Bob Fosse's Dancin'
Maybe someday in the genderblended future, it will be commonplace to see a man execute three consecutive and complicated leaps in chunky white heels, or to see him whip his hips from side to side like the hoochiest of hoochie-coochie dancers while mock-seducing a pleasure-seeking out-of-town visitor to The Big City. In the meantime, it’s a helluva thing to watch Kolton Krouse in action. And maybe someday in the racially harmonized future, it won’t be necessary to refract Yeman Brown’s razor/laser movements as Mr. Bojangles through a storyteller’s homage. The times, as this here show notes, they are a-changin’. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves: Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is director Wayne Cilento’s revival/update of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, in which Cilento performed way back in ’78. (The updated-for-our-modern-sensibilities book is by another Dancin’ vet, Kirsten Childs.) And "performed" is the word; it gets at the way most of the acting here is done through movement and costume — and to a lesser extent, singing — as opposed to dialogue and story. (Though The Big City and The Big Deal segments do at least nod in that direction, and the puzzling America? bit that closes Act One actually brings the motion to a dispiriting halt.) And such movement. The famous Fosse clearly loved what bodies could be made to do (to suggest, to elicit, to provoke, to astonish, and maybe once upon a time, to shock), and Cilento’s version clearly loves Fosse.
Some will find it wildly fun, others merely dazzling — the people handling the visuals and music do almost as much as the folks on stage when it comes to overwhelming the senses. Considerable time could be spent singling out this or that standout performance (see above?) but that would run the risk of leaving something/someone off thelist.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, May 29, 2022
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm-4pm & 7pm-9pm |
| Tuesdays, 7pm-9pm |
| Wednesdays, 7pm-9pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm-10pm |
| Fridays, 8pm-10pm |
| Saturdays, 2pm-4pm & 8pm-10pm |