National Tour Theater Review: COME FLY AWAY (Pantages Theater)

OCCASIONALLY, WHEN WE’RE LUCKY, IT FLIES

In Come Fly Away, there are at least four dances â€“ “I’ve Got A Crush On You,” “Body and Soul,” “I Like To Lead When I Dance,” and “Teach Me Tonight” â€“ that have the old Twyla Tharp magic, and, since they are all danced by the amazing Cody Green, who’s got the Tharp style down to perfection, and Laurie Kanyok, one is justified in assuming it is as much the work of the dancers as the dances themselves. But the secret seems to be that, if the music gets slower, the choreography heats up. The problem with Come Fly Away is that Tharp has set a standard which she herself must maintain, and anyone who has seen Sinatra Suite or Nine Sinatra Songs has somehow to expect a rhapsodic love affair between Tharp and Sinatra. And, given the extraordinary full-length ballet Tharp created for the Billy Joel-inspired Movin’ On, expectations were high indeed. So, crowd pleaser though it is, this new show seems truly inventive only a part of the time. Too much of the time, indeed, it seems as if Tharp is staging the dances for Dancing with the Stars. There is a glitziness and tackiness that smacks more of Vegas than Broadway. And the dancers surrender to those vices with abandon, although there is some superb footwork by most of the men, especially Martin Harvey and Matthew Stockwell Dibble, who cannot hide their classical training. Still, at its best, almost always when Cody Green slides his body sinuously to the sound of a crooning Sinatra, all is well in the world of Twyla Tharp. Artistically, one longs for more of the same. It just ain’t going to happen this time around. For many, what’s left will be more than enough.