#1
Posted: 10/26/06 at 6:57pm
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/26/arts/NA_A-E_DAN_US_Theater_Times_A_Changin.php
It is hard to tell what Tharp, who conceived the show, had in mind, judging from the confusing, surreal production on stage at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre. The diffuse plot is as ragged as the tattered overalls worn by the production's creepy clown chorus, an able, gymnastic bunch of dancers awash in scary pale makeup that make them look like refugees from Cirque du Soleil.
There are clues to Tharp's intentions in the theater program where the setting is ominously described as "sometime between awake and asleep" and where the musical is called "a fable." Forget life being a cabaret. In "Times," it's a small, seedy circus, a garish, colored-light world wonderfully created by designer Santo Loquasto. Allegory, anyone?
The story, if you can call it that, concerns a father, a son and a woman who seems to come between them. Dad is a gruff, grinning sadist called Captain Ahrab; son Coyote, an unhappy Candide-like youngster; and Cleo, a circus performer of mysterious origin. None of them is particularly well defined — or interesting.
Visually, though, there are some arresting moments, particularly when Tharp's dancers are hurtling across the stage. Whether bouncing on trampolines, using hula hoops, jumping rope or tossing beach balls (shades of the unlamented "Good Vibrations"), they have an unflagging energy that almost makes up for the nebulous love triangle.
Tharp uses a few of her dance regulars here, including John Selya, Ron Todorowski and an amazing Charlie Neshyba-Hodges. They are all veterans of "Movin' Out," the choreographer's Billy Joel-Vietnam era musical that had a lengthy Broadway run.
Special kudos should go to Michael Arden, a genuine find. He portrays the show's budding hero with an appealing earnestness that transcends the thinness of his character. And while not a dancer, Arden holds his own against the more experienced movers on stage.
Brescia does deliver an affecting version of "Don't Think Twice It's All Right," sung to a dog, portrayed with floppy-eared sweetness by Jason McDole. That mutt is one of the evening's meager attempts at humor, a quality sorely lacking amid all the pretension Tharp piles onto this lame coming-of-age parable.
It is hard to tell what Tharp, who conceived the show, had in mind, judging from the confusing, surreal production on stage at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre. The diffuse plot is as ragged as the tattered overalls worn by the production's creepy clown chorus, an able, gymnastic bunch of dancers awash in scary pale makeup that make them look like refugees from Cirque du Soleil.
There are clues to Tharp's intentions in the theater program where the setting is ominously described as "sometime between awake and asleep" and where the musical is called "a fable." Forget life being a cabaret. In "Times," it's a small, seedy circus, a garish, colored-light world wonderfully created by designer Santo Loquasto. Allegory, anyone?
The story, if you can call it that, concerns a father, a son and a woman who seems to come between them. Dad is a gruff, grinning sadist called Captain Ahrab; son Coyote, an unhappy Candide-like youngster; and Cleo, a circus performer of mysterious origin. None of them is particularly well defined — or interesting.
Visually, though, there are some arresting moments, particularly when Tharp's dancers are hurtling across the stage. Whether bouncing on trampolines, using hula hoops, jumping rope or tossing beach balls (shades of the unlamented "Good Vibrations"), they have an unflagging energy that almost makes up for the nebulous love triangle.
Tharp uses a few of her dance regulars here, including John Selya, Ron Todorowski and an amazing Charlie Neshyba-Hodges. They are all veterans of "Movin' Out," the choreographer's Billy Joel-Vietnam era musical that had a lengthy Broadway run.
Special kudos should go to Michael Arden, a genuine find. He portrays the show's budding hero with an appealing earnestness that transcends the thinness of his character. And while not a dancer, Arden holds his own against the more experienced movers on stage.
Brescia does deliver an affecting version of "Don't Think Twice It's All Right," sung to a dog, portrayed with floppy-eared sweetness by Jason McDole. That mutt is one of the evening's meager attempts at humor, a quality sorely lacking amid all the pretension Tharp piles onto this lame coming-of-age parable.
Updated On: 10/26/06 at 06:57 PM
