Let's Go Dancin' And Make Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Courtesy Deadline. Sorry for the lack of a gif. Giphy and MakeAGif both denied me yesterday.

Today, the spotlight shines on March 27, 1978, when Dancin' opened at the Broadhurst.

"In the seventies, director-choreographer Bob Fosse's control over his shows increased by dangerous increments," theater historian Ken Mandelbaum wrote. "In Pippin, his staging dominated the book and score; in Chicago, he became colibrettist, his concept of the show subsuming all the other contributions; and with Dancin', he eliminated collaborators altogether -- Dancin' was nothing but an evening of choreography."

Originally performed in three acts, Dancin' featured music ranging from Bach's "Chaconne" (for the "Dream Barre") to "Sing, Sing, Sing" (performed at the 1978 Tony Awards) to the conclusion of the "America" sequence, "Yankee Doodle Disco." The original Broadway cast included several people with past, present, and future Fosse experience, including Sandahl Bergman, Christopher Chadman, Wayne Cilento, and Bob's soon-to-be-ex-partner, Ann Reinking. Bebe Neuwirth was among the performers later in the show's run.

Courtesy YouTube.

"After a career of threading his movement and dance through plots and songs, Mr. Fosse has declared his independence," Richard Eder wrote in the New York Times. "... But it is like the frosting declaring its independence from the cake. ... Precision and style mark the evening at its best, but too frequently they are in the service of very little. The hollowness shows. It becomes a gaudy and elaborate mask covering nothing; deification of emptiness."

Don Shewey, revewing Dancin' during its Boston tryout, objected to the "sleazy sex skits" that made the show "Hellzapoppin' with humpin'." "Atrociously written, they have nothing to do with dancing and are appallingly sexist," Shewey wrote. "Thanks to Fosse’s surprisingly limited sexual imagination, several of Broadway’s finest female dancers spend endless stage time flat on their backs; thanks to Fosse’s dishonesty, this is a show about dancers that refuses to acknowledge some of them are gay."

Courtesy YouTube.

Dancin' was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning for Jules Fisher's lighting design and Bob Fosse's choregraphy. Ain't Misbehavin' won 1978's Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Richard Maltby Jr.), and Best Featured Actress in a Musical awards. While Nell Carter beat Reinking, Cilento lost the Best Featured Actor in a Musical award to Kevin Kline in On the Twentieth Century. Willa Kim's costumes in Dancin' lost to Edward Gorey's for Dracula.

Closing at the Ambassador on June 27, 1982, after 1,774 performances, Dancin' is currently No. 46 on the list of all-time longest-running Broadway shows. Bob Fosse's last production, 1986's Big Deal, closed after 69 performances at the Broadway. Big Deal, an adaptation of Big Deal on Madonna Street set in 1930s Chicago, was similar to Dancin' in that the book came from Fosse and there was no original score.

Pieces from Dancin' and Big Deal both were included in Fosse, which ran on Broadway from 1999-2001. It was directed by Maltby Jr. and Reinking. Big Deal also provided the new conclusion to Bob Fosse's Dancin', directed by Cilento and opening at the Music Box in March 2023. It closed just under two months later.

Courtesy YouTube.

Also debuting on this day:

The River Niger, which opened in 1973 at the then-Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Winner of the 1974 Tony for Best Play, Joseph A. Walker's drama depicts "a Harlem family whose son returns from the Air Force not the hero anticipated. His association with a militant group abroad has been infiltrated by a police informer who brings the unrest of South Africa to their door (Concord Theatricals)."

Brighton Beach Memoirs, which opened in 1983 at the then-Alvin Theatre. During Memoirs' run, the Alvin was renamed for the play's author, Neil Simon. Memoirs is actually the first Neil Simon play I read. The first of the slice of life "Eugene trilogy," set in 1937 Brooklyn, Memoirs won Tonys for Matthew Broderick (as a featured actor) and Gene Saks' direction. Simon wasn't nominated for Best Play -- Torch Song Trilogy won that year -- but he and Saks would win for their follow-up, 1985's Biloxi Blues. 

Joe Turner's Come and Gone, which opened in 1988 at the Ethel Barrymore. While it was not a long-runner, nor that year's Best Play winner, it deserves to be remembered as one of August Wilson's finest.

State Fair, which opened in 1996 at the Music Box. Again, not a long-runner, but it's worth mentioning in terms of Rodgers & Hammerstein (their 1945 movie musical finally premiering on Broadway) and David Merrick (his last Broadway show). Plus, I've always loved Andrea McArdle's performance of "The Next Time It Happens," even though that was originally from Pipe Dream.

Courtesy YouTube.

Gypsy, which opened in 2008 at the St. James. It scored Tony Awards for Boyd Gaines, Laura Benanti, and Patti LuPone, but lost Best Revival of a Musical.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which opened in 2011 at the Al Hirschfeld. It scored a Tony Award for John Larroquette as Biggley. Daniel Radcliffe, making his Broadway singing debut, was famously overlooked by the Tony Awards. Radcliffe, who finally scored a nomination (and win!) last year for Merrilly We Roll Along, was succeeded in Business by two guys who might get nominations this year: Darren Criss (Maybe Happy Ending) and Nick Jonas (The Last Five Years). This year's talent pool also includes the reigning champ defending his title (Jonathan Groff, who also won for Merrilly, now playing Bobby Darin in Just In Time) and one of last year's snubs (Jeremy Jordan, ignored for The Great Gatsby, and now playing Floyd Collins).

Courtesy YouTube.

Next week, if you try, you will find me, where the sky meets the sea.