Miss10036 said: "This was in some ways a pleasant surprise, but in other ways it wasn't clicking, and those issuesare pretty structural... I've got a lot of thoughts and recognize that there aren't many reports online about this one yet, so figured I'd throw a long-winded post on here. Sorry this is incrediblylong.
The premise is essentially that through a series of plot contrivances, a professional dancer (Tam Mutu) who'd been teaching ballroom on the UES ends up teaching dance class in a south Bronx high school. I understand it's based on a real guy, but based on googling it sounds like this doesn't strictly follow his true story. Adrienne Bailon-Houghton is the school's interim principal, Mutu's character has an ex, and among the students are Savy Jackson's and Vincent Jamal Hopper's characters, who are dance partners but have history between their families. Honestly, I went in pretty skeptical because the “2000s movie where person from stuffy world teaches city kids and learns about himself” concept isn’t particularly fresh. Take the Lead doesn’t totally succeed in updating or complicating that narrative and would’ve been more compelling if it did.
The positives: On balance, a strong score. While there are some weak points, there are some really good and driven songs in here. Fittingly, it's like a mix of hip-hop and dancier (for lack of a better descriptor) songs and the vocals deliver. Savy Jackson and the students have a wonderful song in the first act, the interim principal's got a fun introductory number ("Hold, Please"), and Jackson and Hopper's characters have a highly enjoyable dance number in the first act and a nice duet in the second. There are some lively ensemble numbers too, including a montage at the start of act two. Choreo's impressive and well-executed, though not innovative. Savy Jackson's got a gorgeous, poppy voice and my ears perked up whenever she opened her mouth. The students are fantastic and the actors do a great job of defining their characters—by the end of their first scene I knew each of their names and had a sense of their personalities. They land the jokes and had me laughing.
The core issue is that Mutu's teacher character is not that interesting, nor is his journey. He does a fine job with the part, but the role's underwritten. The show hints at the expected themes—opportunism, whether he's getting into teaching for selfish reasons vs. truly being in it to help the kids, etc.—and has plot beats that address those themes, but they aren't fully developed and don't feel real. Like, The Prom dealt with these themes much better. It'sa savior-y premise yet we also don't see him do much helping, other than starting the class. The writing and direction commit the error of not fleshing out the teacher's relationships with the students. We don't see him learning from the students because there aren't many individual interactions where he connects with them, nor are there subtle moments to show he's getting to know them and evolving, or causing the students to involve. So whenever he talks or sings about his experience changing him, it feels unearned because he doesn't truly get introspective moments. In general, the relationships between the adult authority figures and students aren't developed. The interim principal hardly interacts with the students or gets her own clear backstory or narrative, so her bigger song in the second act (that "My Kids" number they released, one of the weaker numbers which Bailey-Houghton unfortunately delivers in pop star mode instead of interpreting it), too, feels unearned. The show needs to show us these two connecting with the kids more and being invested in them growing and learning dance, instead of broadly telling us.
The show cries out to center the students more. My two cents is that they should be elevating Jackson's and Hopper's characters, and they have untapped but available opportunities to do that. I won’t spoil the plot points, but towards the end of act one, the show hints at a conflict that could drive their characters apart, but then the actual end of act one highlights a conflict that sounds like a total non-issue and is a non-issue, involving a character who could easily be cut. It skirts around real conflict. There's enough that they could trim to make room for an increased focus on the students, who are generally winning and who you root for. The show would also benefit from showing us more action set outside the school—there's one particular stretch in act one that starts to feel stagnant because it's set entirely in one classroom—where we can learn more about the students' lives. Generally, when the plot hints at stakes, it brushes them away or shifts focus. Instead, the gist you're left with is that you have these already good, nice kids learning how to dance ballroom and having fun, while their teacher learns... something about himself. And the interim principal's there to support.
I knew who Bailey-Houghton was from her starring in the Cheetah Girls, which, for the uninitiated, was a series of Disney Channel original movies (DCOMs) in the early/mid-2000s. And if you’re wondering what the tone of this show is, it basically is a DCOM (not actually, but feels like it). Whether this works depends on what you’re looking for. It’s predictable enough, with student characters you root for and adults doing their best. There’s the mean, privileged blonde girl who isn’t that threatening. There’s a little romance. The students are witty and you enjoy whenever they're onstage. While the show alludes to the school being underserved and to some of the kids having issues outside the school, that doesn’t feel developed or lived-in. These kids don’t, and shouldn’t, have to have trauma to be compelling, but it is odd to hint at conflicts outside school with some plot-relevance and shrug them off (namely the conflict between Hopper and Jackson's characters). Take the Lead plays it safe and while you root for the characters to succeed, you don’t get taken on an emotional journey as it stands. If the creative team plans to develop this further, I hope they won't be shyabout making larger changes, because there are enough strong elements that they can maybe get this into a betterplace with some rethinking and refocusing."
I did have a chance to see this two days ago at PMP. I kept hearing how great the choreography was - and it truly is. But ultimately I didn't love the show, and if they are planning on developing this for Broadway (which I can see), it needs some work. The story was both a bit thin and very predictable. Talented cast. Some really good numbers. But also some points when it felt like a glorified high school production. The second act felt long and I was ready for it to be over. Not a horrible evening, but nothing I'd recommend at this point for anyone to go see.
