Never Gonna Dance

I went to the matinee yesterday. I was very disappointed in
NANCY LEMENAGER she was the female lead in the show and when she sang she was very off key. She also had no passion or zest in this role. If they replaced her with a better singer maybe Angela from Millie (better singer and dancer) the show could work.
I would have loved to have seen Gavin Creel in the lead male role.
He is a great singer as well as dancer.
What I loved about the show:
The sets, costumes and scenery are gorgeous. Grand Central was built for the stage and it was impressive.
Deidre Goodwin was incredible in her role, she lit up the stage with her incredible voice and dancing skills.
Karen Ziemba was also impressive in her very small role. I wanted to see more of her and less of Nancy.
Never Gonna Dance needs help. It is a shame with a few lead changes the show could and should succeed. The music is enchanting, the sets beautiful and the rest of the cast are very talented dancers.
The white gowns Nancy wore were stunning. William Ivey Long is a genius. I also loved the velvet dress that Karen wears at the end.

Updated On: 1/2/04 at 11:26 PM

Never Gonna Dance needs help?? Awww I want to see this!! =-)

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She's great in every show. I loved her in Rocky Horror and Nine.

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Great minds think alike, Corine2.

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It is a shame.
She had a small role but made the small role work.
She shines! I loved her piece with the man with rolls in Contact.
Or should I say fing rolls.
Ziemba needs a better part. She is talented.
(I wish William Ivey Long would have a clothing line in department stores)

Updated On: 1/2/04 at 11:50 PM

Alterego,
No I did not. Why is that?

Earlier this season Lemenager was hilarious and charming playing the role created by Adele Astaire in Musicals Tonight's production of "Lady, Be Good". But in "Never Gonna Dance" she's the half of the couple required to play straight for her co-star, who has a much jucier role. I found her singing fine for someone who is primarily a dancer (a fair comparasion would be to compare her singing voice to other young dancers like Ann Reinking in "Goodtime Charley" or Gwen Verdon in "New Girl in Town".) but unfortunately her big solo in the show is a ballad, so her limitations are made more apparent.
More thoughts on NGD... see 12/26 entry

I saw Never Gonna Dance last week and thought...Who did the leads sleep with to get these parts? They (Noah and Nacy) are both great chorus dancers...period...
I don't get it! There are so many other more charismatic performers for these roles...Oh well..."Never Gonna Last" or "Never Gonna Run" would be appropriate...
Sad...

Where in the script is she given the opportunity to show passion? Does the show provide her with a big passionate moment that she's not delivering on?

True, Gavin is not a dancer. The window scene in "Millie" is childs play compared to Never Gonna Dance. Anyway back to he whole "Nancy is bad". I saw her understudy and thought she was great. Like some posts said "the chorus are more lifelke than the principles." How do you think it would have worked with Karen Ziemba as the lead? Also as eva's boy2 said "Never gonna last." it's funny because when it was starting previews my friend asked me, "what do you think of never gonna dance?" I said "Never Gonna see it."

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Well I've known for some time that my taste in shows isn't reflective of many of the repeat posters on this board. This thread is a perfect example.

And I just can't get caught up in the Sutton and Galvin hysteria. Enough already!

I had no delusions about what to expect from this show. I knew I wasn't seeing a HENRY IV. I was there to see an old time musical. It wasn't based on someone's memiors, a great American novel, or a pop star's catalog of past hits. It was the retelling of an old RKO Fred Astaire movie. NEVER GONNA DANCE is just a charming and delightful musical. It's a family friendly and unpretentious story executed flawlessly.

Whether you are familiar with these Jerome Kern standards or not, how could you not be excited and swept up by this great score? How could you not be transported back to a simpler time. A time when grace and style, class and manners, honor and virtue were personified in gowns, top hats and tails. This was movie magic brought to the stage. And Jerry Mitchell has really given Kathleen Marshall some competition.

Yes, Noah Racey is no Galvin. Thankfully so. Racey exudes charm and an effervescent smile. He enchants and captivates. His attractiveness, comedic timing, singing and lightfooted movements made me forget any traces of Fred Astaire. And I thought he was partnered beautifully with Nancy Lemenager. They fit and flowed so well together. Her singing was strong and clear.

And I do agree that Karen Ziemba has too small a role. But she makes the most of it. Her scenes with Peter Gerety are some of the best in the show. Peter Gerety. So loveable. But it's Peter Bartlett in the role of dance studio owner Mr. Pangborn who steals every scene he's in. What a treat. Also this show handles the camp without going overboard. Overall a well done style over substance musical feast. Was anything more expected of it?

To me, also fascinating to watch was something that did not appear on the stage. There were two young girls, possibly ages eight and ten seated in the first box seats. Their chins were pressed against the velvet rail while they seemed mesmerized by what they viewed feet below. In their enthusiasm they inched further and further sideways as the show progressed. Yea, they were hooked for life. And that's a beautiful thing.

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To be fair, there are some attractive qualities to NEVER GONNA DANCE: the W.I.Long costumes (though the sharp eyed will notice the 'Charms' costumes can also be seen on the chorines at the St. James) tastefully low-key, "Homage to Van Nest Polglase" pastel sets and evocative lighting. But I found NEVER GONNA DANCE to be a dispiriting evening in the theater. Once again, it's a cut-and-paste score pulled from a classic songwriters catalogue. But the songs are often poorly integrated in the script or appallingly performed: "The Song Is You", one of Kerns most rhapsodic melodies and the enchanting "Dearly Beloved" are thrown away in painfully "jokey" versions that you can bet no one in the R&H office would have stood for. And as anyone who follows my icons knows, I love 1930s musicals. But by (re)staging pallid period recreations of superior film musicals, the creators of NEVER GONNA DANCE have done Kern and his collaborators a disservice. There is no point in restaging a Fred Astaire movie unless you are going to subtantially improve it - which is pretty much a near impossibility. In craft, talent and charm, SWING TIME trumps NEVER GONNA DANCE at every turn. And if the songs are so timeless, why keep the story squarely in the 1930s? Why not incorporate them in a well-written CONTEMPORARY story instead? Instead, of taking up this tantalizing (and risky) challenge, NEVER GONNA DANCE takes the easy way out.
It's a musical staged in an Art Deco flask of embalming fluid.

Noah Racey and Nancy Lemenager are sensational dancers. But you're going to headline a Broadway musical, you need a lot more than awesome technical ability. You need a palpable, sharply defined stage personality and star quality. Neither has them. They aren't helped by the on-stage comparison of supporting players Ziemba and Goodwin, who have charm and sass to burn and they are almost strenously kept on the sidelines. It's no surprise that the former's "Shimmy With Me" is one of the shows few exhilerating moments where one sits up with a start and realizes "AT LAST - THIS is what a musical is supposed to do." It's not a great song, but Ziemba -arms waving and eyes bright- sure as hell knows how to sell it for more than its worth. Goodwin has less chance to shine, but this is a woman whose sideways glance could slice cold cuts. Whether dancing or standing still smirking, she comits grand larceny every time she is on stage. To be fair, Racey & Lemenager make a wonderful impression in the title song and the beautifully staged "The Way You Look Tonight" . But too many of the dance numbers don't build and just go nowhere with a lot of aimless running and tapping - the "Grand Central Station" number being a prime example.

Of the other actors, the ham-fisted caricatures of Gerety, Pittu and Bartlett reminded one of the brilliance of Victor Moore, Edward Everett Horton and Barnett Parker.

Speaking of Bartlett, now is the time for a moratorium on Broadways overuse of mincing gay sterotypes.

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Updated On: 1/7/04 at 05:03 AM

I thought Noah was a fine dancer and his singing was ok.
He is passable I liked the first dance sequence in Grand Central Station. As far as Nancy I was not impressed with her dancing or her singing.
How can I put this she made me fall asleep. She seemed to be in a day dream somewhere else.
I hope she improves. Maybe it was just an off day. I hope so.
Actually I would have liked to have seen Deidre in the lead.
She would have danced and sang circles around Nancy.
She has the most incredible voice.

Updated On: 1/7/04 at 08:48 AM