Hot Feet Reviews

Talkin Broadway is mostly Negative:

"If you could harness the energy of the nearly two dozen dancers in Hot Feet, which just opened at the Hilton, you could light a small city for a year. In a season where too many musical offerings, both new and in revival, are deadening affairs, a new source of power isn't such a bad thing.

That's what they said before the Chernobyl disaster, too. As for this nuclear meltdown of a jukebox musical, which has been conceived, directed, and choreographed by Maurice Hines and is based on the songs of Earth, Wind & Fire, you at least get the sense from watching the fantastically frenzied dancers that they're loving every minute of what they're doing, which helps you - temporarily - forgive all the misapplied energy.

Unfortunately, there's only so much that all Hines's hundreds of steps - which alternate between ballet, jazz, modern, and street dancing - can do to buoy the floundering story at Hot Feet's center. And it doesn't take long to realize that the company is dancing its feet off to prevent you from paying too much attention to the show's book.

For unlike Movin' Out, Twyla Tharp's amazingly successful jukebox-musical ballet, this show actually has one. But librettist Heru Ptah should have learned from Tharp's example that it's sometimes best to let the dancing speak for itself. The singing is handled by three pit singers, who belt out pounding funk tunes like "September," "Shining Star," and some two dozen others (most by Maurice White, but some by new collaborators) with appealing ethereality. But when the actors open their mouths, there's no longer anything worth hearing."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/HotFeet.html

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Meh...let's keep this one, I like Margo's selections of the reviews.

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LaCageAuxFollesFan, I could not agree more!!! And what made that moment even worse was their choice to dramatize NONE of what had just had happened. As ridiculous and unfounded as that discovery was, that point would have been a logical time for a revelatory moment of either Kalimba or her newfounded FATHER (hahahaha)... a song from one of them at that point could've actually served some dramatic purpose, as they had both had life- changing moments. (Stupid ones, but okay.) Instead, they give the mother a song- dramatizing nothing, because nothing had really changed for her character.
Of course this gripe is the least of what's wrong with this disgusting display of commercial theatre. The book and overall story and sensibility are trite, recycled, uninventive, and boring.
I have to give it to them though- the cast really did have amazing energy and was giving their all. I also thought most of the principals did well with the material given to them. The choreography was obviously, incredible. But overall, I thought the show was abysmal.

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Broadway.com is Mixed-to-Negative:

"With the ashes of the just-extinguished Ring of Fire still smoldering, Broadway now has yet another new jukebox musical: Hot Feet, a dance-driven show that sets The Red Shoes to Earth, Wind & Fire songs. The idea of fashioning a musical from the '70s R&B group's hits isn't a bad one, and director-choreographer Maurice Hines' ensemble dance numbers often match the energy of Maurice White's songs. The trouble comes when the cast stops strutting and starts speaking.

Conceived by Earth Wind & Fire founder Hines and featuring a book by Heru Ptah (who famously sold thousands of copies of his novel A Hip Hop Story on subways), Hot Feet doesn't borrow only from The Red Shoes (both the Hans Christian Andersen story and the Michael Powell film). Ptah also throws in characters from Faust and Showgirls. The result is a hackneyed, utterly predictable story that drags down the show.
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On the plus side, Hot Feet boasts about two-dozen vintage Earth, Wind & Fire songs by White, and many are infectious R&B hits that lend themselves to spirited choreography. Among the best are "September," "Boogie Wonderland," Thinking of You," "Serpentine Fire" and "Getaway." Hines, who starred in Eubie! and choreographed and directed Uptown…It's Hot!, gives his energetic dancers a workout in the upbeat group numbers. His choreography isn't as distinctive as Twyla Tharp's in Movin' Out, but it suits the music and has the cast constantly on the move.
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Given the clunky dialogue, David's acting is pretty convincing and his voice remains strong. As for Duquesnay, a Tony winner for Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk, she does some serious scenery chewing and sings up a storm-more loudly than prettily. In "Kali," which we have to endure twice in the second act, she wails again and again "Why?" The same goes for this ill-conceived musical. Why did Hines & Co. decide to wedge The Red Shoes onto Earth, Wind & Fire songs? Why couldn't they have instead staged a 90-minute pure-dance show set to the group's up-tempo hits? That would have made for a shorter, more enjoyable evening. As is, whenever the dancing stops, Hot Feet is leaden."


http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=528440

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Updated On: 4/30/06 at 09:05 PM

Curtain was at 6:30.

Earth, Wind and Fire was there i believe, the dancers in the show were amazing. I was at the opening! I can't wait to read the reviews.

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NY Times (from Isherwood -- Brantley obviously couldn't be bothered) is Negative:

"It has not been a vintage season for the jukebox musical.

Which I realize it is a bit like lamenting that this year's acid rain just hasn't been up to snuff. But still. Even this little-loved genre has been around long enough for standards to be set, for beloved highs — the nitwit glory that is "Mamma Mia!" — and notorious lows (take your pick).

Future historians of musical theater may point to April 30, 2006, as a tell-tale turning point, a harbinger of fatal decline. Or so one can hope. That date — also known as yesterday — saw both the closing of the ill-received Johnny Cash show "Ring of Fire" at the Barrymore Theater and the opening of "Hot Feet," a dire dance musical set to a soundtrack of songs by Earth, Wind and Fire, at the Hilton Theater.

Coincidence or fate? Who is to say?

Who is to care? Those shows will probably be memories — as will the risible "Lennon" — long before the season's one respectable entry in the genre, "Jersey Boys," has closed.

For the books, then, let it be noted that "Hot Feet," conceived, directed and choreographed by Maurice Hines, is a dancing encyclopedia of clichés culled from tattered tales of dreamy-eyed youngsters seeking fame and fortune in showbiz. Awkwardly lurching between frenzied, uninspired dance sequences and listless stock scenes of turmoil backstage, it is about as gripping as a two-and-a-half-hour episode of "Soul Train."
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These dance segments consume a fair portion of the evening's running time. A busy but mostly undistinguished amalgam of ballet, modern dance and street styles, Mr. Hines's choreography draws on two decades of trends, from head-wagging moves that were last cool when Janet Jackson performed them in music videos in the 1980's, to krumping, the jiggly hip-hop offshoot from Southern California that was all the rage 15 minutes ago.

The dancers, at least, deserve celebration. They exude excitement, focus, drive and occasionally real joy when they are cutting loose to radio hits like "September" and "Boogie Wonderland." Their robust technique and physical prowess dazzles despite the garish assortment of costumes by Paul Tazewell, some of which might be disdained by Russian ice dancers as being a little tacky.
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Speaking of dubious ends, this dreary enterprise hits a smirk-inducing note of steamy camp when the climactic "Hot Feet" ballet finally arrives. With the dancers leaping, twirling and writhing around the stage in body-hugging, flesh-baring getups to little coherent purpose, this sequence may bring to mind memorably atrocious dance spectaculars from the movies, like the "Satan's Alley" number in the "Saturday Night Fever" sequel "Staying Alive" or the candy-colored volcanic extravaganza from "Showgirls." It is that ludicrous.

It is also interminable. As poor Ms. Nixon churns through Mr. Hines's endless steps, pantomiming Kalimba's possession by the demonic powers in those infernal shoes, you may find it hard to muster the requisite compassion for her doom, even though you know it's coming. You are more likely to be preoccupied by your own."


http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/theater/reviews/01hot.html?8dpc

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Can't wait to see the show on the 6th. Anyone saw it from row AA?

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haha, true, but I doubt producers are going to pull the plug so early on this one. They knew the reviews are going to be horrible- isn't that why they opened the show on a Sunday? (to get reviews on the Monday papers- which not a lot of people buy)

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Updated On: 4/30/06 at 11:10 PM

Yes, but I think the reviews from the DC run gave them an idea of how the show will be treated in NY. They are probably looking for good word-of-mouth.

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I sat in Row AA 101 and it was totally fine. I felt like I was in the third or fourth row...not the first.

Ring of Fire had a smaller overhead though.

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so it's HOT FEET out
THE PIRATE QUEEN in?
at the Hilton.