playing it: Broadway kid heads for Hollywood, forgetting his roots, until he hits the skids back east trying for a comeback in a misguided project which only he, finally, can save. It’s just hard to believe Astaire as a flop.
Scott Bakula, who has been wallowing in Hollywood himself recently but who I remember from an under-rated Broadway show called “Romance/Romance,” is in the Astaire role and, since his song and dance is pretty standard stuff, he’s free to make a bit more of the part, which, acting-wise at least, he does.
The Broadway “Band Wagon” (New in 1931!) was just a collection of Schwartz-Dietz songs. For the 1953 film, Betty Comden and Adolph Green were imported by MGM to write a real book which they did, featuring themselves (as played by Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant) and Astaire as, well, sort of HIMself. (This kind of endless rummaging in distant origins seems inescapable, given the nostalgic thrust of the show.)
For the present version, Beane has fluffed up the story and cut back on the choreography, seeking to mount more a real play than just a framework for hanging up songs. Admirable ambition, but he just takes the little story too seriously. Everybody knows it’s tough to create a hit show. But everybody also knows that a musical with songs like this is going to end happily.
Actually, this one ends with an odd coda set 50 years later, with Bakula as creaky grandpa, which then segues into first an movie-style linked-arm march of the principals to “That’s Entertainment” followed by a finale stolen directly from “A Chorus Line” which was itself, of course, stitched together from decades of musical numbers stretching at least back to the original “Band Wagon” and...
Whew! Just an awful lot of show biz schmaltz here.
The ensemble, under Gary Griffin’s direction, is attractive, enthusiastic and game. Patrick Page is a naughty pleasure as a self-important Brit; Mara Davi is appealing as the ingénue; and Paul Byrd impressive as the surly dance master.
I wish I liked Adam Heller and Beth Leavel better as the creative team but competent is reassuring at the stage where this show is right now, still finding its feet.
John Lee Beatty’s scenery is presently rather too reliant upon bland drapery and random wagons. Except for some heavy whimsy in specialty girls’ outfits, David Woolard costumes appear rented from a tux shop. Ken Billington helps his design colleagues with nimble, knowing illumination.
What’s really working, though, is the music, with Don York conducting what sounds like a lot more than 12 players. The arrangements, resting so comfortably on the splendid bones of the basic score, are so ideal that they give the rest of the show a goal worth clawing towards.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#31
Posted: 3/16/08 at 9:22pm
The LA Times review is out...see below
http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-dancing17mar17,0,5138070.story
THEATER REVIEW
Retreading water
'Dancing in the Dark,' a redoing of 'The Band Wagon' at the Old Globe, has story problems but also a talented cast.
By Charles McNulty
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 17, 2008
SAN DIEGO -- They sure don't remake 'em like they used to.
"Dancing in the Dark," the theatrical adaptation of the MGM classic "The Band Wagon," gives the 1953 backstage movie musical an extensive face lift. And as often happens with radical cosmetic surgery, the outcome isn't born-again youthfulness but flagrant artificiality.
The Old Globe production, which is receiving its world premiere under the direction of Gary Griffin, sets out to improve Vincente Minnelli's film without preserving what was special about it.
The screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green -- clearly the work's Achilles' heel -- attempted to dramatically string together the old hits from the original "Band Wagon," a landmark 1931 revue that songwriters Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz made in collaboration with George S. Kaufman. If the newly devised scenes didn't add up to a satisfying story, it was partly because Comden and Green's contract wasn't renewed and the movie was patched up with an extended dance-theater sequence that gives a fair indication of what the Academy Awards ceremony might have been like if the writers strike hadn't been settled.
Still, "Dancing in the Dark" has a lot to live up to. The swank choreography of Michael Kidd and Oliver Smith is legendary. And who could hold a candle to Fred Astaire as Tony Hunter, the light-footed Hollywood has-been trying to regain Broadway glory, and Cyd Charisse as Gabrielle Gerard, the prima ballerina launching her limbs onto the Great White Way?
The rechristened stage version features a book by Douglas Carter Beane that tries to smooth out the movie's plot while making the most of the memorable music, particularly the anthem MGM exhausted to the grave, "That's Entertainment!," a tune Schwartz and Dietz wrote for the film.
Unfortunately, Beane's script seems as unfinished as his predecessors'. His characters aren't sharply introduced, and he over-complicates the romantic business. The humor has riotous moments but doesn't know when to quit. And sometimes the story just doesn't make sense.
Tony (Scott Bakula) has returned to New York from L.A. with nothing in his possession but a couple of priceless paintings, poor guy. His career has gone bust. He's lost his Bel-Air mansion. And he's ancient history as far as the younger generation is concerned.
Jeffrey Cordova (Patrick Page), an oh-so-serious English actor, wants the thrill of directing and starring in a musical blockbuster. He's decided Lily Martin (Beth Leavel) and Lester Martin (Adam Heller) -- Comden and Green's thinly veiled surrogates -- will write the show. Paul Byrd (Sebastian La Cause) will choreograph. And Tony will make it his comeback vehicle.
So far, so good. Unluckily for everyone, Jeffrey decides to revamp Lily and Lester's crowd pleaser into an arty retread of Faust, casting himself as a pitchfork-carrying devil. Paul wants his girlfriend, Gabrielle (Mara Davi), a snooty ballet star, to play the ingenue, which isn't such a bad idea except that she can't stand her leading man. And to top it off, Lily has fallen in love again with Tony, which naturally bums out her husband. It also doesn't delight Tony, who has taken a shine to Gabrielle, even though she keeps storming away from him in a huff.
Such daffy developments are a penny a pop. Musical comedies, of course, traditionally come overstuffed with inanity. But the successful ones have an emotional through-line that can withstand a whole Marx Brothers festival of horseplay.
Beane hasn't managed to funnel the material's variety show energies into a convincing plot, so it's exceedingly difficult to stay connected. The only real thing happening here is in the commitment of Griffin's talented cast.
Leavel -- a Tony winner for her performance in "The Drowsy Chaperone" -- is especially good as the smart creative dame with a heart, and Page provides a freshly human take on the egomaniacal thespian who has lost touch with everything but his passion for the stage.
Bakula is more singer than dancer, so don't expect a modern-day Astaire, who in any case doesn't exist. Sadly, the jerkiness of the show keeps us from understanding Tony, the aging matinee idol, who's constantly being asked to supply another needlessly explosive reaction. Bakula can't help but get lost in the shuffle. Davi's Gabrielle is drowned out by the hubbub. Her character is at most a cipher who can pirouette. How anyone is supposed to root for her romance with Tony is a mystery.
To judge by Griffin's work on "The Color Purple," big splashy scenes are his specialty. And this is where he excels with choreographer Warren Carlyle, whose broad, tap-heavy palette strives more to please than enchant.
Only rank amateurs could ruin "Triplets," the famous bit in which miniaturized adults sing about how hard it is to be one of three bawling babies. And "New Sun in the Sky," the radiant standard that closes the first act, fills one with enough brightness to resist ducking out after intermission.
But the most imaginative numbers are those that are shown from a backstage vantage. We're granted only a partial view, but we're swept up not just in the intermittent beauty but also in the atmosphere of histrionic love and craziness that lies behind their creation.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#32
Posted: 3/17/08 at 1:54am
Variety pans the show:
Dancing in the Dark
(Old Globe, San Diego; 604 seats; $79 top) An Old Globe presentation of a musical in two acts with book by Douglas Carter Beane, based on the screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for MGM musical "The Band Wagon," produced by permission of Warner Bros. Theater Ventures. Music by Arthur Schwartz. Lyrics by Howard Dietz. Directed by Gary Griffin. Choreography, Warren Carlyle. Music supervisor-arranger, Eric Stern.
Tony Hunter - Scott Bakula
Gabrielle Gerard - Mara Davi
Lester Marton - Adam Heller
Hal Meadows - Benjamin Howes
Paul Byrd - Sebastian La Cause
Lily Marton - Beth Leavel
Jeffrey Cordova - Patrick Page
By BOB VERINI
That's Entertainment!," anthem of the classic 1953 MGM tuner "The Band Wagon," asserts, "A show that is really a show/Sends you out with a kind of a glow." But what if it sends you out scratching your head? That means there's work to be done on the road, which as it happens is both the plot and now the mandate of "Dancing in the Dark," Douglas Carter Beane's uneven adaptation of Betty Comden and Adolph Green's original screenplay world preeming at the Old Globe.
Beane's reworked "Xanadu" balanced a horrid movie's outline with a pleasingly self-referential tone at once mocking and celebrating the source material. But the Fred Astaire/Cyd Charisse starrer boasts a solid structure, with strongly defined characters. Beane and helmer Gary Griffin upend and reroute the film's contours confusingly, until it becomes unclear whether they're trying to complete what Comden and Green left unfinished, improve on it or set it aside altogether.
Pic told of lauded, largely forgotten Hollywood hoofer Tony Hunter, looking to repackage himself in a thoroughly modern musical penned by old pals Lily and Lester Marton under the aegis of Jeffrey Cordova, flamboyant visionary auteur in the Orson Welles mode. When Cordova's pretentious modern-day "Faust" lays an egg, all concerned elect Tony to helm an old-fashioned smash-hit revue employing the Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz songbook, leaving him free to romance young prima ballerina Gaby with whom he clashes until they go dancing you-know-where.
Thin, yes, but straightforward and logical.
Beane's alterations tug at the delicate fabric. Tony (Scott Bakula) has become a testy Oscar-winning thesp with no apparent reason to do a musical, especially alongside the erstwhile revue partners he resents (Beth Leavel and Adam Heller, virtually impersonating Comden and Green). Flashbacks in a "Merrily We Roll Along" vein intend to bring out the effect of rocky personal history on the making of present-day art, but trio's zigzags of affection and hostility seem arbitrary and inconsistent.
Inconsistencies abound and nag. Gaby (appealing Mara Davi), reconceived as a modern dancer, oscillates among shy gamine, pretentious artiste and stage-savvy soubrette depending on momentary story needs. Though ostensibly a longtime Tony Hunter fan, she's sniping at him within seconds of their meeting and never gets a clear moment to bond romantically with him, with the ecstatic title tune having been wrested from the leads to become just another production number.
Leavel, Heller and Davi labor to sell their roles as if they made sense moment to moment, and while choreographer Paul's disloyal antics strain credulity, thesp Sebastian La Cause has an interestingly sinewy presence. As Jeff, the blithely self-absorbed mayfly, a serenely assured Patrick Page sails in for periodic quips and sails out with the show under his arm.
But Bakula, winded by the dances and jockeying between snob and schlub personas, seems pained and uncomfortable as a character whose relationship to showbiz lacks definition. Tony needn't be portrayed as an inept pushover, making choices as tasteless as Cordova's were and treated contemptuously by his company, to dramatize the enormous difficulties of wrangling a musical show.
Speaking of which, Lily and Lester's opus is a convoluted yarn about Louisiana hillbillies and Gotham socialites Beane insists we keep track of, yet it's no more cohesive than the revue film's Tony cobbles together. Though sung with gusto to Larry Hochman's exciting orchestrations, the Schwartz/Dietz songs aren't always used to best effect: Corny "Louisiana Hayride" gets the full treatment (in formal wear, yet), while "That's Entertainment!" makes little impression, and "Rhode Island Is Famous for You" should go back to the drawer whence it came.
Show stints on visual pizzazz, with Warren Carlyle's dances lacking build and excitement. John Lee Beatty's filmy drapery and primary-colored setpieces seem somehow incomplete, while Ken Billington's lights cast odd shadows downstage.
Certainly there's too much talent around for "Dancing in the Dark" not to offer pleasure. Happily unaltered is Beane's ability to knock off one-liners with the best of them. (Mentioning "Brigadoon" backstage, stage manager Hal, played by Benjamin Howes, apologizes for bringing up the Scottish play.) Still, references to Laurette Taylor and sitzprobes are aimed over the head of most theater mavens, let alone the public.
Too many decisions smack of in-jokes or sheer whim, like an expurgated lyric about blue pajamas from "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" inspiring a blue-pajama'd soft shoe as aud wonders, why? One is reminded of the film's Jeffrey ceding control to Tony with "I got carried away in the wrong direction." Or for that matter, the warning of show's Jeffrey, "Don't camp the work, it lessens its power."
There's no reason this reconstituted "Band Wagon" can't soar once it jettisons its extraneous and self-contradictory elements. But "Dancing" is some distance from finding its footing, despite finale's admonition to "Admit we're a hit and we'll go on from there." Not yet.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#32
Posted: 3/17/08 at 1:55am
Variety pans the show:
Dancing in the Dark
(Old Globe, San Diego; 604 seats; $79 top) An Old Globe presentation of a musical in two acts with book by Douglas Carter Beane, based on the screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for MGM musical "The Band Wagon," produced by permission of Warner Bros. Theater Ventures. Music by Arthur Schwartz. Lyrics by Howard Dietz. Directed by Gary Griffin. Choreography, Warren Carlyle. Music supervisor-arranger, Eric Stern.
Tony Hunter - Scott Bakula
Gabrielle Gerard - Mara Davi
Lester Marton - Adam Heller
Hal Meadows - Benjamin Howes
Paul Byrd - Sebastian La Cause
Lily Marton - Beth Leavel
Jeffrey Cordova - Patrick Page
By BOB VERINI
That's Entertainment!," anthem of the classic 1953 MGM tuner "The Band Wagon," asserts, "A show that is really a show/Sends you out with a kind of a glow." But what if it sends you out scratching your head? That means there's work to be done on the road, which as it happens is both the plot and now the mandate of "Dancing in the Dark," Douglas Carter Beane's uneven adaptation of Betty Comden and Adolph Green's original screenplay world preeming at the Old Globe.
Beane's reworked "Xanadu" balanced a horrid movie's outline with a pleasingly self-referential tone at once mocking and celebrating the source material. But the Fred Astaire/Cyd Charisse starrer boasts a solid structure, with strongly defined characters. Beane and helmer Gary Griffin upend and reroute the film's contours confusingly, until it becomes unclear whether they're trying to complete what Comden and Green left unfinished, improve on it or set it aside altogether.
Pic told of lauded, largely forgotten Hollywood hoofer Tony Hunter, looking to repackage himself in a thoroughly modern musical penned by old pals Lily and Lester Marton under the aegis of Jeffrey Cordova, flamboyant visionary auteur in the Orson Welles mode. When Cordova's pretentious modern-day "Faust" lays an egg, all concerned elect Tony to helm an old-fashioned smash-hit revue employing the Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz songbook, leaving him free to romance young prima ballerina Gaby with whom he clashes until they go dancing you-know-where.
Thin, yes, but straightforward and logical.
Beane's alterations tug at the delicate fabric. Tony (Scott Bakula) has become a testy Oscar-winning thesp with no apparent reason to do a musical, especially alongside the erstwhile revue partners he resents (Beth Leavel and Adam Heller, virtually impersonating Comden and Green). Flashbacks in a "Merrily We Roll Along" vein intend to bring out the effect of rocky personal history on the making of present-day art, but trio's zigzags of affection and hostility seem arbitrary and inconsistent.
Inconsistencies abound and nag. Gaby (appealing Mara Davi), reconceived as a modern dancer, oscillates among shy gamine, pretentious artiste and stage-savvy soubrette depending on momentary story needs. Though ostensibly a longtime Tony Hunter fan, she's sniping at him within seconds of their meeting and never gets a clear moment to bond romantically with him, with the ecstatic title tune having been wrested from the leads to become just another production number.
Leavel, Heller and Davi labor to sell their roles as if they made sense moment to moment, and while choreographer Paul's disloyal antics strain credulity, thesp Sebastian La Cause has an interestingly sinewy presence. As Jeff, the blithely self-absorbed mayfly, a serenely assured Patrick Page sails in for periodic quips and sails out with the show under his arm.
But Bakula, winded by the dances and jockeying between snob and schlub personas, seems pained and uncomfortable as a character whose relationship to showbiz lacks definition. Tony needn't be portrayed as an inept pushover, making choices as tasteless as Cordova's were and treated contemptuously by his company, to dramatize the enormous difficulties of wrangling a musical show.
Speaking of which, Lily and Lester's opus is a convoluted yarn about Louisiana hillbillies and Gotham socialites Beane insists we keep track of, yet it's no more cohesive than the revue film's Tony cobbles together. Though sung with gusto to Larry Hochman's exciting orchestrations, the Schwartz/Dietz songs aren't always used to best effect: Corny "Louisiana Hayride" gets the full treatment (in formal wear, yet), while "That's Entertainment!" makes little impression, and "Rhode Island Is Famous for You" should go back to the drawer whence it came.
Show stints on visual pizzazz, with Warren Carlyle's dances lacking build and excitement. John Lee Beatty's filmy drapery and primary-colored setpieces seem somehow incomplete, while Ken Billington's lights cast odd shadows downstage.
Certainly there's too much talent around for "Dancing in the Dark" not to offer pleasure. Happily unaltered is Beane's ability to knock off one-liners with the best of them. (Mentioning "Brigadoon" backstage, stage manager Hal, played by Benjamin Howes, apologizes for bringing up the Scottish play.) Still, references to Laurette Taylor and sitzprobes are aimed over the head of most theater mavens, let alone the public.
Too many decisions smack of in-jokes or sheer whim, like an expurgated lyric about blue pajamas from "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" inspiring a blue-pajama'd soft shoe as aud wonders, why? One is reminded of the film's Jeffrey ceding control to Tony with "I got carried away in the wrong direction." Or for that matter, the warning of show's Jeffrey, "Don't camp the work, it lessens its power."
There's no reason this reconstituted "Band Wagon" can't soar once it jettisons its extraneous and self-contradictory elements. But "Dancing" is some distance from finding its footing, despite finale's admonition to "Admit we're a hit and we'll go on from there." Not yet.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#34
Posted: 3/17/08 at 1:55am
Variety pans the show:
Dancing in the Dark
(Old Globe, San Diego; 604 seats; $79 top) An Old Globe presentation of a musical in two acts with book by Douglas Carter Beane, based on the screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for MGM musical "The Band Wagon," produced by permission of Warner Bros. Theater Ventures. Music by Arthur Schwartz. Lyrics by Howard Dietz. Directed by Gary Griffin. Choreography, Warren Carlyle. Music supervisor-arranger, Eric Stern.
Tony Hunter - Scott Bakula
Gabrielle Gerard - Mara Davi
Lester Marton - Adam Heller
Hal Meadows - Benjamin Howes
Paul Byrd - Sebastian La Cause
Lily Marton - Beth Leavel
Jeffrey Cordova - Patrick Page
By BOB VERINI
That's Entertainment!," anthem of the classic 1953 MGM tuner "The Band Wagon," asserts, "A show that is really a show/Sends you out with a kind of a glow." But what if it sends you out scratching your head? That means there's work to be done on the road, which as it happens is both the plot and now the mandate of "Dancing in the Dark," Douglas Carter Beane's uneven adaptation of Betty Comden and Adolph Green's original screenplay world preeming at the Old Globe.
Beane's reworked "Xanadu" balanced a horrid movie's outline with a pleasingly self-referential tone at once mocking and celebrating the source material. But the Fred Astaire/Cyd Charisse starrer boasts a solid structure, with strongly defined characters. Beane and helmer Gary Griffin upend and reroute the film's contours confusingly, until it becomes unclear whether they're trying to complete what Comden and Green left unfinished, improve on it or set it aside altogether.
Pic told of lauded, largely forgotten Hollywood hoofer Tony Hunter, looking to repackage himself in a thoroughly modern musical penned by old pals Lily and Lester Marton under the aegis of Jeffrey Cordova, flamboyant visionary auteur in the Orson Welles mode. When Cordova's pretentious modern-day "Faust" lays an egg, all concerned elect Tony to helm an old-fashioned smash-hit revue employing the Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz songbook, leaving him free to romance young prima ballerina Gaby with whom he clashes until they go dancing you-know-where.
Thin, yes, but straightforward and logical.
Beane's alterations tug at the delicate fabric. Tony (Scott Bakula) has become a testy Oscar-winning thesp with no apparent reason to do a musical, especially alongside the erstwhile revue partners he resents (Beth Leavel and Adam Heller, virtually impersonating Comden and Green). Flashbacks in a "Merrily We Roll Along" vein intend to bring out the effect of rocky personal history on the making of present-day art, but trio's zigzags of affection and hostility seem arbitrary and inconsistent.
Inconsistencies abound and nag. Gaby (appealing Mara Davi), reconceived as a modern dancer, oscillates among shy gamine, pretentious artiste and stage-savvy soubrette depending on momentary story needs. Though ostensibly a longtime Tony Hunter fan, she's sniping at him within seconds of their meeting and never gets a clear moment to bond romantically with him, with the ecstatic title tune having been wrested from the leads to become just another production number.
Leavel, Heller and Davi labor to sell their roles as if they made sense moment to moment, and while choreographer Paul's disloyal antics strain credulity, thesp Sebastian La Cause has an interestingly sinewy presence. As Jeff, the blithely self-absorbed mayfly, a serenely assured Patrick Page sails in for periodic quips and sails out with the show under his arm.
But Bakula, winded by the dances and jockeying between snob and schlub personas, seems pained and uncomfortable as a character whose relationship to showbiz lacks definition. Tony needn't be portrayed as an inept pushover, making choices as tasteless as Cordova's were and treated contemptuously by his company, to dramatize the enormous difficulties of wrangling a musical show.
Speaking of which, Lily and Lester's opus is a convoluted yarn about Louisiana hillbillies and Gotham socialites Beane insists we keep track of, yet it's no more cohesive than the revue film's Tony cobbles together. Though sung with gusto to Larry Hochman's exciting orchestrations, the Schwartz/Dietz songs aren't always used to best effect: Corny "Louisiana Hayride" gets the full treatment (in formal wear, yet), while "That's Entertainment!" makes little impression, and "Rhode Island Is Famous for You" should go back to the drawer whence it came.
Show stints on visual pizzazz, with Warren Carlyle's dances lacking build and excitement. John Lee Beatty's filmy drapery and primary-colored setpieces seem somehow incomplete, while Ken Billington's lights cast odd shadows downstage.
Certainly there's too much talent around for "Dancing in the Dark" not to offer pleasure. Happily unaltered is Beane's ability to knock off one-liners with the best of them. (Mentioning "Brigadoon" backstage, stage manager Hal, played by Benjamin Howes, apologizes for bringing up the Scottish play.) Still, references to Laurette Taylor and sitzprobes are aimed over the head of most theater mavens, let alone the public.
Too many decisions smack of in-jokes or sheer whim, like an expurgated lyric about blue pajamas from "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" inspiring a blue-pajama'd soft shoe as aud wonders, why? One is reminded of the film's Jeffrey ceding control to Tony with "I got carried away in the wrong direction." Or for that matter, the warning of show's Jeffrey, "Don't camp the work, it lessens its power."
There's no reason this reconstituted "Band Wagon" can't soar once it jettisons its extraneous and self-contradictory elements. But "Dancing" is some distance from finding its footing, despite finale's admonition to "Admit we're a hit and we'll go on from there." Not yet.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#35
Posted: 3/17/08 at 3:46am
Patrick Page, Mara Davi, Scott Bakula, and Ensemble in DANCING IN THE DARK.
Next season's new musical line up is going to be HUGE!
9 to 5
Billy Elliot
Busker Alley
Catch Me If You Can
Dancing In The Dark
Next To Normal (Most likely)
Shrek
Spiderman
Vanities
And who knows what is yet to be announced.
DANCING IN THE DARK Production Photos
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#36
Posted: 3/17/08 at 12:58pmSome of the shows you mentioned are unlikely to make it. I doubt Busker Alley will get the funding and I doubt the Weisslers will bring Dancing In the Dark to Broadway after the outright pan in Variety. I also don't see Next To Normal coming to Broadway either.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#37
Posted: 3/17/08 at 2:20pm
Theatremania gave it a kind but negative review as well...
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/13155
I highly doubt this show will be going to Broadway because:
a) Reviews from LA Times and Variety were not favorable
b) While the show has received "enhancement" money from the Weisslers, sets and costumes are far from lavish, leading one to believe that they didn't spend millions on this production.
c) Beth Leavel is in final call-backs for Billy Elliot. She wouldn't be in final call-backs if she thought Dancing was making it to Broadway next season.
It sounds like the Harry Connick Jr. helmed "new Gershwin musical" will be Broadway's old-fashioned treat next season. I don't see "American in Paris" or "Dancing In the Dark" making it ALTHOUGH these shows could do very well in a national tour.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#38
Posted: 3/17/08 at 3:07pmGod, what a dull film, with some good songs and a couple of good dance numbers. Will Beane keep the film's reverse snobbery intact?
Joined: 12/31/69
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#39
Posted: 3/17/08 at 3:16pmReally? I think it's one of the ten best movie musicals ever.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) first SD review#40
Posted: 3/17/08 at 3:21pm
I can easily think of ten better musicals than THE BAND WAGON:
THE WIZARD OF OZ
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER LONGER AND UNCUT
SWEENEY TODD
TOP HAT
PINOCCHIO
WEST SIDE STORY
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS
UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
42nd STREET
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) REVIEWS#41
Posted: 3/19/08 at 1:11am
OC Register raves about the show.... (making the reviews decidedly mixed- TheatreMania and Variety are pans, SanDiego.Com and LA Times mixed and OC Register and San Diego Union-Tribune are raves)
Monday, March 17, 2008
'Dancing in the Dark' waltzes to success
In its Old Globe debut, Douglas Carter Beane's new musical is a clever and affectionate homage to the magic of showbiz and the sweat and tears that go into it.
By PAUL HODGINS
The Orange County Register
I'm sure the folks who run San Diego's Old Globe don't need to be reminded of the rich ironies that could attend their world-premiere production of Douglas Carter Beane's "Dancing in the Dark." They probably have nightmares about the newspaper headlines: "Life Imitates Art in New Show About a Bad Musical."
Relax, guys. You've got a winner on your hands. Beane, a master at making something tired and old delightfully new – his musical "Xanadu" succeeded by celebrating and transcending the awfulness of the 1980 roller-disco film – chooses a more worthwhile cinematic inspiration here, and treats it with affection, respect, and nary a touch of mockery.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green's "Band Wagon" (1953) isn't as well-known a movie musical as their "Singin' in the Rain" (1952), but it shares the latter's backstage plot. It starred Fred Astaire as Tony Hunter, a former Broadway hoofer who went to Hollywood, found fame then came back to his roots as his star began to fall. Scott Bakula takes on Astaire's duties here, so the role, in deference to Fred, doesn't require the services of a once-in-a-generation dance genius.
What lures Tony back from Hollywood to New York (besides bankruptcy) is an offer from Jeffrey Cordova (Patrick Page), a hammy British stage superstar in the Maurice Evans mode who decides he wants to slum it for his next project and direct a musical. Cordova has gathered some first-rate talent for his project: the songwriting team of Lester and Lily Marton (Beth Leavel and Adam Heller, in the thinly disguised Comden and Green roles) and moody choreographer Paul Byrd (Sebastian La Cause), whose death-obsessed work is described as "like Martha Graham, but without the laughs." (Imagine Danny Kaye's "Choreography" number from "White Christmas" and you'll get the picture.) Byrd, a cynical opportunist, insists he'll take the job only if they use his company and feature his star/girlfriend, Gabrielle (Mara Davi).
Unfortunately for Cordova, Tony and Lily have a romantic history. He had promised to return from Hollywood after making one film and resume his theater career – and, presumably, the romance. Neither promise was kept, and the Martons aren't happy to be teamed with a heartbreaker/Tinseltown traitor.
But like true professionals, the team forges onward. Lily and Lester bang out a proletarian story about a shoeshine man who persuades his richest customer to help him pretend he's a fabulous success in order to impress his small-town Louisiana girlfriend. In one of the show's best scenes, the Martons present their work to the rest of the creative team, and the slo-mo train wreck begins.
Cordova overlays a pretentious Faustian theme on the Martons' modest story (naturally he reserves Lucifer's role for himself). Byrd takes off on a tangent with a pretentious second-act ballet that has nothing to do with the plot.
The result, predictably, is disaster. Bickering follows an out-of-town performance in which everything goes horribly wrong. Things look so bad, "the producers have packed up both sets of books and left," Lester wisecracks (gallows humor is his specialty).
Of course, everything turns out right in the end, and everyone finds romantic happiness too: new couples are born, old ones make up. There's even a tender tip of the hat to same-sex relationships – something I can't recall in a Fred Astaire musical.
Beane departs from the movie in several respects. His play-within-a-play is a bona fide Golden Age mini-musical, complete with the themes and tropes of the era. It's one of many marks of his superb craftsmanship.
Though Bakula is no Fred Astaire, his musical-theater chops are impressive enough. He's got a smooth, masculine presence, and he finds just the right tone for the part. Tony is a mixture of big-star bravado, simmering self-hatred and, underneath it all, the wholesome heart of a decent guy who just wants to do the right thing. Bakula pulls it off with ease.
Leavel, who won a Tony for her work in "The Drowsy Chaperone," captures and lends convincing detail to a Lily, who's a showbiz archetype: the pushy working-class New Yorker who, despite her success, yearns for respectability. Heller does well, too, as Lester, who struggles with his jealousy of Tony and his weakness for the bottle when things get tough.
Page leaves no piece of scenery unchewed as Jeffrey, and makes the most of a pleasant surprise. At first, Jeffrey seems like a self-absorbed thespian who's only dimly aware of the concept called Other People. But he turns out to be surprisingly generous, and Page brings out that unexpected charm in the second act.
La Cause and Davi make a troubled couple as Paul and Gabrielle. We know it's only a matter of time before she leaves Paul for Tony, but Davi convinces us that her character is truly torn. (It will be difficult, though, for some fans of the movie to erase the image of Cyd Charisse from the role.)
The songs of Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, one of Broadway's most elegant and gifted teams, are displayed to advantage in director Gary Griffin's efficient if unadorned staging. There are some standouts: Page's reverent delivery of "Dancing in the Dark"; Bakula, Heller and Leavel yucking it up in a classic vaudeville number, "Triplets"; a pitch-perfect Ziegfeld parody called "Rhode Island is Famous for You." Choreographer Warren Carlyle has an enviable eye for the pretentious excesses of the Robbins/Balanchine/Graham styles, and music director Don York ably leads a full-sounding band in the pit. Arranger Eric Stern's overture is spine-tingling and perfectly Old Broadway.
But the biggest bows go to Beane. With "Dancing in the Dark," he pays tribute to both the departed giants of a fading era and the sacred rituals and battles of theatrical creation. This is a must-see show for anyone who has lived through a trying rehearsal period or wished they were a fly on the wall when the director screams, "You're fired!"
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) REVIEWS#42
Posted: 3/19/08 at 8:25am
Maybe I'm just trying to be too optimistic, but I feel like even though Variety and Theatremania were less than stellar reviews - both admitted that the show had a supremely talented cast and the show could have a shot once it's reworked a bit.
I thought the show was entertaining. It does need a bit of work - which I think was to be expected - but it's not the flop people seem to be making it out to be.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) REVIEWS#43
Posted: 3/20/08 at 11:34pm
I just got back from my vacation to San Diego, where I was extremely lucky to attend the opening night of "Dancing in the Dark". Well, I have to tell you...I loved it! The cast was amazing and the production/creative team did an incredible job. It is the return of the "classic" musical, with the "edge" that Douglas Carter Beane delivers to us so well. Congrats to the entire production, cast and crew. Scott Bakula, Beth Leavel, Patrick Page, Mara Davi and Adam Heller were perfect and truly delivered outstanding performances. I definately see this show going all the way to New York. If any of you get the chance to see the show at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park, San Diego, definitely go see it.
Updated On: 3/20/08 at 11:34 PM
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) REVIEWS#44
Posted: 3/22/08 at 12:06am
I can't wait till it comes to Broadway. Douglas Carter Beane is a genius 
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) REVIEWS#45
Posted: 3/22/08 at 3:00pm
Here's another mixed review from the San Diego reader. I don't see this show going to Broadway (NY audiences and critics are too jaded for this kind of entertaining but flawed show) but I think this show could do great business on tour...
Odious, but Inevitable
By Jeff Smith | Published Wednesday, March 19, 2008
San Diego Reader
Stephen Sondheim was so proud to have a musical on Broadway — West Side Story, for which he wrote the lyrics — he went back the night after it opened and stood in the aisle. Curtain came up: six members of a street-gang snapping their fingers — “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way.” Sondheim snapped along. Guy rose from his seat, slung his coat over his arm, and wended his way out, excusing himself to each pair of shoes he passed. As he brushed by Sondheim, the man mumbled, “Don’t ask.”
“I had the whole picture,” Sondheim recalled years later. “He’s a tired businessman on his way home to Westchester, and he thinks, ‘I’m going to stop and see a musical.’ ” Instead, he gets “six ballet-dancing juvenile delinquents in color-coordinated sneakers.” And all he wanted was just “an evening’s entertainment.”
The Old Globe’s world premiere, Dancing in the Dark, has miles to go before it reaches Broadway but already offers considerable entertainment. Playwright Douglas Carter Beane, who’s reworking the 1953 MGM movie The Band Wagon and its 1931 stage forerunner, writes three-dimensional one-liners: they are funny; always, often painfully, true; and perfect for the character at the moment they’re uttered. The production also boasts the original’s great songs, “Dancing in the Dark,” “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan,” and the iconic “That’s Entertainment,” backed by what sounds like a 30-piece orchestra — actually 12, including a tuba! What the show needs most of all, however, is to get out of its own way.
Boris Aronson said, “The theater is an organized calamity.” And musicals, with so many demands — integrating the songs, book, lyrics, and dance numbers — can be the most calamitous of genres. Dancing’s an extended commentary in Aronson’s observation: a musical comedy about the near-impossibility of making a musical comedy.
It’s like Rashomon in reverse: not about what people saw, but what each person on the creative team wants to see the project become. Jeffrey Cordova, august thespian, envisions a fire-breather based on Goethe’s Faust (“but,” someone asks, “what about group sales?”); the writers want an evening’s diversion about a humble shoe-shiner; sensing his chance for stardom, the choreographer envisions a death-drenched ballet sequence (“like Martha Graham,” someone opines, “without the laughs”); the leading man, a fading Hollywood asteroid, has ideas as well.
Not on the same page? These folks aren’t in the same bookstore. The cutting-room floor becomes strewn with discards and bruised egos, as rehearsals feel like Humpty Dumpty after the fall — or dancers groping in darkness. Then a melding occurs: the whole grows greater than its parts. And the musical pays sincere tribute to the key to the enterprise: collaboration.
The musical-within-the-musical is “running 19 minutes long.” So is Dancing in the Dark, and yet it often feels cramped, with little room to breathe. Some numbers get truncated (the title-song/dance number suddenly leaps forward in time; “Triplets,” a trio of adult-babies in white bassinets, unfolds like an idea half-realized; the Faust scene and death-ballet sprint by as well). Two big tap routines, “Louisiana Hayride” and “A Shine on Your Shoes,” explode with pizzazz. But often the “entertainment” gets shoved aside for plot and character development.
It feels strange to say this — because plays and musicals that lack these qualities get clobbered deservedly — but the revised book is trying for depths and motivations that weigh the show down. Many of the new scenes fill in back-story. As they explain, they dull the pace and the whimsical “anything can go” tone. The production pulses forward.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote both Singin’ in the Rain and The Band Wagon. Beane’s book plays tribute to their collaboration with an unforgettable sequence. Adam Heller and (the hilarious) Beth Leavel play the writers Lester and Lily Martin. At one point they pitch their musical to potential cast and backers, blitzing through bits of songs and characterizations with manic urgency. When Heller and Leavel finish their tour de force, they lean against the piano, spent. The opening-night audience’s equally manic applause gave them a lengthy, well-deserved respite.
Comparisons may be odious, but they’re also inevitable. In the movie, Fred Astaire plays Toni Hunter, fading Hollywood star (Astaire fading? Guhh!!!). Scott Bakula plays him at the Old Globe. For those who haven’t seen the movie, Bakula’s quite good, an engaging presence and a capable hoofer; for those who’ve seen the movie, Bakula’s feet won’t fill his predecessor’s shoes.
The cast performs on John Lee Beatty’s minimalist backstage/onstage set. Patrick Page, who plays the Grinch on Broadway, revels in his role as Jeffrey Cordova, a narcissist who never met a mirror he didn’t adore. Mara Davi’s lyrical voice enhances every song Gabrielle sings. Benjamin Howes makes a minor character, Hal Meadows, memorable. As Paul Byrd, the angst-loving choreographer who clings to his vision of the show, Sebastian La Cause becomes the weak second act’s villain. In keeping with the emphasis on rounded beings, however, La Cause makes Byrd dimensional when the context calls for archness.
Sondheim’s tired Westchester commuter has come to symbolize shallow Broadway fare. Beane’s book, with its honest grounding of characters, plays like a reaction against the type. But The Band Wagon and Singin’ in the Rain are, first and foremost, about performance, not character, about sheer entertainment, not story. Revisions of Dancing should keep the wants of a Philistine commuter in mind.
Dancing in the Dark, book by Douglas Carter Beane, from the screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Howard Dietz
Old Globe Theatre, Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts, Balboa Park
Directed by Gary Griffin; cast: Patrick Page, Benjamin Howes, Beth Leavel, Adam Heller, Scott Bakula, Sebastian La Cause, Mara Davi; scenic design, John Lee Beatty; costumes, David Woolard; lighting, Ken Billington; sound, Brian Ronan; orchestrations, Larry Hochman; musical director, Don York; musical supervisor, Eric Stern; choreographer, Warren Carlyle
Playing through April 13; Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Matinee Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. 858-234-5623.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) REVIEWS#46
Posted: 3/22/08 at 3:32pmA dull film? Wow..i think its one of the best musicals they ever made. Certainly the best one about show folk.
DANCING IN THE DARK (BANDWAGON) REVIEWS#47
Posted: 4/13/08 at 10:38pm
I finally saw the show today...
It was a mildly entertaining show but completely forgettable. The book isn't bad but isn't very funny (and has some very "inside" theatre jokes which would go over 99% of the audience's heads- Laurette Taylor's portrait in Sardi's...). The choreography and direction are not bad but are not better than the direction and choreography at a standard CLO. Beth Leavel was fine but didn't really impress me like she did in "Drowsy". The rest of the cast was perfectly fine but none stood out except for Patrick Page who is a wonderful actor with great stage presence. Scott Bakula was fine in his acting, singing and dancing but again, it was not a "star" performance.
As a regional production, I would give the production 3/4 stars for a great score, wonderful orchestrations, and a hard working singing and dancing cast. In its current state, however, the show would be massacred on Broadway.
The whole thing felt like a well made regional CLO production but definitely not like a show that would even be close to coming to Broadway...
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