Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks-The First Act Seemed Like Six Years!

[Corine2]

Posted: 11/19/03 at 9:46pm

I love Polly Bergen and I have seen her in Cabaret, Follies and numerous other shows and she is talented.
But she could not save this mediocre story.
The first act seemed to go on for six years and Mark Hamill gave one of the worst performances I have ever seen.
It was painful.
I hope to see Polly in a better show soon. Her talent is wasted in this play.
And Mark- may the force be with you. OY! Updated On: 11/19/03 at 09:46 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/19/03 at 10:23pm

Corine, you have no idea how I live to read your reviews! You start off by saying that you have seen Polly Bergen in CABARET, FOLLIES "and numerous other shows". I believe the lovely Ms Bergen has been away from the theater scene for some time. FOLLIES was her "comeback" of sorts. Her previous forays onto Broadway were probably before you were even conceived. Now we all know that you are a woman of unique talents, but how could you have seen Ms Bergen's shows under such circumstances?

You then say that the play has a "mediocre story". What makes it mediocre? You must learn to support your statements.

The same applies to your comments about Mark Hammill giving "one of the worst performances you've ever seen". WHY was it so bad?

I think the worst performance I'VE ever seen is when you try to pass yourself off as being intelligent. The fact of the matter is, Corine, that if you scored 6 points more on your IQ test you'd be a petunia.

[JKB2]

Posted: 11/20/03 at 12:24am

I'm sorry to hear that you weren't able to get into the play. I don't believe your experience was typical of the audience reaction, however, at least judging by the laughter and applause I've heard each time I've seen it, and the comments people made after the show (such as the comment from one lady who almost left when she heard Polly Bergen was going to be replaced by an understudy; I told her I was sure the understudy was going to do a good job, and after the show, she thanked me for convincing her to stay and said, "Mark Hamill was *wonderful*. It was well worth staying just to see him.") I've seen the play more than once, and I've never seen Mark Hamill give anything less than, as one critic put it, an "awesomely professional" performance.

[Corine2]

Posted: 11/20/03 at 11:44am

I did not like the play for many reasons.
Mark overacted. He did not fit the part and he was un interesting. There was nothing charming about him and that was his biggest problem.
The writing seemed like a sitcom. Nothing new or exciting about it.
It put a few people to sleep and the couple a few feet away left a half hour into the first act.
Here is what Bruce Weber said:

Can a middle-aged gay former Broadway chorus boy whose acerbic demeanor hides a deep loneliness and the elderly widow of a Baptist minister who submerges her liberal, fun-loving nature beneath a prim formality find happiness together in a Florida condominium?

Only if you think the answer to this question is no should you buy a ticket to ''Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,'' the lame and utterly predictable piece of fluff by Richard Alfieri that opened yesterday at the Belasco Theater. When Michael Minetti (Mark Hamill), a dance instructor, enters the condominium owned by Lily Harrison (Polly Bergen) for her first lesson, they offend each other right off the bat.


From that moment on, the path toward their unlikely friendship is set in stone, and the only uncertainty is which of them will turn out to be doomed. Actually, there's another question, which is how this play and this production, the most dismissible entry on Broadway of the last few seasons, ever escaped from the community theater circuit. There life is always sentimental and bittersweet, vulgarities spoken by an old woman constitute riotous, risqué humor and scenery chewing is the height of the actor's art.

Each of the first six scenes is a dance lesson -- tango, fox trot, cha-cha etc. -- and ends with Mr. Hamill and Ms. Bergen executing a few steps to recorded music as the lights go down. The seventh scene is the melancholy conclusion.

What the scenes ostensibly accomplish, of course, is the development of a relationship, in which the two people lie to each other, reveal their lies, discover they are more alike than not and finally confess their mutual need.

But Mr. Alfieri, who never met a cliché he didn't like (you don't think Lily would lie about her age, do you?), has written a surprise-free script with repetitious generic squabbles, and the show has been directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman so that each scene echoes the previous one in arc and tone. When, in the end, the hokey lighting by Tom Ruzika illustrates a sunset over the Gulf of Mexico, the close-of-life metaphor, spelled out in the script -- the sunset is always at its most beautiful before going dark -- is enough to raise unsolicited giggles.

Ms. Bergen at least keeps her professional dignity in not wringing the intended pathos from Lily, and she handles the naughty bits and the television film dialogue with the aplomb of a good sport. Mr. Hamill, on the other hand, plays Michael with the flamboyant self-regard of a drama queen that quickly becomes intolerable. Every line has a strained flourish, an earnest bleat of emotion. The cords of his neck regularly bulge. It's no wonder his voice sounded hoarse.

Toward the end of Monday night's performance, an elderly man in the front row collapsed, gasping for breath, and the Emergency Medical Service took him to a hospital, where he recovered. It turned out he had choked on a candy. Now that's a metaphor.

SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS

By Richard Alfieri; directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman; set by Roy Christopher; costumes by Helen Butler; lighting by Tom Ruzika; sound by Philip G. Allen; choreography by Kay Cole; production stage manager, Jim Semmelman. Presented by Rodger Hess, Marcia Seligson, Entpro Plays Inc., Carolyn S. Chambers, Sight Sound and Action Ltd.; Brantley M. Dunaway, Judy Arnold and Patricia Greenwald. At the Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, Manhattan.

WITH: Polly Bergen (Lily Harrison) and Mark Hamill (Michael Minetti).



Published: 10 - 30 - 2003 , Late Edition - Final , Section E , Column 1 , Page 3 The New York Times.









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Updated On: 11/20/03 at 11:44 AM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/20/03 at 10:01pm

Corine,

It was so very kind of you to post the review from the NEW YORK TIMES. All the opinions in that review were sustantiated, while yours remain both vapid and nebulous. I'm beginning to wonder if you are capable of expressing a lucid thought.

[Corine2]

Posted: 11/20/03 at 10:19pm

Doll,
You should audition for Marks role there is nothing charming about you either! Updated On: 11/20/03 at 10:19 PM

[JKB2]

Posted: 11/20/03 at 10:19pm

It's already well-established that a number of New York critics didn't like the play. From their descriptions, I have the feeling that they saw a different play than I did, and a different play than that which many other people have seen and described as funny, touching, and delightful. I tend to be a fairly chatty person, and I had umpteen conversations with people I met at the theater who said that they loved the play and couldn't understand what the critics were complaining about. The fact that some critics hated it doesn't change the fact that many people love it.

[Corine2]

Posted: 11/20/03 at 10:25pm

Updated On: 11/20/03 at 10:25 PM

[Corine2]

Posted: 11/20/03 at 10:31pm

Updated On: 11/20/03 at 10:31 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/21/03 at 7:42pm

Ah, dearest Corine!

Nothing could have made me happier than to read that you no longer find me appealing. Now maybe you'll stop sending me PM's inviting me to join you for a glass of wine.

One word of advice: It is well known that your sainted mother spent a small fortune when she sent you to that charm school...is it too late for her to get a refund?

[Schuyler]

Posted: 11/21/03 at 9:05pm

This show is closing sunday.