Broadway Review: BOB FOSSE’S DANCIN’ (Music Box)

THERE’S PLENTY OF GREAT PRANCIN’
BUT IT’S A HEAD-SCRATCHIN’ DANCIN’

There’s whole lotta dancing in the updated, Broadway revival of Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’, closing May 14, 2023 at The Music Box. Exciting dancing. Lyrical dancing. Athletic dancing. Sensuous dancing. Joyful dancing. Dancing full of technique and isolation and articulation and precision and extension. Performed by a company of twenty-two wondrous dancer/singer/actors the show is both a fitting tribute to — and welcome reminder of — the ground-breaking talent and vision of choreographer/director Bob Fosse.

The Company
Peter John Chursin, Manuel Herrera, Yeman Brown, Jacob Guzma

The show is so much about dancing that, in case we had any doubt, handsome performer Manuel Herrera (ostensibly the show’s lead) opens the performance with a direct audience address, explaining that “…there’s no story.” Unfortunately and perhaps unintentionally, the show does tell a story. Glorious movement aside, the production ultimately plays like a time capsule of both the good and bad of Fosse’s time on Broadway — from the discipline, talent and pizazz of the performers to the centrality of whiteness (particularly men), objectification of women and BIPOC groups showing up in marginalized, stereotypical characterizations.

The Company

Director Wayne Cilento works his usual magic with the show’s musical staging and direction, yet there’s a surprising obliviousness to the messaging coming out from the containers of some of the dance pieces. The dances are mostly housed within conceptual frames to help locate the dance. There is recognizable choreography throughout with nods to some of Fosse’s hits (the recreation from Sweet Charity of “Rich Man’s Frug” at the Pompeii Club is a showstopper). So these choreographic set pieces are staged within scenarios where the choreography makes sense but doesn’t recreate the scene from the actual show. It’s a clever conceit. However, some of the placement concepts have an under-baked cheesiness, as does the text consultation and additional material by Kirsten Childs.

Karli Dinardo

Early on, there’s a recreation of Fosse’s famous choreography to the song, “Mr. Bojangles.” The song is a sad accounting of an African-American man — jailed, older and poor — who has spent his lonely life dancing for white people. The piece opens with movie footage of the famed, black dance team, The Nicholas Brothers. Then it quickly goes into footage of dancing movie star Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. High up on the impressive, motorized, scaffold set by Robert Brill, the fantastic African-American dancer Yeman Brown appears, dressed in Depression-era clothes. Below him in a jail cell, the scenario of the song is acted. The scene focuses on amazing triple-threat performer Jacob Guzman as he delivers a brilliant, full-bodied impersonation of Bob Fosse dancing (this is a running element of the show, with various dancers taking on the Fosse guise, sometimes quoting him directly). This set-up creates an expectation that Mr. Brown would be the central Bojangles character, yet for some reason, this is not fulfilled. Guzman takes on the Bojangles character while Brown dances behind him. This usurpation of a black man by a white man in such an oblivious way is more retro than update, particularly in this section.

The Company

Later, four women and one man sing Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” — a song where a woman is aware her man is bad for her yet struggles with her ongoing attraction to him. It’s a cute number — kind of. As the women continue singing, they each begin to question why they are singing a song in which the woman is in such a bad position, especially since the section is titled The Female Star Spot (and why THIS song would be The Female Star Spot is a whole other conversation). At the point where the women are all really questioning what they are doing, the man, in his only line in the sketch says, “…let’s just finish the song,”, shutting down the women’s burgeoning self-value. As the last woman exits stage, she happily giggles because she receives a text from her bad-boy boyfriend. For a show that was originally performed at the height of first wave feminism, this doesn’t feel like much of an update either.

The Company

There’s an extended Big City section where a young white guy named Cyril (beautifully danced by super-talented performer Peter John Chursin) goes to the generically named Big City (presumably New York in the seventies?) and of course runs into Latin hookers and pimps and various low-life denizens of the streets. After an encounter with a Charity Hope Valentine-type character (wonderfully played by red-haired Dylis Croman) that includes an ensemble dance from Pippin, the young man finds his way out of the city (I think) and is renewed in Dancin’ Man — a company number with an extended solo section that highlights the mesmerizing Mr. Chursin, performing his own embodiment of Bob Fosse.

The Company
Karli Dinardo, Mattie Love and Ida Saki

Again, that “innocent in the city” framing works for the choreography but … really? However, it’s not as bad as the heavily stereotypical Big Deal section. Set during the Depression, the talented Brown is brought back as Charles “Lightening” Waters, a shuckin’ and jivin’ hustler/thief. He is interested in Lilly — a blues singer/maid/maybe prostitute (the exquisite Khori Michelle Petinaud, who is also African American). The story goes downhill from there, though the company’s dancing is fabulous and Petinaud’s full-throated rendition of “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries” is worth the price of admission.

Jacob Guzman, Mattie Love

There are other head-scratching moments in the show but not where the actual execution  of dance is concerned. Smartly, each dancer is also given moments to shine individually or in tandem with just a few others. The gorgeous Romantic Fantasy danced by Guzman and Mattie Love it so enthralling it should be extended. Also, Ron Todorowski’s ballet-heavy solo Ionization is as exciting as it is touching. And the ensemble’s calypso inspired number “Percussion – Part Three” is simply jaw-dropping — aided by David Grill’s beautiful, sun-inspired lighting and Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung’s knock-out costuming. And there’s much more where that came from.

Nando Morland, Mattie Love and Tony d'Alelio

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is about celebrating the choreography/influence of artist Bob Fosse and, on that level, it sure does “Sing, Sing, Sing!” (another show-stopping number) And perhaps great art can’t be completely separated from the time in which it was created. Fosse’s Broadway was a glorious period but it had a downside. And those unfortunate resonances could probably have been handled better in this revival. But, as Herrera says, it’s about the dance. So go for the dancin’ and have a toe-tappin’ — and maybe head-scratchin’ — good time.

Kolton Krouse
The Company

photos by Julieta Cervantes

Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’
The Music Box, 239 W 45th St
opened March 19, 2023; ends on May 14, 2023 after 17 previews and 65 regular performances
2 hours and 15 minutes, including intermission; open run
for tickets, visit DANCIN’