Live from Broadway

Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily, which comes live from New York (hence the late delivery time; I usually publish first thing in the mornings when I’m in the UK).

Fosse’s Dancin’ — and a memorial for its original Broadway star

Fosse’s DANCIN’ returned to Broadway, opening officially on Sunday (March 19).  This glittering, propulsive 1978 original dance revue is not to be confused with FOSSE, the posthumously produced jukebox tribute to his career that premiered on Broadway in 1999, co-conceived by RIchard Maltby Jr and Ann Reinking with Chet Walker, and co-directed by Maltby and Reinking.

I saw it forty years ago, when the original Broadway production briefly transferred to Drury Lane in 1983; of course, his legacyhas only grown larger since he died, aged just 60, in 1987; but this dazzling revue is more a jukebox of greatest hits.

Now with its programme slightly modified to include an additional tribute to BIG DEAL, Fosse’s final original Broadway credit in 1986 (which quickly flopped), it’s a show that mostly thrills but also occasionally chills: it’s full of ambivalence, like the man himself, about what it wishes to achieve. On the one hand, it is a a frequently astonishing demonstration of just what it says on the tin: dancin’, dancin’ and more dancin’ (It wouldn’t be out of place at Sadlers’ Wells in London), to the accompaniment of a stonking band.

On the other hand, some of that dancin’ is buried in a production that is frequently a visual assault on the senses, with a giant LCD screen behind the dancers providing a rolling commentary of its own.

But anyone who care about Broadway history won’t want to miss this extended peak into the revolutionary work of one of its most unique yet troubled personalities, propelled by absolutely stunning dancers.

Ann Reinking was one of the original dancers in the 1978 DANCIN’, and was muse, mistress and keeper of Fosse’s creative flame. She died in 2020, aged just 71,  And yesterday, a memorial tribute to her was held at the Ambassador Theatre, home of the Broadway revival of CHICAGO that has now been running for 27 years and has become the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

The production originated as part of the Encores! season of revivals of classic Broadway musicals that was then in its third year at New York Center in 1996, before transferring to the 46th Street Theatre, Reinking herself had led the cast as Roxie Hart, and was also credited for overseeing its choreography, “in the style of Bob Fosse.”

I attended the memorial, and it was intensely moving to hear friends, colleagues and admirers of hers paying tribute to her humanity as well as her immense talent. Co-stars like Ben Vereen (she’d been in the original Broadway production of PIPPIN), James Naughton (who played Billy Flynn opposite her in 1996), and Mandy Patinkin sang numbers, while speakers included Rob Fisher (long-time musical director for Encores!) and her husband Peter Talbert.

CRITICAL WATCH

As a regular consumer of reviews (as well as a long-time writer of them), I am introducing a new feature this week, in which I highlight some of the ones that have drawn my attention over the last week.

The big opening of the last week, of course, was the Bridge Theatre’s revival of GUYS AND DOLLS, that opened officially last Tuesday (March 14), has been ecstatically received across the board, including by me for Plays International here.

As I conclude, “Guys & Dolls remains my all-time favourite Broadway musical, dating from 1950 but essentially timeless. It is a perfectly crafted explosion of sheer heart as well as craft. And just as I still talk about the 1982 National Theatre production fondly today, anyone who is lucky enough to experience this version will likely be talking about it for the next half century too.”

Unlike many influencers and bloggers who are so keen to see themselves quoted that they regularly write as if every single show they see is the best of the year (potentially, as they sometimes add), professional critics are typically more circumspect, but this show had them falling over themselves to praise it. “Blissful and exhilarating”, exclaimed Nick Curtis for the Evening Standard; while David Benedict for Variety states that this “explosively joyous Guys and Dolls is a solid-gold knockout.” And Sam Marlowe concludes for The Stage, “it sure is one swell time.”

Andzrej Lukowski for Time Out drools (his word) over the staging and gushes, “I appreciate I’ve been a bit giddy here, and yes, I have in fact seen other shows with interactive sets before. But what [director Nick] Hytner and [designer Bunny] Christie have done so brilliantly is seamlessly integrate this stuff into mainstream musical entertainment. Not every show is going to benefit from staging along these lines. But as the era of the proscenium arch draws to a close, it feels like most directors of musicals could learn something from this.”

Last Thursday’s opening of a new production of Zinnie Harris’s 1999 play FURTHER THAN THE FURTHEST THING at the Young Vic, based on real-life events that took place on a remote volcanic island in the South Atlantic in 1961 (whose residents were evacuated to Southampton after an eruption), had some critics struggling to make sense of it.

All credit to Time Out’s Andzrej Lukowski for coming up with this prize piece of uncertain prevarication: “As far as I can tell, Harris has maybe sexed up real historical events in a way that maybe feels a bit lurid.”  The ‘as far as I can tell’ is an interesting kind of admission of defeat, and is followed by not one by two ‘maybe’s’ that confirm it. 

In The Stage, Sam Marlowe got her head around it more successfully with this: “Its action ebbs and flows, swirling with metaphor. It requires sensitive navigation to chart a course between choppy waters and the risk of becoming becalmed. Unfortunately, it sometimes feels as if Jennifer Tang, the director of this revival, has misplaced her dramatic compass.”

SHOWS AHEAD IN LONDON, SELECTED REGIONAL THEATRES AND ON BROADWAY

I’ve been unable to update my regular feature on upcoming shows in London, selected regional theatres and on Broadway, while my website is currently out of action.

This week on Broadway Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ opened on Sunday (see above), and this week brings Andrew Lloyd Webber’s BAD CINDERELLA to the Imperial (opening on Thursday) and Josh Groban in the title role of Broadway’s third revival of SWEENEY TODD (opening Sunday March 26).

See you here on Friday

I will be back on Friday, with my regular column The Week in Review(s) offering a day-by-day digest of the week in news and commentary of the previous seven days activity, including reviews of what I’ve seen and by others.

If you can’t wait that long, I may also be found on Twitter (for the moment) here: https://twitter.com/ShentonStage/ (though not as regularly on weekends)=