Source: Union-Tribune
Date: March 15, 2008
Byline: James Hebert
'Dancing' finds its comedic rhythm
The song "That's Entertainment!" is an American classic; who knew it also was the world's most potent ad jingle, or maybe some kind of theatrical Viagra?
In the Old Globe Theatre's seriously fun new musical, "Dancing in the Dark," Patrick Page plays a suave director who seduces first a writing team, then a leading man, then a snobby choreographer into doing a musical together, simply by trotting out a few bars of the tune.
He could charm snakes with that number, or sell snake oil (maybe even to charmed snakes), and writer Douglas Carter Beane does a canny job of pitching this bit of Broadway rah-rah with both a knowing wink and an adoring grin.
In sum: "Dancing in the Dark" makes the sale. It's a bit long, the second act starts to wander, the look is a work in progress and lead-character questions may linger. But it'd still be a surprise not to see this show make its way to New York, just like its own musical-within-a-musical (only with a less tortured development process).
It works in good measure because Beane has done something stunning with Betty Comden and Adolph Green's screenplay to the 1953 backstage musical "The Band Wagon": made sense of it.
Because of studio complications, the duo behind "Singin' in the Rain" never got to finish the "Band Wagon" script, so the last part of the Vincente Minnelli-directed movie wound up a mishmash of production numbers set to the tunes of composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz ("Dancing in the Dark" among them).
Beane strings them into parallel love stories that are sweet and believable, even as they hopscotch from the hokum of "Louisiana Hayride" to the can-do pep of "A Shine on Your Shoes" to the vinegar-laced vaudeville of "Triplets."
In one of many art-imitates-life touches, film-TV star and onetime Tony Award nominee Scott Bakula plays Tony Hunter, a former theater type who went Hollywood and now comes shuffling back. He gets an icy greeting in New York from his ex-stage partners, writers Lily and Lester Marton (Beth Leavel and Adam Heller), stand-ins of a sort for Comden and Green.
But the extravagantly vain Jeffrey Cordova (Page) insists they work together again, and he brings in the celebrated modern dancer Gabrielle Gerard (Mara Davi) and her Svengali of a squeeze, choreographer Paul Byrd (Sebastian La Cause). They all make for an "A" team, as in animosity, acrimony, antipathy.
Jeffrey seals the show's doom by seizing on Lily's throwaway plot remark about a "deal with the devil" and reconceiving the work as a wildly misguided modern take on "Faust," a disaster in its out-of-town tryout (though a hoot in its brief appearance on the Globe stage).
Tony and team then have to figure out how to salvage the show, along with their tangled relationships.
In a part played on film by Fred Astaire, Bakula — best-known for TV's "Quantum Leap" — is less a hoofer than a journeyman entertainer, a role that fits the laconic and likable actor well.
His voice seems better suited for belting than for the quieter tones of a tune like "By Myself," but Bakula has a talent for tap as well as good comic timing.
Still, he has all he can handle to match the major triple threats alongside him. Whatever Faustian bargain director Gary Griffin might've made to get Beth Leavel, it's worth an adjustable-rate mortgage with Old Scratch to land her as funny and lovelorn Lily. The Tony-winner for "The Drowsy Chaperone" is a singing dream and matches up well with Heller, who brings a needed bit of edge to the show.
Davi (another "Drowsy" alum) is also a standout, a graceful dancer and powerful vocalist who's a good fit for the ingenue-ish Gabi. One nagging issue: When Cyd Charisse played the part in the film, she was some 20 years younger than Astaire; the gap between Davi and Bakula appears closer to 30 — a concern because of the romantic story line to follow.
As impressive as this cast is, though, Page threatens to run away with the show as the fearlessly self-beatifying Jeffrey. He gets many of the best lines, and seems to revel in playing off his own glittering Shakespearean résumé (though he also was the Grinch in the Globe-sprung Broadway show). This might be a career-maker if Page wasn't so established already.
After the giddy, slap-bang pace of the first act, where Beane condenses practically half the movie into the first couple of numbers, the second act feels stuck in New Haven (site of an out-of-town tryout). The number "Rhode Island Is Famous for You" is as much sight gag as song (though with seriously witty costumes), and with a show stretching to nearly three hours this might be a place to trim.
Throughout, Beane salts in so many great lines it seems like cheating to quote them; the crack about fuming producers up and leaving "with both sets of books" is just one that got big laughs on opening night.
Warren Carlyle's choreography has old-fashioned panache, and Griffin directs with a winning sense of backstage life — check the touching scene where Jeff's dutiful, self-effacing right-hand man, Hal (elegantly engaging Benjamin Howes), quietly mimics the dancers' moves from just behind the curtain.
Pleading his case for one awful ballet number, Byrd (a perfectly haughty La Cause) says critics will love it.
"But not just critics — people!"
People — and others — oughta love this show, too.