| An ambitious, worthwhile work in progress. If you're interested in musical theatre choreography, you'll want to see this. Andy Blankenbuehler, as close to a Fosse heir as we have, attempts a through-danced musical. He doesn’t pull it off, but you get the feeling he’s just warming up and that Fosse would approve. So what’s here? A lot of routinely inventive movement and casually gorgeous dancing. It’s in the service of a stale, though clearly rendered, story that’s best approached as a sort of fable. The score, too, is somewhat bland. Much of it is sung by the composer, Kate Nash, who has a wan stage presence—she’s the unnecessary narrator—especially in the midst of the dynamic top tier dancers assembled here. But the movement is the intended foreground, and it’s always interesting, packed with idiosyncratic detail and great, snaky style. Blankenbuehler hasn’t yet found a way to tell a musical theatre story entirely gesturally, but he’s getting there. |
