Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C.

Little Dancer
Kennedy Center

Also see Susan's reviews of Five Guys Named Moe, Disney's The Little Mermaid


Boyd Gaines and Tiler Peck
Little Dancer, the world premiere musical now in the Eisenhower Theater of the Kennedy Center in Washington, is wondrous, it's luminous, and it deserves to be seen on other stages.

Director and choreographer Susan Stroman and her authors, Lynn Ahrens (book and lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music), have created a work of great beauty, heart, and ambition inspired by Edgar Degas' 1881 wax sculpture "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen." (The actual sculpture is in the collection of Washington's National Gallery of Art, where it is the centerpiece of a current exhibit of Degas' ballet-themed works.)

Little is known about what happened to Marie van Goethem after she modeled for the sculpture. Ahrens, Flaherty, and Stroman have created a story that encompasses the poverty and desperation among the "Petit Rats" of the corps de ballet and the artistic visions of the painter. Following the death of Degas (Boyd Gaines), the adult Marie (Rebecca Luker) returns to his studio and recounts her experiences as ballet dancer Tiler Peck brings them to life as the young Marie.

"Life turns upon a moment, like a dancer en pointe," Marie explains. Her widowed mother (Karen Ziemba) earns little money as a laundress, her older sister Antoinette (Jenny Powers) has a wealthy "protector," and her younger sister Charlotte (Sophia Anne Caruso) also dreams of a career in the ballet. The girls have few options: they can work hard for little money, hoping someday to become featured performers or even prima ballerinas, or they can make arrangements with the patrons given access to them offstage. The relationship between Marie and Degas is on an entirely different level.

Stroman keeps the action in largely continuous motion, opening with Marie's solo dance and including dance classes, auditions, and character turns by can-can dancers and even laundresses. Peck's glowing performance dominates the action; she is as adept with dialogue and singing as with dance. Gaines conveys Degas' struggle against impending blindness and his need to create a vision no one has seen before, crystallized in his solo "In Between." Luker and Ziemba, both estimable performers, make the most of relatively small roles, and Janet Dickinson is suitably acerbic as Degas' friend Mary Cassatt.

The physical production is vast but never overpowering, from the burnished walls of Beowulf Boritt's scenic design and the swirls of color in William Ivey Long's costumes through the shimmers and washes of Ken Billington's lighting design and Benjamin Pearcy's astute projections. Conductor Shawn Gough conducts a peerless orchestra.

Kennedy Center
Little Dancer October 25th - November 30th
Book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Young Marie von Goethem: Tiler Peck
Adult Marie van Goethem: Rebecca Luker
Edgar Degas: Boyd Gaines
Workmen: Kyle Harris, Seán Martin Hingston, James A. Pierce III, John Riddle
Museum Cataloguer: Jenny Powers
Mary Cassatt: Janet Dickinson
Rats: Nicoline Sansouci (Jolina Javier), Esmé Pruneau (Polly Baird), Chantal Brett (Lyrica Woodruff), Ondine Gigot (Juliet Doherty)
Abonnés: Joseph J. Simeone, John Riddle, James A. Pierce III, Seán Martin Hingston
Sujets: Wendi Bergamini, Nina Goldman
Premiers danseurs: Katelyn Prominski, James A. Pierce III
Backstage workers: Sophia Anne Caruso, Janet Dickinson, Kyle Harris, Seán Martin Hingston, John Riddle, Jenny Powers, Joseph J. Simeone, Karen Ziemba
Martine van Goethem: Karen Ziemba
Charlotte van Goethem: Sophia Anne Caruso
Sailors: Kyle Harris, James A. Pierce III
Sabine: Michele Ragusa
Doctors: Kyle Harris, Seán Martin Hingston, Michael McCormick, James A. Pierce III, John Riddle, Joseph J. Simeone
Madame Théodore: Michele Ragusa
Monsieur Corbeil: Michael McCormick
Christian: Kyle Harris
Laundresses: Wendi Bergamini, Janet Dickinson, Nina Goldman, Jolina Javier, Katelyn Prominski, Michele Ragusa
Monsieur Plouff: Michael McCormick
Antoinette van Goethem: Jenny Powers
Philippe de Marchal: Seán Martin Hingston
Rat Mort Dancers: Polly Baird, Wendi Bergamini, Nina Goldman, Katelyn Prominski
Rat Mort Patrons: James A. Pierce III, Michele Ragusa, John Riddle, Joseph J. Simeone
Urchins: Sophia Anne Caruso, Juliet Doherty, Lyrica Woodruff
Proprietress: Janet Dickinson
Bartender: Kyle Harris
Luis Merante: Joseph J. Simeone
Madame Pruneau: Nina Goldman
Mothers: Jenny Powers, Janet Dickinson, Wendi Bergamini, Katelyn Prominski
Art Patrons/Museum Visitors/Citizens of Paris: Polly Baird, Wendi Bergamini, Sophia Anne Caruso, Juliet Doherty, Nina Goldman, Kyle Harris, Seán Martin Hingston, Jolina Javier, Michael McCormick, James A. Pierce III, Jenny Powers, Katelyn Prominski, Michele Ragusa, John Riddle, Joseph J. Simeone, Lyrica Woodruff, Karen Ziemba
Directed and Choreographed by Susan Stroman
Eisenhower Theater, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F St. NW, Washington, DC
Ticket Information: (800) 444-1324 or (202) 467-4600 or www.kennedy-center.org


Photo: Paul Kolnik