WSS Revival- Dance At The Gym

No where remotely close. Especially since it had to be modified and altered due to Karen Olivo's limitations.

All of the dance numbers in this revival are missing something... and that is 'feeling'. They're definitely dancing, but not feeling anything they're dancing.

Charlotte D' Amboise IS what Anita is supposed to dance like...your eye always goes to her...and THAT'S what the person playing Anita needs...ballet training and presence.

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I actually thought Charlotte's Cassie was great...except for her singing...eek. But her acting was very real and believeable.

You should see her doing America in Jerome Robbin's Broadway...phenomenal.

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Not a lot of classical Jazz is seen on Broadway anymore...

Chicago I think is one of the only shows on Broadway right now with real BROADWAY jazz.

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I'm not sure why Karen is recieving so much of the blame here. If you want to criticize a show you really have to go back to those responsible for casting it. OK, maybe Karen Olivo may not be able to dance as well as other actresses, but she was the one selected and I highly doubt she's not constantly practicing or doing her best to improve. I don't know if the current cast is full of the absolute best for this show, but its an extremely difficult show to cast, and it would be impossible to get it to be perfect, no show ever was/is/will be.

As for the triple-threats comment, there are a ton of amazing dancers out there, some working and some not, but even they can't make lukewarm choreography look good. If you ask me, it's the quality of choreography thats changed, not the talent.

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Karen Olivo is an incredibly dedicated, talented, beautiful, actress. I agree it's not her fault that she got cast as Anita, and she's giving it her best, her acting is the best among all the principals, her singing knocks it out of the park, but it'd be unfair to blame anyone for criticizing her dancing (in)abilities. She's just not a dancer and she has admitted to it before.
After seeing Charlotte D'Amboise do that brilliant choreography, after playing Rita Moreno's Oscar-winning triple threat performance over and over, and after seeing other clips, it is clear that Karen Olivo just doesn't have the dance training required to wow us with her dancing the way the role requires us to. Does she manage to still make Anita a wonderful, full-fleshed, beautifully-acted character? Of course! But she does that through her singing and her acting, and so we forget (or forgive) her shortcomings in the dancing department.
That is a wonderful clip, I can't imagine what it must have felt like for those dancers to have the master himself choreograph his own movements for his own show. How I wish I had seen them.

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I still feel that the problem with Charlotte D'Amboise in A Chorus Line was that she was doing the wrong choreography. I wish that they had given her the version of Music and the Mirror that Bennett gave to Anne Reinking when she took over from Donna McKechnie, as Charlotte has always looked (to me) more like a dancer in the style of Reinking, i.e. much more based on the lower body/legs, whereas McKechnie was much more about using her upper body.

Does anybody remember the differences between the McKechnie/Reinking versions of that number? Was Anne the only one to use that choreography, or did other Cassie's get the choice/decision made for them of which to use?

This WEST SIDE STORY fever has made me listen to the Original Broadway Recording over and over and Chita really had the perfect voice for Anita.
In Jerry Herman's book he says when he worked with her in the early years, he just kept handing her songs and she ran with them all.
I know Peter did AMERICA, did he do her moves in DANCE AT THE GYM also?
Even so, the way the dancing all melds and fills the stage must have taken some help, but it looks so Robbins when danced properly.

With all due respect... her name is ANN Reinking (not Anne).

From my memory (I was 11 years old when I saw Ann play Cassie twice on Broadway), Ann's version of "Music and the Mirror" incorporated more extensions/kicks and Ann utilized her long flowing hair to incredible effect, especially when she was facing the mirror.

Sorry about the typos. I know far more Anne's than I do Ann's, so I just automatically add the "e" without thinking.

Just another example though of a dancer who understood the motivation behind the dance. I just went back and watched the hospital hallucination segment from All That Jazz on youtube (sadly my DVD is in storage in a box in my parents' basement in Cleveland). An absolutely stunning segment, not to mention every other dance sequence in that movie. Just goes to show what can happen when you have dancers and choreographers/directors who trust in the movement to heighten the emotion of the piece, something that I think is just lacking in this current WSS.

"The worst Broadway Anita" may be the first Anita to ever win the Tony.

Brody (and others):

That is how I felt about the choreography, in particular, and the entire production, more generally: NO SOUL.

They danced because it was "time", not because they felt anything. For all of Laurents blabbering about the level of ACTING this production was focusing on, this is the exact area that never developed.

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